English Language Fellow Blaire Hart visited the Access Microscholarship Program in Kukatpally, India to celebrate gender equality and Black History Month. Hart began her visit with an icebreaker for the students. Hart gave her students M&M for an interactive speaking activity. Each color M&M had a specific discussion topic associated with it; for example, blue represented everyone’s favorite food.
As the students began discussing the different topics and things that interested them, they became very comfortable and spoke English with ease. Students discussed topics they had been learning in the classroom and even showed Hart a dance that they had choreographed themselves.
During the weeks leading up to the visit, the students learned about Malala Yousafzai, who they found very inspiring. In addition to the speaking activities, students performed a skit for Hart. Students were happy to practice English with a native speaker as well as see how much they had improved since the beginning of ACCESS, when many of them knew very little English.