WATSONVILLE — Every year, seniors at Mount Madonna School take a pilgrimage to India to witness its culture firsthand, including its education system. Last year, they visited the Children’s Educational Development Society, a homelike environment established by Lama Tenzin Choegyal which has housed and educated 33 children since its inception 24 years ago.
On Thursday, Choegyal returned the favor by meeting Mount Madonna students on their home campus for the first time as he shares his story throughout the United States.
The assembly was organized by Values and World Thought teacher Shannon Kelly as Choegyal is beginning a tour of the country that will take him through such stops as New York, Boston, Seattle, Nashville and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Kelly said students got to see Children’s Educational Development in action during their India trip last year and “explore ethical systems through reflection and interaction with other people.”
“Once you’re part of the family, you’re supported all the way through,” she said of the program. “(It’s) very similar to the whole child philosophy that we have at Mount Madonna.”
Choegyal, sporting his traditional robe and a Mount Madonna ball cap, told his story which included becoming ordained as a Buddhist monk and embarking on an expedition through Tibet with his brothers. When visiting the remote villages in the Upper Dolpo region of the Himalayas, they saw firsthand the disadvantages girls experienced. Boys went to school while girls stayed home to do chores. At one home he stayed at, he saw 7-year-old girls working entire days while a boy sat around and did nothing. He asked their father why.
“The father said, ‘That’s not his job, that’s a girl’s job. The boy has to become a businessman or become educated,’” he said.
Choegyal asked another simple question: “Why not girls?” The father’s response? “They are not a good investment.”
“I said, ‘Well, that’s not true,‘” Choegyal said. “I’m not angry, (but) I had to do something.”
Choegyal’s mother had donated 40,000 square feet of land in India for he and his brother to build a monastery. Instead, they built an orphanage with the goal of housing children who experienced hardships in Upper Dolpo to have a safe home and go off to receive a quality education. Ten children were part of the program’s inception in 2001, and Choegyal said all ended up going to English-speaking schools and top universities, becoming lawyers, doctors, journalists and entering other professions.
One of the program’s initial students, Pema Dolma Gurung, was present at Thursday’s assembly. Her father died before she was born, and she was primarily raised by her grandparents.
“I’ve never been into a normal family,” she told the Sentinel beforehand. “My mom got married to another man, and their family never accepted me as their child.”
Furthermore, Gurung said her childhood was marked by abuse, and when she was 7, she was taken into the Children’s Educational Development Society. She described it as challenging going from a remote village to the much more populated city of Dehradun.
“I saw big trucks, everything was so different,” she said.
As challenging as this adjustment was, Gurung said it turned her life around. She received a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on marketing from Graphic Era Hill University in Dehradun, interned for Salesforce India and is currently the public relations coordinator and business manager for Children’s Educational Development.
“That’s been one of the most beautiful turning points of my life,” she said.
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