HELPING HANDS HEALTH EDUCATION

Surya Boarding school holds the main objective to provide educational opportunities for village children. With aims to bring back better opportunities to the children of his birth town, Mr. Narayan Shrestha discussed his interests and about the possibilities of help to the village school from Superior Elementary School, located at 1800 S. Indiana St. Superior, CO 80027, during the year 2000. Superior Elementary School took keen interest in these discussions and hence the Sister School Project was established between Surya Boarding School in Khandbari, Nepal and Superior Elementary School in Superior, CO, USA. The objective of this project is to help, share and learn from each other’s experiences and provide children of both schools, the perspectives of the other.

On November 18, 2000 four members of the Superior Elementary School community left for Khandbari, Nepal to visit Surya Boarding School. The team consisted of Dr. Holly Hultgren, then Principal of Superior Elementary, 5^th grade teacher Gregg Rice, Reading Specialist Amy Schackman and parent representative Mary Commander. The journey was very successful in the endeavor to build and enhance the relationship with their sister school. The group took eight boxes of school supplies and hundreds of pen-pal letters from the students at Superior. The staff and students of Surya Boarding School were also very enthusiastic to welcome the guests from their sister school, Superior Elementary.

The team from Superior Elementary shared lessons for 4 days with the students at Surya Boarding School in areas such as literature, poetry, geography, science, and oral hygiene. All lessons at Surya Boarding are taught in English and the team was pleasantly surprised at the proficiency of all students, especially their command of the English language, both written and verbal. A dinner was hosted by the Superior contingent for the staff of the Surya Boarding School to get to know one another on a more personal basis and to discuss educational strategies. It was a memorable and very successful "meeting of the minds."

The community of Superior Elementary has been gracious and generous towards its sister school. In October a very successful Nepali dinner/silent auction fund-raiser was held at the school to raise funds for this project. Hundreds of books and school supplies were donated and brought to the school in Nepal.

The staff of Superior has embraced the sister school concept in their lesson plans discussing Nepali culture and customs and most importantly, the concept of friendship with others half around the world. As in Nepal, the children here have been reminded that we are all the same no matter where we live.

A scholarship program has been implemented to aid in the educational pursuits of students who would like to attend Surya Boarding School. The pen-pal letters have been wildly popular with the children from both schools. It is our goal that the letters will be exchanged at least 6 times per year.

Please click on the bottom boxes to read the article that was published in Daily Camera on Monday, April 12, 2004 about the students, teachers and parents trip to Surya Boarding School in Khandbari, Nepal.

Please click to read the article re-typed in MS Word Format

Please click here to read the article scanned from the original document (Daily Camera Newspaper)

Superior Elementary School:

Revisiting Surya Boarding School

A team of teachers-Jenna VanHorn, Daniel Welch, Kimberly Decker, Molly Hussey; a student-McCadden Leonard and a parent-Nikki Leonard from Superior Elementary School visited Surya Boarding School at Khandari, Nepal for the second time on June, 2007. The objective of this trip was to continue the relationship between Surya Boarding School and Superior Elementary. During this visit, the team from Superior Elementary School interacted with staffs and students from Surya Boarding School in many different forms such as in-class activities, sports and cultural exchanges. During this visit, Superior Elementary donated 4 laptops computers, Superior Elementary t-shirts for the staff, boxes full of socks, books, pens, paper and other small supplies for the school.

The team would like to help foster the sister school relationship between Surya Boarding School and Superior Elementary. This would include encouraging future travelers, and helping to raise money for the school. Some of the achievements SES include maintaining the sister school relationship between Surya Boarding School and Superior Elementary. Meeting the staffs and students of Surya Boarding School first hand. Sharing experiences between the schools and being able to participate with the students in daily activities. Another achievement was to share the wonderful experiences back home.

Photo Courtesy: Jenna VanHorn and VMS Trip to Khandbari Team