{"id":4880,"date":"2016-03-04T10:25:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=4880"},"modified":"2016-03-07T19:13:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T23:13:25","slug":"eighth-grade-student-hopes-to-plant-the-seed-for-global-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/eighth-grade-student-hopes-to-plant-the-seed-for-global-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Eighth-grade student hopes to plant the seed for global change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kemps Landing\/Old Donation School eighth-grade student Sai Senthilkumar is already making summer plans: a trip to India.<\/p>\n

But this is not an ordinary family vacation\u2014in fact it\u2019s not a vacation at all. Although he\u2019s been to India many times, this trip is different. Senthilkumar was recently named the grand prize winner in a global competition to change the world.<\/p>\n

\"AFS<\/p>\n

With more than 34,000 votes cast online worldwide amongst 800 ideas, a project to help curb childhood obesity in India developed by Senthilkumar emerged as the grand prize winner in the American Field Study (AFS) Project Change grant. AFS is a leader in intercultural learning and international exchange programs in more than 40 countries for 65 years. Now, the organization is hosting a competition to inspire students to share their visions for global change.<\/p>\n

Senthilkumar\u2019s project centered on increasing awareness about childhood obesity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents have consistently reminded me how fortunate we are to live a life of abundance while many children in India go to sleep hungry,\u201d Senthilkumar shared.<\/p>\n

At the same time, during his family\u2019s recent visits to India, Senthilkumar has also observed the other end of the spectrum: obesity in children. Senthilkumar\u2019s proposal was to use the country\u2019s two major communication channels\u2014social media and schools\u2014to increase awareness about factors that contribute to obesity, including lack of exercise, unhealthy food choices and excessive electronics usage. His goal is to curb the negative impact that obesity can have on individuals and India\u2019s future workforce if a change does not happen.<\/p>\n

As the grand prize winner, Senthilkumar\u2014accompanied by AFS and 10 other student finalists\u2014will bring his project to life by traveling to India for two weeks this summer where they will perform a play about proper nutrition and visit underprivileged communities to help increase awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I can\u2019t make a world change in two weeks but at least I can plant the seed for change and perhaps after I leave see the government doing more and the community doing more to raise awareness of obesity and taking steps to keep it from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kemps Landing\/Old Donation School eighth-grade student Sai Senthilkumar is already making summer plans: a trip to India. But this is not an ordinary family vacation\u2014in fact it\u2019s not a vacation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-4880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-connections","tag-kemps-landing-old-donation-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4880"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4885,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880\/revisions\/4885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}