Who are the people of Barefoot College? Where do they come from and what do they hope to gain from their experiences here?

Here we will post pictures of the people we talk to at Barefoot along with a quote or short story from them. These quotes or stories can be whatever they wish to share with us from the culture they came from before the college to what they hope to gain from their experience here. Through these stories we hope to provide some insight into the massive impact this college has on the people who learn here.

The conversations will be documented through video and hopefully translated during the time of the interview. However, some of the translations may need to be done after returning to the United States.

Sample Questions:

How did you find out about Barefoot College and where are you from (village or country)?

What do you plan to do with the knowledge gained here? What do you hope to achieve?

Do you have a favorite tradition or part of your culture that you would like to share with us?

What has been your favorite aspect of Barefoot College? What aspect has had the most impact on you and your life?

How do you stay in touch with your village/family while at Barefoot, if at all?

Do you have a saying or quote that you live by?

First and foremost to conduct this project, our group will need permission from Barefoot College to photograph or video tape the students here. Throughout this project we want to respectful and only talk to people who are willing to share their experiences with us. We plan to record these questions being spoken in the three main languages Hindi, Spanish, and English before we go to Barefoot College. This is so that whatever language the people speak, we will be able to document their responses to the questions and translate them after returning home. We hope through this method none of the stories or quotes will be lost in translation. While at the college, we will be working closely with a Barefoot volunteer who works primarily with talking to the students and learning about their cultures. After returning home, we will compile all of the pictures and stories taken at Barefoot College and post them to this site. Each post will consist of a picture of the particular person or people we talked to accompanied with a quote from them about their experience at Barefoot College. We hope these posts give a more personal outlook on the college. Rather than looking the college as a whole, we are exploring the individuals that make the organization what it is today. The people we talk to will range from young to old, student to teacher to volunteer and we want to talk to as many people as possible while we are there. Hopefully through this project, we can learn more about the demographic of the college as well as the scope of the work done here.