{"id":30377,"date":"2013-03-01T17:08:16","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T22:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2013\/03\/01\/necc-grows-its-connection-with-india\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:06:42","slug":"necc-grows-its-connection-with-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2013\/03\/01\/necc-grows-its-connection-with-india\/","title":{"rendered":"NECC Grows Its Connection with India"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5518\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2013\/03\/Cheryl-Vindali-Dina-web.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5518\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2013\/03\/Cheryl-Vindali-Dina-web.jpg\" alt=\"Cheryl Goodwin and Dina Brown with Vinod patil, a student at the Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyali School.\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5518\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5518\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cheryl Goodwin and Dina Brown with Vinod Patil, a student at the Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyali School.<\/p><\/div>\nTwo Northern Essex Community College staff members\u2014Dina Brown, director, student engagement center &amp; new student orientation,\u00a0 and Cheryl Goodwin, senior executive assistant to the president\u2014 recently had the experience of a lifetime when they travelled to northwest Karnataka in India.<br \/>\nThe delegation they travelled with included colleagues from UMass Lowell and Middlesex Community College; local community leaders from Groundworks Lawrence, the Merrimack Valley YMCA, and CLASS; and representatives from Canadian colleges and universities.<\/p>\n<p>The goal of the trip was to develop faculty\/student exchanges with institutions in India that are part of the Hubli Sandbox, a partnership between not-for-profits, academics, organizations, and entrepreneurs leading to the launch of effective and scalable models of development.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Essex is part of the Merrimack Valley Sandbox (MVS) which was created In December of 2010 at UMass Lowell. The MVS Initiative aims to expand and strengthen the local ecosystem that supports innovative leaders and entrepreneurs in Lowell and Lawrence, MA, accelerating economic activity and enhancing the quality of life.<\/p>\n<p>Both Sandbox initiatives are funded by the Deshpande Foundation, a global philanthropic effort started by Gururaj (Desh) and Jaishree Deshpande.<br \/>\nWhile in India, Brown and Goodwin visited non-governmental organizations, including a meal program feeding over 180,000 children per a day; a science foundation, and a foundation for the blind.\u00a0 They also attended the 2013 Deshpande Development Dialogue, a conference attended by hundreds of individuals from around the world.<\/p>\n<p>One of the highlights of the trip, according to Brown, was visiting the Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyali School, a residential school which provides arts education to disadvantaged children from rural or slum areas.\u00a0 \u201cIt was inspiring to see how much these young kids loved their school,\u201d said Brown.<br \/>\nTo learn more about the Deshpande Foundation and the Sandbox initiative, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deshpandefoundation.org\/\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5519\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2013\/03\/India-Group-web.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5519\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2013\/03\/India-Group-web.jpg\" alt=\"The delegation including Dina Brown, front row left, and Cheryl Goodwin, front row, center.\" width=\"500\" height=\"388\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5519\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The delegation including Dina Brown, front row left, and Cheryl Goodwin, front row, center.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Northern Essex Community College staff members\u2014Dina Brown, director, student engagement center &amp; new student orientation,\u00a0 and Cheryl Goodwin, senior executive assistant to the president\u2014 recently had the experience of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":30379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - 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