A Teacher, and forever a student

Hey everyone,

I usually write updates about recent events in my life, but this time I want to look back and remember a friend. A friend that I knew for a short-time but that has taken a big place in my heart. Kalpna Mistry, a friend and classmate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), passed away on August 4, 2008, in the Philippines. This update is in loving memory of Kalpna, and an attempt to share the amazing energy and beautiful smile she added to the lives of those around her.

I met Kalpna in September 2006, the beginning of our brief and intense year at HGSE. It was in the first days of schools, when a group of young adults behaves very much like first graders: selecting outfits for the first impressions, observing quietly and sensing the social order of interactions, trying to be remembered but not stand-out. It was at the first Voices for Africa meeting, a student group that for three years had organized an annual conference to highlight and discuss education issues in Africa. Were we up to the task of organizing the fourth conference? I remember my introduction being cautious, listing my previous connections to Africa, justifying to myself the involvement with the group, trying to receive acceptance. Kalpna introduced herself with a huge smile, ‘I’ll help with anything,’ she said. She did not know so much about Africa, she admitted without any pretense, but she wanted to learn, and she wanted to share with others as she learned, her students, fellow classmates, everyone, so eager to learn and teach from the very beginning.

In time, Kalpna became an essential part of the team. She came to every meeting with energy and new ideas. She livened up the room with stories from her student-teaching experiences, with questions, and with a wide, kind smile we all grew to love and count on. She worked with another friend on a youth engagement project, making a short video to open the conference with youth’s perceptions of Africa. We all wanted to portray the challenges alongside solutions and optimism, to confront the stereotypical image of Africa dire with despair. We named the conference Alive with Hope! And it was a hopeful day, with a 180 participants who gave their Saturday to learn about Africa, speakers sharing best practices and lessons learned about the connection between education, health, and human rights, an African lunch, an NGO forum for people to connect and interact, and even dancing to live West African drum music. We shared this amazing day as a team, a real team, where everyone contributed how they could, and it was an incredible feeling, the power of efforts coming together. After the conference Kalpna continued with enthusiasm, helping to organize smaller events, including a session on ideas for teaching about Africa. She was always bringing people together to learn from each other and improve the collective ability to teach others.

On a different day, Kalpna attended a workshop organized by another group I was a member of, Education for Global Citizenship. We organized a session about Global Classrooms, a program by the United Nations Association of Greater Boston with the aim of developing global understanding among students. I always wonder about these sessions; people listen, write down notes, ask a few questions, but outside the room, I’m not sure what happens. After the session, Kalpna asked questions about the program and how she could bring it to her secondary school. A few days later I put her in touch with the organizers of the program. That is how I will always remember Kalpna. She was never just learning, but always soaking in with incredible thirst all the opportunities around her. She never saw something interesting and waited passively to see how things work out, but rather took it upon herself to make it happen, to act. She made global classroom happen in her school, and more than that, with her guidance her students won the Massachusetts conference and were sent to New York for the national UN Model Conference. When I wrote Kalpna to congratulate her, she responded: “thanks sweets! It was all you - you planted the seeds. Thank you for working so hard this year - you impacted me and my students!”

We all work hard to leave the world a little bit better than we found it, and rarely to the results of our effort fold out in-front of us. Often, we carry on faith, that somehow, somewhere, in some complex hidden web of connections our kindness makes a difference. Kalpna reminded me to believe in the power of enthusiasm, dedication, and passion, that every day is an opportunity to impact someone in a way we can’t even imagine and might never understand. We’re like passengers on trains that cross each other occasionally and we get to wave, reach out, smile, and then we continue on our journeys, and often we don’t see the ripples of our interactions. Kalpna was the true embodiment of one of my favorite quotations, author unknown: "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." Since Kalpna passed away so many people, her students, colleagues, classmates, and friends have left messages about how she impacted our lives. We probably should have said thank you earlier, but I hope she knows how fortunate we all feel to have known her, to be blessed with her energy.

Since we graduated from HGSE in June 2007, Kalpna and I exchanged one or two brief e mails. I went to Uganda, and she went to San Francisco. It probably would have been years before we would have seen each other again. And yet, her sudden departure from this world leaves a tremendous hole. Somehow, knowing that she is not in California, being an amazing teacher and bringing issues of compassion and social justice to her classes, makes me feel empty. We walk around with empty spaces for those we have lost. It is hard not to fill these spaces with sadness, but in memory of Kalpna, I hope to overflow the space in my heart with inspiration. Kalpna described her profession as a teacher (and forever a student), and I will forever be guided by her passion to understand and to share in all we do.

Not much to report on the home front, we are all well and continuing with work, medical treatments, and the simple joy of being all together.

Thank you for being in my life,

and a special thank you to Kalpna, I will always remember you.

Inbal

Kalpna and our team at the Voices for Africa Conference