Raghav Kalra, a resident of West Windsor for eight years, has earned his Eagle Scout Award. A sophomore at the International School Bangalore in India, he attended High School North through ninth grade. “I wanted to explore the world and get a better exposure to Asia,” he says.
Born in Princeton, he lived in Lawrenceville for the early part of his life. A Boy Scout since 2007, he was with Plainsboro Troop 168 until he transferred to the lone scouting program for international students. His project adviser was Dr. Shibu Shankaran, who works for the Agastya Foundation, a noprofit organization in India.
“As someone who wants to pursue a medical profession in the future, I was moved by the fact that rural children in villages throughout India lack basic knowledge of preventative health and hygiene,” he says. “For example, some villages gather water from polluted rivers and stagnant lakes, which leads to the rampant spread of dysentery and typhoid. My job as a part of the program was to instruct the young children on sanitation, hygiene, and cleanliness.”
He used his monthly allowances to fund his project. “Knowing beforehand that the children would not have access to many resources, I strove to make the project as low-cost as possible,” he says. “I developed activities that would be useful in teaching the children basic hygiene and disease prevention. Most of my projects used plastic water bottles, which are easy to obtain and use to create projects such as a running water tap and a fly trap to prevent disease spreading from insects.”
His project focused on teaching health and hygiene in a remote village in India this summer. “Teaching as a part of Agastya International Foundation’s Young Instructor Leaders program has been an amazing experience,” he says. The program focuses on the idea that young children are the foundation of the future. Children from villages learn skills that they can then take back with them and teach to their communities.
His greatest challenge was overcoming the language barrier. He also found that the children learned more in a setting with experiments, projects, and hands-on activities. “The biggest problem evident to me was the language barrier,” he says. “I could not speak the local languages (Kannada and Telegu) therefore I had to use a translator, which limited my ability to teach them through the presentations that I had prepared.”
His favorite part of the Agastya experience was visiting villages, meeting new people, and gathering new members of his team.
“It was very difficult for an American like me to understand the lack of basic hygiene principles in the rural villages,” he says. “I feel that Agastya has really opened my eyes to some of the troubles that children my age and younger are facing in their daily lives in rural areas.”
His parents are Rajiv Kalra and Vandhana Ralhan. His father is an independent IT architect and his mother is a product manager with a telecom company. His brother, Bharat Kalra, is a cub scout in Pack 40 of West Windsor. He is a third grade student at Maurice Hawk Elementary School.
“I want to do another similar project on preventive healthcare but on a larger scale where I can help the rural villages gain access to hygiene habits and products,” he says. “I also want to translate my work in different Indian languages.” His healthcare guide book is already converted into two languages — Kannada and Telugu.
Phani S Paladugu completed his Eagle project by creating a 90-foot brick walkway for Jeeyar Asraman, a Vishnu Temple on Dey Road in Plainsboro. A former resident of Plainsboro, he and 20 volunteers helped to complete the project in May and June. Paladugu is a member of Troop 10 in Monmouth Junction and his project mentor is Tim Burman from the Central New Jersey council.
A rising junior at South Brunswick High School, he is a member of the chemistry and science olympiads and the bio-med club. One of the lead saxophonists in the school’s jazz band and wind ensemble, he often visits Potomac homes assisted living and plays for alzheimer’s and dementia patients.
His parents are Bharathi Vemulapalli, a teacher at High School North, and Sri. The family moved from Plainsboro to South Brunswick four years ago.
