Tenzin Yingsel, a native of Tibet, is currently living in exile in India. After corresponding with the Student Senate through a series of letters, she will now be able to attend school after receiving $400 from the Student Senate.
The journey to helping Yingsel began over a year ago when the Student Senate, a group at the high school that recently replaced the Student Council, decided to look for a way to spend leftover money from a fundraiser that was held. After finding Tibet Aid, an organization out of New York, the Senate knew they had found a good fit.
“We wanted to give back with our money and education is something the Senate wants to promote,” said Kelsey Olson, co-communications manager of the Senate and a senior at the high school. “What better way than to sponsor a student whose financial situation does not allow education because of what’s going on around them?”
After making the decision, the Senate began communicating with Yingsel. Yingsel and her family live in northeast India and she attends a boarding school seven hours away. The school is a part of a group of schools sponsored by Tibet in northern India. Yingsel’s family does not have the money to continue sending her to school.
The Senate decided to pay the $360 per year tuition costs for Yingsel. This is the first time the Senate has taken on a project like this.
“We wanted to do something different and unique,” said Paul Rykken, Student Senate advisor. “I also wanted them to do something that would be educational with some type of international connection.”
The Senate will also provide Yingsel with $40 spending money, considered a significant amount in India, as well as paying her school tuition. She and the Senate continue to correspond through letters. Through the letters, the Senate has learned that Yingsel is a sincere and respectful young girl. She is a bright student who enjoys studying English and Tibetan language, as well as a good game of badminton. In return, the Senate has returned her letters with pictures of the high school.
“It’s cool for us to get to know another culture and for us to get to know her,” Olson said.
Rykken said going into this project was experimental, but he said there are many ways the students can benefit from helping Yingsel, such as teaching them about the relationship between Tibet and China and to see how a person exists in a world where the same material benefits they enjoy do not exist.
He also said it is the hope of the Senate that through this relationship with Yingsel, they can help her finish this stage in her academic career, and she can continue to teach them about her culture.
“We also hope to provide her with the emotional support,” Rykken said. “She will know that there is a group of kids her age thousands of miles away that care about her future.”