Work

ACTION RESEARCH II Student Motivation in Completing Formative Work

By Gray Macklin, High School Vice Principal and Sunwoo Lee, 10 th grade student. Seoul International School

Rationale Formative assessments and assignments were constructed for the definite purposes of guiding students through the learning process and preparing students to demonstrate what they have learned. Such materials will only be beneficial if students take it seriously as practice. Moreover, summative work is not intended to rank students based on grades, but to serve as motivation for students to learn the topics completely. Students often value more efficient methods of obtaining a higher grade, such as simply memorizing class notes word-by-word, than focusing strictly on learning and skill improvement regardless of the grade. Students will not feel a different sense of accomplishment when they learn the material to get a better outcome compared to when they acquire test-taking skills to perform well.

The focus of this research began with this student author’s research for a viewpoint piece in the school paper linking effort in daily participation in PE class and performance on graded fitness tests. The viewpoint expressed was in response to students who wanted to get the maximum grade outcome with the bare minimum input. We realized that this lack of motivation is not only the case for PE, but also for other subjects and wondered what we could learn about student motivation academic practice. A deeper understanding of student motivation to complete formative work could be used as a starting point to practices that promote student investment in formative work.

Introduction Formative assessment has been an increasingly important component of education reform over the past several decades. Recently the emphasis has been specifically on the role of formative assessment in assigning student grades. While most definitions of formative assessment emphasize their role in informing teacher and student understanding of progress toward a specific academic goal, those that include a reference to grades often note that formative work is ungraded. This is due in large part to the entrance of non-achievement factors like promptness and neatness finding their way into grades, effectively clouding or blurring what the final grade actually means in terms of learning (Marzano, 2000 & Guskey, 2007). Popham (2008) advocated for the development of learning progressions that incorporated both formative and summative assessment; there is consensus that students require multiple opportunities to improve (Crockett & Churches, 2017). There is also consensus that the emphasis on corrective feedback is the primary value of formative assessment (Frey & Fischer, 2011) The challenge comes when teachers are expected to use multiple data points to determine an accurate grade (Marzano, 2006) but are also expected to exclude all formative work from the list of that data. While Marzano (2000) addresses the under-reporting of the most current ability when formative work is scored in an average, Greenstein (2010) notes that some scoring of formative assessment allows for teachers to indicate learning among students who struggle with more traditional forms of assessment. Standards based grading may solve many of these complications and is strongly supported by Marzano, Guskey, Schimmer, and others, but that does not solve the problem for schools that are on traditional scales (0-100, 4.0, etc.). There is extensive literature on the importance of formative work and on best assessment practices, but there is little field work on motivating high performing students in Asia to complete formative work that is ungraded.

Methodology For this study the authors chose a mixed methods approach that employed both survey responses and focus group discussion. The survey was designed by first having conversations with students about their thinking about formative work. This was done by the student author so that students would feel more comfortable in talking about school as well as identify familiar language that could be used in the survey. Once the survey questions were written they were reviewed by high school faculty for feedback. The finalized survey was sent via Google forms to student email accounts and left open for 10 days. During the response window, two additional emails were sent to students thanking students for their participation and reminding them that their input was valuable in shifting how the school administration and faculty approach formative work. From the responses, the authors then identified key questions that required more detailed explanation to carry out in small focus group discussions. The small groups were intended to be made up of 6 randomly selected students from each grade level, balanced for gender representation. Normally these would have been held during a lunch period, but due to the school closure these were held in Google Meet sessions hosted by the student author and observed by the faculty author. Only two students agreed to an additional online interview, which was to be expected considering the amount of time students have been spending in e-learning classrooms. The conclusions and recommendations came from a synthesis of survey responses and discussion responses.

Data: Of the possible 290 respondents, 115 students submitted responses to the survey. Sent to students in grades 9 to 11, 39.1%, 31.3%, and 29.6% of responses came from those grades respectively representing a good balance of representation across the different grades surveyed. 54.8% of the respondents were female and 45.2% were male, also indicating that the responses represent a balance between genders. 56.5% of the respondents identified as having moderately high to high motivation to complete formative work with the remaining 43.5% identifying as having moderate to low motivation. The lowest response was 2.6% of students identified as having low motivation.

The first substantive question regarding the subject area students had the most difficulty finding motivation to complete revealed that 66% of students identified English and Math with 34.8% and 31.3% respectively. There was a significant drop-off with Science, World Language, and

Performing/Fine Arts recording similar responses at 9.6% for Science and World Language and 11.3% for Performing/Fine Arts. Social Studies had the lowest response rate at 3.5%.

In the second substantive question regarding the reason behind the lack of motivation, 50% of the students responding indicated other distractions and procrastination as impacting their motivation. Feedback, performance, and long school days returned similar response levels with the formative work remaining ungraded as the lowest factor impacting their motivation.

The question regarding student understanding of formative work’s purpose showed that nearly 65% of students responding understand the purpose of formative work to inform. 45% indicated that formative work is to inform students about what they need to study, with approximately 19% indicating that the purpose of formative work was primarily to inform teachers about what needs more instruction. Approximately 18% of the students identified formative work as a means of teaching effective study or learning techniques. The two lowest responses identified formative work as either busy work or hurdles to clear for a retake.

The final substantive question asked students what if anything would improve their motivation to complete formative work. Students’ top 3 responses were clear connections between formative assessment and summative evaluations, prizes or rewards, and personal goals with 40%, 23%, and 18% respectively. Of the provided options, the lowest responses were for student access to class completion data and grading. There were a number of additional options left in the other category, often indicating that grading combined with another option would be effective.

Conclusions: From this brief survey of students, it is clear, at least in the context of the school where the survey was completed, that formative school work is in competition with other things demanding our students’ attention. In the follow-up interviews the word procrastination was revealed to be somewhat problematic since the students identified being busy with other things but not necessarily procrastinating or feeling unmotivated to do formative work. The students responding to the survey distinguished between procrastination and a lack of motivation to prioritize the completion of formative work. Despite not completing a detailed statistical analysis of the responses, there was no clear correlation in this by grade level or gender. Likewise, the subject areas where students had the most difficulty finding the motivation to complete formative work was spread evenly across the grade levels and genders indicating that these responses were more general to student experiences than driven by a specific course.

The clear limitation here is that the roughly 30% of the students who would make time to respond to a survey may not be indicative of the majority of students. However, with the school closure, the original plan of having students complete the survey in class was altered to sending it to students working at home. It is unlikely that the remaining students would have selected responses so different from those who responded that the data showed something completely different, instead likely either showing some correlations between self-reported motivation levels and other responses or a wider range of experience.

In terms of the subject areas where students found the most difficulty in finding motivation to complete work, there was a clear concentration of responses in English and Math that would have been difficult to overcome with additional respondents. The students at our school have the most difficulty finding motivation in those 2 areas. More students to interview would have maybe provided more insight into specifically why students overwhelmingly selected those areas, but one likely possibility revealed during interviews seems to be the amount of effort to complete the work versus the perceived reward or guaranteed benefit from the work. The interviews also pointed to some conflict within the data as well since students mentioned qualifying for retakes as reason to do formative work and our math department requires all formative work to be completed in order to do retakes.

From a school perspective, the most interesting responses were about student understanding of the formative work’s purpose and ways to improve motivation to complete formative work. That the students were able to identify that formative work is designed to inform teachers or students in the learning process is a good indication that teachers are effectively communicating the purpose of the work and that the assignments themselves often support that message. Similarly, students indicated that clear connections between formative assessment and summative evaluation would have the strongest impact on improving student motivation. This reinforces the conclusion drawn from the interviews that a strong reason for having the most difficulty in finding motivation is the differential between the effort necessary to complete formative work and its perceived value in succeeding on summative evaluations.

Implications Because this study was done by a student and a school administrator, this section will be done in two parts representing the different perspectives.

Student Notably from the survey, we discovered that most (60%) students had a clear understanding of the purpose of formative work, which did not translate into motivation to complete it. Students’ perception of paucity of continuity between the current formative work and summative tests and the absence of reward for complete work were the most frequent explanations. For example, the formatives the Math department assigned were not graded, not discussed, and students have reported that they do not see a direct correlation with the summative test. Contrarily, formatives in the Science and World Language had a high correlation with the summatives; endeavoring formative work clearly led to better outcome on the summative test which is a reward in itself. Increase in the direct connection between the formatives and summatives and strengthening the connection between formative and summative in the learning process could drive the students who had considered formative work as a “waste of time” to prioritize differently and not seek another reward.

Comparing the responses on the subject area students identified as having the most difficulty finding motivation to complete (between Math (31.3%) and Science (9.6%)), we realized increasing in-class activities could serve as an enhancer for more motivation. In science classes, formative work commonly included pre-lab research and lab reports. Complete formative work was essential to participate during class in which lecture and lab sessions were effectively coordinated. On the other hand, students showed a lack of understanding between formative work and summative work in math classes. Work at home did not directly translate into an immediate outcome in class, therefore, for students to feel motivated, the sense of accomplishment needs to be tangible rather than theoretical. By increasing participatory activities

based on complete formative work and flipping the lectures to feedback and review discussions, students may feel more inclined to come in prepared.

Lastly, from the focus group interview, we observed a notion that the incongruity between the time required to complete formative work and the significance in its contribution to the summative test or the final outcome across the subjects was a source of discouragement. Students provided one example in the English department. The time required to finish an annotation assignment was larger than the time required to study for the rhetorical devices. However, both were weighed equally in terms of grades. Required amount of time investment needs to be translated proportionally into how much the work is weighed in the gradebook. If adequate credit matching the time invested could be given, regardless of the forms, students will be able to see that their work was acknowledged.

Administrator Students expect their work to mean something. While we would all love to see an intrinsic love of learning to be the prevailing source of meaning, it is unreasonable to expect students to achieve this level of thinking when considering their age and the fact that they are required to take courses across such a broad range of subjects. A student with an intrinsic curiosity in science may struggle to appreciate a Victorian novel. Schools need to accept that some degree of extrinsic motivation is not only reasonable, but natural.

By design, grades embody the extrinsic motivation associated with school. With the existing research on the subject, the problem is not deciding whether or not something should be graded, but how to produce grades. Grading as a reward/punishment structure may motivate students to achieve, but that structure may sacrifice an appreciation of the learning process, not to mention any hope of loving to learn. The results of this limited study seems to provide a hopeful pathway forward that accepts the extrinsic motivator of grades while emphasizing the learning process. School faculty should not only work to develop formative work that establishes a clear link between practice and evaluation, but also take the time to explain the link between the two. Our dual perspectives of adults and educators may lead us to believe this to be more self-evident than it is to our students. This implication may be inferred from the fact that students were able to identify the purpose of formative work in theory(to inform rather than keep them busy), but reported difficulty in completing work they did not see as having a clear purpose in terms of their performance. Teachers who are struggling to get students to take formative work seriously may need to dedicate more time to explaining the purpose of the work and ensure its relevance on the summative evaluation as well as adjust expectations on performance outcomes. Just as in coaching, when a student is able to employ something from practice in a live, unrehearsed situation they immediately value and internalize the lesson. In some respects, students must be able to accurately identify and evaluate the ungraded formative work’s value in their performance on the graded evaluation.

It is also important to manage student expectations surrounding the benefit of practice in formative work. Students often see a guaranteed result as the purpose of practice. A clear link is not the same as doing the same thing in formative work and summative evaluation. Especially in skill development, time and patience are essential. Maintaining student motivation through setbacks is an art and one well worth developing. Without specific attention paid to student motivation throughout the process, students who may not do as well as expected on a couple of evaluations may conclude the subject is not for them, despite feeling an intrinsic interest or passion for the subject.

This research indicates that students who are working really hard and fail to see progress will lose interest in the practice. This indicates a couple of things. The first is that feedback must be constructive and emphasize what needs to be done for improvement. Formative work strictly for completion will have a demotivating impact on students. This is not a new conclusion and appears throughout existing research on the subject. The second is that there must be a balance between manageable, genuinely challenging evaluation tasks. The existing research on “a moderate level of challenge” seems particularly relevant here. Maintaining a reasonable distance between the time/effort formative work requires and the success that students achieve will improve student motivation to complete formative work.

Ultimately, if faculty make an effort to link learning standards, formative assessment, and summative evaluation as well as communicate how their work will both inform the instruction and the learning, students will be more willing to complete ungraded work in a way that is more consistent with its intended purpose. This appears to be a reasonable middle ground to the extremes of using grades as a system of reward and punishment on one end and a naive reliance on purely intrinsic motivation to learn for the sake of learning on the other.

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CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT Enjoying Classroom Management . . . really!

By Laurie Sullivan, Shanghai SMIC Private School

After 29 years in teaching, I know that I can set boundaries for what I will and will not accept within my classroom walls. Love and Logic® has been part of my path to enjoying classroom management. This joy is available to all educators so that we not only survive a full career as teachers but thrive in our own classrooms!

It is possible to remain calm and rule the room pleasantly. Interested? To begin with we must recognize that the only person we ever have control of is ourselves. Thus, the language we must use in speaking to students begins with what WE will do and sounds like this: “I listen to students who speak in a calm voice.” The statement simply describes what we will do. Furthermore, we can tell students if they make poor choices we will do “something.” How intriguing is that? What will the “something” be? That is for the teacher to ponder, elicit the help of other professionals, and deliver in due time. In this way the teacher remains calm. Once when a high school junior refused to put his phone in the assigned caddy, I simply said, “Oh, that’s sad. I will have to do something about that” and carried on with instruction. Later, I wrote up the defiance as a referral and the student received the school discipline of in-school suspension for defying authority. The rumor mill worked effectively; everyone placed his or her phone in the caddy from then on. My reaction was dispassionate, and the learning was not interrupted. I was pleasant and in control. Love and Logic’s ® delayed consequences is the technique here; it allows the teacher to remain calm knowing that there is time later to customize a consequence for the student.

To make teaching “fun and rewarding instead of stressful and chaotic . . . [helping] adults achieve healthy relationships with children,” Love and Logic® has, in its forty years, been devoted to a practical and researchedbased, “whole child philosophy” (Love and Logic, 2019). It provides researched methods of action to make the dream of a calm and pleasant learning environment come true. This philosophy is grounded in two rules: #1 – “Adults set firm limits in loving ways without anger, lecture, threats, or repeated warnings” (Love and Logic 2019). Using authentic empathy in the moment and delaying consequences makes it possible to create a plan that works best for the individual student. This creates a demeanor of calm within the teacher and, perhaps a mischievous grin, when plotting appropriate consequences. Rule #2: “When children misbehave and cause problems, adults hand these problems back in loving ways.” (Love and Logic 2019) For example, Reggie was the proverbial class clown who seemed to be unable to exercise any self-control which, of course, affected the entire class. After telling Reggie, a high school freshman, privately, that I had decided to help him since he seemed unable to help himself, I put his desk in my doorway, so he could see and hear only me. After two days in the doorway, he decided he could rejoin the class without causing any distraction. Teachers owe students who are interested in learning a positive environment. This mandates that behavior be handled quickly and efficiently. Teachers owe students who interrupt the learning a positive environment in which to correct their own poor choices and join the class as an active participant. Reggie most likely always knew how to stop his nonsense, but he never chose to do so until he was placed in his particular unpleasant situation: isolation from his comedic audience. Setting a firm limit without emotion (Rule #1) and handing Reggie back the responsibility for his own behavior (Rule #2) is the idea. I gave Reggie the opportunity to learn without causing problems to the rest of the group. Had the doorway not been successful Love and Logic’s recovery plan would have been my next step. Recovery provides a pre-arranged physical space for students to relocate until they are able to return to the learning.

Using pre-meditated empathetic statements, a teacher can deliver delayed consequences that are personalized to each situation, ruling the room in a calm and pleasant manner. Employing this philosophy has kept me joyfully in the high school classroom for over 29 years loving my students dearly and demanding excellence from them at the same time. Join me!

*For more information about Love and Logic, you can subscribe to its weekly emails at www.loveandlogic.com and/or contact Independent Facilitator, Laurie Sullivan at laurie_sullivan@smicschool.com

Reference Love and Logic. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.loveandlogic. com/a/info/how-to-create-a-love-and-logic-classroom

COMMUNITY SERVICE Kahon ng Karunungan, Bridging Two Worlds through Educational Equity

By Razel Suansing, International School Manila suansingr@ismanila.org

Our school field gleams, its fibers glittering under the radiant sun. The area was the centerpiece of an almost antithetical image that lay in front of me. A sea of tightly packed zinc roofing sheets barely connected to disintegrating cement houses enveloped the field. A wall separated the two worlds so deeply intertwined; each side with no glimpse of how the other half lives.

During my short breaks from IB work, I would walk to the floor to ceiling windows of our library and remind myself of the realities that lie beyond. This vision served as a microcosm for educational inequity in the Philippines. As I learned about the writings of Shakespeare, De Beauvoir, Angelou, most of my countrymen did not even learn the basic tenets of English grammar. This was a sobering thought. As my education bestowed more opportunities upon me to learn about the deeprooted issues that most plague Filipino society- -Islamic insurgencies, the drug trade epidemics, poverty--I found that most of these issues are caused by educational inequity.

Thus, I learned that to counter these issues sustainably and effectively, one must work to create an educated youth. When Kahon ng Karunungan (from Tagalog, meaning “Knowledge in a Box”) was established in October 2018, our focus was to provide individual self-learning kits that simulated the Department of Education’s curriculum. Students affected by a natural disaster or conflict used these to pursue their education while the schools were closed. Prior to receiving the EARCOS grant, we provided 500 students in Malagnat National High School, destroyed by landslides, with our self-learning kits.

The EARCOS grant funded our second outreach for the Taal Volcano eruption victims. We connected with the local government units as we believed that they recognized the schools that were most in need. They led us to Venancio Elementary School, the school with the closest proximity to Taal that still remained. We yearned to act swiftly, but PHILVOCS still raised Alert Level 4 in Taal; the possibility of a complete eruption was possible. That resulted in a two-week delay in our response. liant, neon buildings attempted to peer through the mound of ash that had taken away their luminance. Nicole, a 6th-grade student, lamented how the trees had lost their life, stripped of infant leaves. The principal Ms. Navarro, or affectionately called by her students as “Mommy Elsie,” had told us her stories of panic.

“Never in my lifetime had I thought that our village would experience this. It was an impending reality we had turned a blind eye to. A blanket of ash just fell upon the whole city. It was unimaginable.” I was especially sympathetic about the internal conflict between her two roles. With tears in her eyes, she told us this story. “I had to send my husband and children to the evacuation trucks, hoping they would reach the centers safely. I felt that I was failing my children. But who would take care of the school? I am also the mother of hundreds of children.”

Even in our distribution, not only did Taal’s legacy live in a sea of children wearing face masks but in the hidden sorrow in their faces. Ms. Navarro also stated that the kids lost their innate gratitude; they lost the usual “thank you smiles” they showed every visitor. The trauma still haunted them weeks later. However, stories of hope still triumphed over sorrow. Angela said that she wanted to be a teacher to help students in their times of need like her teachers. Jester said that he wanted to be a volcanologist to improve warning systems and support the people in his region. During this trip, we were able to provide 1,000 kits to the school through the EARCOS Community Service Grant. It is these stories that drive KnK to pursue our mission in every area of the Philippines we can reach.

KnK is aware of the need for sustainable change. The beneficiaries we have chosen are in urgent need of supplies. Our kits are meant to fill the gap between the time of devastation to formal schooling. I am aware, however, that our current mandate is resource-intensive. Though we intend to have three more outreach trips this year, we are now revising our mandate to address educational inequity through more sustainable solutions. This year, we aim to reform the workbook to be inclusive of math, science, and social science. We are currently collaborating with DepEd teachers to make this more effective. We are also exploring technological platforms (applications and text messaging) that help us conduct selflearning for more students. Finally, we are starting a publication that elucidates stories and issues of educational inequity in the Philippines.

Grade 3 students walk back to class after receiving their KnK kits.

A grade 1 student smiles after receiving her KnK kit.

KnK’s journey towards bridging the gap between the quality of education in the most remote areas of the Philippines and the most excellent schools in its city center is only beginning. Driven by the stories of hope like we have heard in Venancio and generous benefactors like EARCOS, we aim to make these two worlds more intertwined, burst the bubble, and not only have a glimpse but an immersion into how the other half lives. We are compelled to ensure that our countrymen will not only learn the basic tenets of grammar but explore the most profound truths of life as educational equity opens the doors to a new world.

THE RICHARD T. KRAJCZAR ANNUAL HUMANITARIAN AWARD The HUG Project Thailand

By Christopher Bell HS Technology Coordinator and Librarian International School Bangkok (ISB)

It’s hard to find anything we can call normal in this world right now. We are all working through changes that will undoubtedly reshape the way we do things. However, one thing that won’t change is EARCOS’ support for those who work with children all over the world in their efforts to make life a little better for children. Unfortunately, the Annual Teachers’ Conference was canceled due to COVID-19. It was with heavy hearts that we informed The HUG Project we would not be able to provide the donation from the charity fund because the conference had been canceled. Khun Boom, The HUG Project leader, was gracious and understanding.

This was to be the third year that the EARCOS Teachers’ Conference had committed to contributing the charity funds to this grassroots organization. ‘The HUG Project Thailand is preventing, protecting, and restoring children from sexual abuse and human trafficking.’ With our annual contributions we have seen this remarkable organization grow and increase their ability to make a difference.

Undaunted by this let down, Khun Boom, her staff, and Christopher Bell, member of the EARCOS Teacher Conference Board, decided to apply for the newly formed Richard Krajczar Humanitarian Award for 2020. This annual award is given in recognition of EARCOS’ longest serving Executive Director, Dr. Richard T. Krajczar. Dr. K was passionate about supporting those who provided sustenance and care for the less fortunate was one of his most endearing traits.

It was with great surprise that in early June, Dr. Edward Greene, Executive Director at EARCOS, notified The HUG Project that they would receive this year’s award! Khun Boom wrote back,

“I was in tears getting this email. Thank you all of you so much for the Award. Thank you Khun Christopher so much for always supporting our team and the Thai children and helping us to put the proposal together. I am so grateful for you guys and our team commits to support children/students in Thailand and we have a plan to grow our network assisting international school partners in Thailand to develop child protection policy, training and case management mechanism.”

While we all struggle to make things happen in the new COVID era, EARCOS’s financial support has continued to allow the HUG Project to continue working to protect, prevent, and restore children throughout Thailand. It is with great pride that the EARCOS family continues to support the HUGProject in their efforts. With EARCOS and the support of others, the HUG Project was able to increase their impact with: • New Child Advocacy Center in Chiang Mai • The creation of a HUG Counseling Room, with on site counselors, who help provide the many victims which HUG supports which includes spaces for the young children to experience ‘play therapy’. • Working with the support of the Royal Thai Police and TICAC (Thailand Internet Crimes Against Children), HUG has already assisted 108 children in 23 cases.

HUG Organizes their efforts to support victims of human trafficking into 3 domains: Prevention, Protection, and Restoration. Highlights from 2019-2020:

PREVENTION: • Online Safety training at 8 schools and 3 foundations with a total of 1136 student participants. • Students were provided with a mechanism for reporting threats and some reported concerns immediately that were then investigated. • Installing internet filtering software at partner schools. • In 2 days at 1 school, our internet filters blocked 338 pornographic websites and 637 file sharing sites. • 41 Trafficking Prevention events for university students and local communities. • After school activities for at-risk youth including instruction in English, art therapy, sports, science, music, martial arts, self-care, self-development, and personal safety.

PROTECTION • Supporting police efforts in 54 cases. • Assisting 36 young survivors involved in 33 cases. • Preparing 4 child victims for court proceedings. • Conducting 4 sessions to train 162 individuals in how to conduct victim-centric investigations. • Providing countless (100+) online and phone consultations with victims and their family members. • Accompanying Thai police and prosecutors on a visit to Interpol and Facebook in Singapore to gain tools and training for online investigations.

RESTORATION • Providing 256 individual counseling sessions. • Conducting 114 home visits. • Supplying ongoing victim support through many programs and services such as Care Bags, short-term and long-term shelter/placement, educational support (homeschooling, scholarships), financial support, and small business funding.

For more information visit the following website below: HUG Project, https://www.hugproject.org To Donate to HUG Project - https://www.hugproject.org/donate/#donationsoptions Richard T. Krajczar Humanitarian Award - https://www.earcos.org/

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AWARD Rescuing Wisdom

By Vivhan Rekhi The British School of New Delhi

When the young and the old interact, there is tremendous potential for growth, insight and long-lasting bonds. Yet opportunities for these types of interactions are often limited. Meet Vivhan Rekhi, a student of The British School, New Delhi, who is working to create such opportunities. At the age of 15, Vivhan founded Rescuing Wisdom, a social service initiative that advocates for elderly responsibility.

To date, Rescuing Wisdom has raised over INR 1.5 million through crowdfunding and via sponsors to benefit a range of old age homes pan India. Vivhan’s first initiative was to purchase a rescue vehicle for Guru Vishram Vridh Ashram (GVVA), an old age home in Delhi. The fundraiser saw immense traction with him reaching 250% of his goal. Therefore, Vivhan was able to buy a fully equipped ambulance for GVVA, as well as donate various medical supplies and equipment and air conditioners to other old age homes to combat the blistering heat of the city. In order to understand the status of old age homes in India and their requirements, Vivhan carried out surveys to build Rescuing Wisdom’s database to plan future campaigns, based on the findings. He also authored a book of short stories, titled “The Knife’s Edge”, and used the proceeds of this book to continue to fund Rescuing Wisdom’s initiatives, which is on the shelves of various large bookstores including Barnes & Nobles.

Rescuing Wisdom, at its heart, is a collaborative enterprise. To expand its reach, Vivhan has partnered with Feed the Need to organise a Satsang and regular langar at old age homes; Venu Eye Institute and Research Center to sponsor eye camps, cataract surgeries, and glasses for the elderly; the National Center on Elder Abuse (USA), to spread the message about saying No to Elder Abuse; Saregama India Pvt Ltd to supply Saregama Carvaan’s to old age homes, to aid them with the recreational activities that the residents so dearly crave; For. India 2020 to sell eco-friendly recyclable masks during COVID 19 with all the proceeds going back to fund the activities of the organisation and the Government of India via Tihar Jail, the largest prison in Southeast Asia, to help the elderly inmates find a home after their release.

Some initiatives by Rescuing Wisdom include their “Adopt an Elderly” sponsorship programme, through which people can sponsor an elderly person’s care for different periods based on the package selected, and a “Buddy Programme”, in which school-aged children volunteer at the old age homes, reinforcing the idea of respecting one’s elders. Rescuing Wisdom’s product line, “Wicks of Life”, retails candles and other crafts made by the residents and gives back the majority of the profit to the old age home. Another aspect of Rescuing Wisdom’s social entrepreneurship is their new scheme, in light of COVID 19, wherein volunteers buy essentials and pay utility bills on behalf of elderly residents, to reduce the risk of senior citizens contracting the virus. In response to COVID 19, Rescuing Wisdom also helped increase the capacity of old age homes, so that they can take in more elderly residents, as well as, pay for the added cost of sanitisation and specialised medical equipment such as PPE Kits.

Recently, Rescuing Wisdom has launched a sustainable urban planning project, known as “The Urban Village Project”. Here, Vivhan is taking insight from urban planning to help old age homes plan the layout for new residential complexes in which the residents can live comfortably while abiding by social distancing measures. The urban village plans include ample outdoor space, an organic garden, and socially distanced living quarters. Vivhan, through Rescuing Wisdom, is also researching cost-efficient and sustainable building materials, and forms of alternative energy such as solar and biogas for the new complexes in the old age homes. He has used his insights from his mentorship with a professor from Cambridge University and an internship with a think tank in Germany, to facilitate this project further. His first Urban Village Project site is in SHEOWS old age home in Garhmukteshwar, India. In light of COVID 19, the organisation faced increasing reluctance from corporations to help fund this project. As a result, Vivhan withdrew from Cornell University’s Pre College and utilised the refunded fees to further this project.

For his work, Vivhan has been awarded the Diana Roll of Honour Award, Duke of Edinburgh IAYP Silver Level (currently on track to receive Gold), and Pramerica Spirit of Community Award. He has also won The EARCOS Global Citizenship Award and Grant. He has been nominated for The Ashoka Changemakers Award (awaiting decision) and Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (awaiting decision), India’s highest civilian honourfor people under the age of 18. Vivhan has also been named one of the Top 10 Changemakers of India by The Better India, as well as been featured numerous times in media outlets including NewsX, FICCI YFLO, The Patriot, The CSR Journal, and The Dailyhunt.

In addition to expanding Rescuing Wisdom’s ongoing projects, Vivhan has various plans in the pipeline. Being a finance and business enthusiast, he is leveraging his experience with finance internships and summer programs to develop a training course for employees of banks and large financial firms, to aid them in identifying Financial Elder Abuse. Vivhan’s work and continued commitment to the cause show that when the young advocate for the old, incredible feats truly can be achieved.