Although Raveena Kapatkar (12) has lived most of her life in the U.S., her time spent in India has had a huge impact on her life.

When Raveena was nine years old, she moved to Hyderabad in South India where she attended fourth and fifth grade at Indus International School. Raveena credits her independence to the school’s teaching approach.

“It’s a completely different experience from Harker and regular schools in the U.S. in the sense that we didn’t really have any tests,” she said. “It was all project oriented and very hands on.”

For the last unit of fifth grade, the students designed the curriculum. For Raveena’s group’s unit about resources in the environment and garbage and pollution, she and a friend independently organized a field trip for the class to go to one of the main recycling facilities in Hyderabad.

“All these experiences really helped me become more independent and gave me real life experiences, and that’s one thing I really miss about how we were taught there,” she said. “I really learned a lot about both myself and school.”

Raveena’s life in India helped her learn the importance of the present.

“The future will always be there, and to a certain extent you need to mold your life to achieve your future goals,” Raveena said. “In doing so, you can’t get so caught up that you forget to live in the present and start to lose yourself. I’ve learned that all these trivial moments are what make for the best memories and it is important not to forget that.”

Over the past summer, Raveena worked at an internship for TV9, an Indian satellite television news network, in Mumbai. The internship allowed her to build off of her involvement in journalism, as she is currently the co-Editor-in-chief of Harker Aquila.

“It was a pretty casual setting, in the sense that I was interning under the graphics department, and I got to see how the whole process worked of a broadcast station starting from how they got the stories to how they got everything up and live on TV,” she said.

The people at the station spoke in only Hindi and Marathi, so Raveena had to adjust to her surroundings.

“I had to spend five weeks speaking in just Marathi, and I could only speak to my mom in English, and that was an interesting experience for me,” she said.

This year, Raveena’s AP Studio Art concentration focuses on Indian culture and patterns.

Raveena has done art and painting her whole life, but she became more involved with it this year.

“Senior year I took it upon myself to get back into something that helps me relax, which is art,” she said.