When cultures converge

By KARA DADDARIO

Mike Berger, Jeff Stern and Nate Jellar have jumped right out of Germantown Friends School and into the crusade for the improvement of third world countries. While most 19-year-old young men are solely trudging through freshman year of college, this ambitious bunch have been advocating for nonprofit status for their organization "Cultural Convergence: A helping hand for communities in need." This community service endeavor got its start late in 2003 and has made substantial progress since its conception. To understand its roots, however, I asked Mike Berger to take us back to the beginning, to where this brainchild was first born, and the inspiration that prompted it.

It was senior year and service was on the horizon

Berger and Stern, co-captains of the GFS baseball team, joined GFS Spanish teacher Bob Rhodes in the spring of 2003 to travel to Tres Brazos in the Dominican Republic. They provided this small community with baseball equipment, medical supplies and a water filtration system. "We didn't really have a plan when we went down there," said Berger. "All we knew was that we wanted to help in any way possible." The relief effort was a success and Berger returned to the States. Berger planned to travel to India that fall but "wanted to keep in touch with Jeff about the Tres Brazos effort while away and hear about its progress."

Inspired in India

It was early September of 2003 and instead of making his way to Wesleyan University to be with his fellow freshman at orientation, Mike Berger found himself rooted in Varanasi, India. Berger went to India with the Three Dragons Program, which allows students to do either research or a service project in a foreign country. Berger gladly jumped at the prospect of a service project and was assigned to teach English class to fourth graders at the local Little Stars School in Varanasi.

Little did Berger know that his involvement in the school would soon far surpass the few hours spent each week in the classroom. Each student was assigned to live with a home-stay family while in Varanasi, and Berger coincidentally landed in the home of school founder and principal Asha Pandey. "She is an amazing woman," said Berger with a smile. "She is a woman who went to college, founded a school, and now uses that school to teach underprivileged children and uplift women in a completely sexist society. She totally went against the grain and I admire her for that." According to Berger, the caste system (social hierarchy as determined by the Hindu religion) in Varanasi is still in effect. "Out in the open, the first question that people will ask you on the street is what caste you are in. Oftentimes if you aren't in a caste you are considered completely worthless. The society is extremely third world."

Despite working with the children and Pandey at the school, Berger also volunteered at an orphanage for young boys where four of his students lived. The boys immediately became attached to Berger, endearingly calling him Baiya, or "brother" in Hindi. Berger's appreciation of the school, students and its founder grew as his stay in India lengthened and he said he soon felt "a close and personal connection with all his students and home-stay family."

As his involvement with the students and Asha Pandey increased, Berger also learned of the financial difficulties that were plaguing Little Stars School. "Because my Hindi wasn't great there was a lack of communication between Asha and me," Berger said. "It wasn't until half-way through my stay there that I realized their primary sponsor had cut off all funding." Immediately Berger went to work writing grant proposals to the Association for India's Development for the remainder of his stay.

Berger left India at the end of his 13-week journey with grant proposals to mail and the knowledge that Little Stars was in desperate need of help.

In America ­ the birth of cultural convergence

Berger returned to the States and contacted Jeff Stern and Bob Rhodes for an update on the relief effort in Tres Brazos in the Dominican Republic. Berger soon learned that Stern discovered how to expand the effort. The goal, said Berger, "was to go to communities in need and set up athletic leagues there with whatever sport was popular. This way an outreach could be made with the communities so we could determine what the problems really were and where we could help. Jeff also had the idea with buying time on the athletic field for time in the classroom to promote education in these regions."

With this new ambition, Stern and Berger solicited GFS soccer captain Nate Jellar to head the Costa Rican division of the project. In January 2004, the name and slogan of Cultural Convergence International was formed and the boys went to work.

"I still had been treating Varanasi as a separate service project," rationalized Berger. "It was only a matter of time before I made the connection: cricket is an extremely popular sport in India Š the set-up was perfect." Stern agreed to take Varanasi under the wing of Cultural Convergence International. "It was great because in the other countries we were looking for sports to give us a connection to a school," said Berger. "In the case of India, the school connection had already been made with Little Stars School and the athletics were just a follow up."

Berger, Stern and Jellar all began individual fundraising efforts for Cultural Convergence, eventually providing the organization with tax-exempt status. A media packet was created to give to different companies that could be potential sponsors but "the process is slow since we haven't achieved official nonprofit status," said Berger. With the help of lawyers at the Duke University Economics Clinic, Cultural Convergence filed for nonprofit status; but, according to Berger, it could be a seven- to nine-month wait until they hear anything.

During their wait for nonprofit status, the group received support from GFS, the Philadelphia Phillies, Puritec Water Filtration Systems and the Duke service organization Circle K.

While the promise of funding was still looking grim for Little Stars School, local resident Chuck Gupta contacted Berger after reading his article "Little Stars Struck" in an April edition of the Chestnut Hill Local. Gupta decided to support the Cultural Convergence effort via his organization, The Gupta Foundation. "The Gupta foundation will play an integral role in aiding Little Stars School. The foundation has a bank account in India where they can make donations in rupees or American dollars, and there is no fear that these donations will get lost in the postal service in India. Chuck Gupta has been a great help and even offered to donated funds to Little Stars School," said Berger.

What comes next for Berger, Stern and Jellar is a long process. Waiting for official status as a nonprofit, working tirelessly to obtain sponsors, and simultaneously attending college next year, Berger will be traveling back to India this summer with his family and close friends to visit Varanasi. With the help of Cultural Convergence and the progress he has already made, Berger is sure to make the dreams of a few more shining stars come true.

All Donations for Little Stars School can be made to the Gupta Foundation (please attach a note saying that the donation is for Little Stars School). For more information contact Mike Berger at mwball7@yahoo.com or Asha Pandey at littlestarsaghor@yahoo.com.