Learning Beyond the Classroom

The most important lessons I’ve learned didn’t come from a textbook — they came from moments when I didn’t know what to do next.

During my time volunteering at a hospital in Jaipur, I expected to just help with paperwork. Instead, I found myself in the middle of a crowded ward during Diwali, when half the staff were on leave. Patients waited for hours, and there weren’t enough nurses to organize them. I didn’t have medical training, but I noticed chaos wasn’t caused by a lack of care — it was a lack of coordination. So I started grouping patients by urgency, using a whiteboard and colored stickers. By the end of the day, waiting times dropped by almost an hour.

That experience taught me something I now carry into everything I do: learning happens fastest when you step outside your comfort zone.

Whether I’m analyzing Netflix’s business strategy for my IB project or designing eco-friendly jewelry for my stall, I find myself asking the same questions — How can this work better? What’s missing? That’s what excites me about university: not just absorbing information, but applying it, testing it, and improving it.

To me, education isn’t a place — it’s a mindset. And I can’t wait to bring that mindset to the next level.