"Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them."


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"Education is yours to obtain. No one else can gain it for you. Wherever you are, develop a deep desire to learn. For us as Latter-day Saints, gaining an education is not just a privilege; it is a religious responsibility."   (Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, Jan. 2015)
What a fabulous night I had tonight attending the weekly Pathway Gathering in Bengaluru (Bangalore)! Their group currently has about 50 students enrolled. They have 3 classes, one for each semester. Our class (2nd semester) was the smallest tonight with 6 of them and me. The Bengaluru Stake President was the lead student tonight. He is the one on the far left with the red tie.  (His wife is a student in this group as well, but she attended via FaceTime on his phone tonight since she gave birth 15 days ago.)  The man standing next to me is a member of the high council.  Both men have degrees already and are employed as local reps for a US company.  The stake president bore a strong testimony tonight of just how powerful the Pathway program has been in his life.  He enrolled to set an example for the YSA in his stake.  He has been amazed at the things he has learned, the greatest of which being just how powerful learning can be when you combine spiritual learning with academic learning. 

Their Language (ESL) Pathway group runs a bit differently than our Standard Pathway program back home.  Where we start with a Religion class, they start with a grammar lesson.  Today we were reviewing “to do” verbs, or action verbs as we learned them.  We went around the room each giving a sentence with a “to do” verb and then telling what the verb was.  There were a few students still confusing verbs with ad-JECT-ives (as the Stake President called them), so he reviewed with them again what a “to do” verb is and asked me to give several examples. 

We then went straight into math.  The Stake President went over each of the questions in the Reflection activity and had each of us answer to help prepare us to complete the assignment.  He then had everyone help him make a list on the board of the things we learned in this class that will help us in our everyday lives.  This discussion was absolutely amazing.  We ended up discussing the similarities and differences between various Indian and American financial things like the following. 

·             Home loans (what they call first-time mortgages) rates range from 8.5-10.5% right now and are fixed for 5 years and then the interest rate is the original plus whatever the going rate is at the end of the 5 years.  They call this a floating interest rate.  Let’s say you get a rate of 8.5% and you have not paid it off at the end of 5 years and the going rate then is 10%.  Your new rate would then become 18.5%.  They were dumbfounded at our current rates of 4-5%. 
·             Mortgages (what they call a loan using your house as collateral after you have paid off the original home loan) have considerably higher rates they said.
·             Credit Cards – rates are 36%.  They have a 45-day grace period versus our 25-day.  However, if you take a cash advance, the interest begins immediately and is higher. 
·             Savings rates are very low here as well.  However, if you do a fixed deposit, tying your money up for 12-24 months (similar to our certificates of deposit), you can earn 8-10%. 
·             Cash on hand they refer to “hard cash.”  None of them had ever heard of having a 6-month emergency fund prior to this class and asked if it was safe for us to keep six months “hard cash” in our homes.  They were worried about how they could do this with the risk of theft being so high.  I explained that I would never keep 6-months worth of cash at home.  I only keep about a week’s worth of cash on hand (what I call my hurricane money) in case of the ATMs are not working due to power outage.  The rest we keep in a liquid savings account, meaning I can withdraw it at any time without a penalty.  This entire concept was very eye opening for them.

We also talked about the pros and cons of continuing to use Excel to track their spending versus using an app.  It was humbling to listen to how life changing the financial portion of this class has been for all of them.  The Stake President summed it up very well when he said that the math portion had been a good refresher of the things we had learned in school, but the financial portion had taught him things that will bless his family for the rest of their lives and allow him to teach others skills that will bless their families. 

I love this program!  Where else can you travel to the other side of the world and still be able to attend the same class and discuss the same principles?  There is such power in the principle of Gathering it teaches.  It enables us to focus on what we have in common and yet learn about each other’s cultures. 

One of the Indian Saints’ greatest challenges has been educating their young adults.  The cost of education is extremely high over here.  Many young adults come home from their missions and then go to the USA to get an education and never return to India.  Those young adults remaining here generally cannot afford an education, which then limits their growth and potential.  The Pathway program is allowing so many more to get an education for a fraction of the cost.  They pay about 1/7th of the already low cost that I pay.  Once they complete this year-long program, they then have the opportunity to continue on through the BYU-I online program for the same price.  When they are finished, they will walk away with a degree from a US university and will be able to obtain a well-paying job, blessing their family and helping the Indian economy.  Even more importantly, they will have learned how to learn so they can continue learning for the rest of their lives. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to participate in this inspired program this year.  I am grateful for the wonderful people I have met through traveling to classes around the globe.  I am so grateful for my own Gathering group back home in Florida, who have become like family.  I have been strengthened and taught by each person I have met through this program, and I am a better person for my time with them. 

photo of Bengaluru Pathway group from here:  https://www.eventshigh.com/detail/bangalore/7f2101bb81cbed8f24425ece1c71ee6d-ignite-pathway-india-bengaluru-july


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