Give back to the Globe

Volunteering has been part of my life for the past 15 years. I have been doing mentoring, established my own nonprofit and eventually tried volunteering in any possible way. When I started to work at Cadence Design Systems , I was very excited to have the opportunity to pursue my volunteering path, as Cadence allows every employee 5 volunteering days a year!

A nice diversion came up at the beginning of February when I got an email about an information session for a new volunteer opportunity with Team4Tech, a nonprofit impact accelerator, bridging the digital equity gap in education to create inclusion and opportunities for under-resourced learners around the world

This opportunity seemed like a great way to connect my passion for education with my profession as a Cadence employee.

I got on the Cadence Zoom information session, filled out the application form, and luckily was chosen to be part of the group that flew to India for 10 days to work with local professionals on developing educational content.

The Cadence team started to get to know one another through weekly Zoom meetings, and we realized we had a key role in making a real impact on lives in the rural areas of India. Throughout the sessions, we also got to improve our leadership skills by gaining access to relevant content that helped us move forward. See the example diagram below.

We landed in Delhi on May 1st and quickly ramped up with the team. The weather played a great part in the team-building process as rain started to pour. We had to shape up our swimming skills -😊

Rajasthan gave me a glimpse of the taste for volunteering that I had been waiting for. Visiting the Digital Community School (DCS) and the Barefoot College International campuses gave us insight into the way of life and the environmental challenges rural places have.

The DCS is in the middle of the Marble industrial zone of Kirshingah. We were accepted with a wonderful ceremony and joy. I realized that the pupils, despite the tough conditions, did have an appreciation for what we were doing and felt fortunate to be part of that school. I was also amazed by the level of curiosity they expressed and the technology the school was equipped with - a few iPads and a projector were in–place, so that was good news.

We left Rajasthan with the feeling we can make a change and then flew to the northern part of India, to Himanchal Pradesh.

For 4 days, we worked very closely with the local team, navigating our way to create educational content with AI based tools. We collaborated with 3 content creators and together experimented the options of actual tool usage to shorten the curriculum creation cycle and make the content richer and up to date.

Wow! That was the kind of mission I love - a mission with goals that are done in a unique way. Gathering 10 people from different countries who didn’t know one another in rural area, with a sparkle in their eyes and a goal to make education better, expanding the span of knowledge to those in need.

We’ve already seen some initial outcomes. We do know that we just planted the seeds and introduced the local team to a new concept that they should try and work with. A change is always challenging, and we will stay in touch for as long as necessary.

I feel Cadence provided me with an opportunity to create global friendships with other employees that I would never have met otherwise, and those friendships will last a very long time.