About Me!
Rohinee Mattikalli
I am a rising senior (class of 2026) majoring in biology and minoring in computer science and chemistry. I chose to do my project in Tacoma, Washington, a beautiful port city south of Seattle. I have lived in the greater Seattle area for my whole life and environmental conservation and education to preserve our beloved nature is vital for our community. I partnered with the Institute for Systems Biology and the Boys and Girls Club of South Puget Sound to build the student garden at the D.A. Gonyea branch and organize educational events for both the students and community.
Path to the Brodhead Service Program
Last summer (2024), as part of the DukeEngage Bengaluru cohort, I had the opportunity to travel to teach at an ashram school serving students in 6th to 10th grade from rural areas of Karnataka. The eight weeks at the school were filled with creative lesson planning for English, math, and computer skills, engaging with the students during their sports and meditation, and lots of cultural exchange. One of my favorite aspects of our work in India was that we were fully immersed for eight weeks, since we were living and teaching at the school. This allowed me to truly connect with many of my students and learn how to better serve them when teaching in the classroom. Some of my favorite memories with the students were outside the classroom when we learning from students about activities they enjoyed, such as running techniques or playing new Indian sports. When I read about the Brodhead Service Program, I was excited about the opportunity to lead my own long-term project where I could better connect with the community I was serving. The project topic was also inspired by some of our work in Bengaluru. During our time there, we helped the students build their new garden where they would be growing vegetables and fruits to use in the kitchen at the school. It was inspiring to see the responsibility and commitment that these students took during the construction process, and this inspired me to replicate it in my community in Washington. I also believe that emphasizing environmental education is vital to growing a sustainable future, so I was able to add an educational portion to the gardening club project.
I think civic engagement is a vital part of being active in, progressing, and connecting with your community. All small actions to better the people and area around you are active steps in civic engagement. I think a common misconception about community service is that it needs to be hugely impactful and ‘life-changing’. From my experience, even small efforts to get involved can help a few people that can lead to a chain reaction of community building. I would encourage people to be active community members by engaging in any small actions, such as spreading awareness, to target a community issue they are personally connected to.
Professional Development
The opportunity to collaborate and discuss ideas with so many professionals who have devoted their careers to supporting their community through nonprofits was invaluable.
My mentors from the Institute for Systems Biology, Claudia and Sarah, were a huge help while making lesson plans and breaking down steps in my timeline to keep my project on track. Initiating a project from scratch was a daunting task, so I was grateful to have advice on tasks to start with. In addition, meeting with them during the beginning weeks of my project was very beneficial to set up concrete goals and discuss a general timeline. Their experience and organization allowed me to learn how to divide out a large project into smaller achievable steps. Claudia and Sarah had great organizational methods for meeting notes and other write-ups that I later replicated when meeting with other partners for the Community Gardening Education Event.
During my first meeting with my mentor Misha, I appreciated how she looked at the project from a fresh viewpoint. Although her work is in a different field than my project, I enjoyed hearing about her work with the National Congress of American Indians and how she approaches project organization. During our first meeting, I was building a proposal presentation to the Boys and Girls Club to explain my goals for the project, garden specifications, and space requirements that I needed from them. Misha helped me develop skills on how to create project proposals that effectively address all the questions that the Boys and Girls Club may have had about this project. She also suggested that I break down the proposal into a written document that the Boys and Girls Club could have summarized easily for the future. This was both incredibly useful for my presentation, but also personally for my project planning. In addition, Misha also helped me greatly with planning resources or materials to help sustain the gardening club program for the kids after I left back to Duke.
Additionally, as a whole, my meetings with my mentors from ISB and the Brodhead Service Program allowed me to reflect on the work I was doing for the project, what each experience had allowed me to learn, and how I wanted to continue the project in the future. This active reflection throughout my work kept me motivated throughout my project, and is something that I will continue to do with new ventures and projects.