WHAT WE DO

Educational Programs

Communities Rising (CR) works with children from marginalized communities in the Villupuram District in Tamil Nadu, India. We teach students in grades 1 through 8, focusing on English, math, and computer education. We expose our students to literature from around the world through our Reading Rickshaw. We have the only robotics center in the Villupuram District. Each year, we provide hundreds of students with the opportunity to attend a residential summer camp where they participate in sports, the arts, robotics. We also provide guidance and financial assistance for our college bound students.

CR’s Primary Objectives:

  • Building a strong culture of reading, math and computer skills through our Accelerated Learning Program

  • Providing a STEAM+ curriculum for students in our after-school program

  • Providing opportunities for students beginning in 4th standard to build and program robots and compete on a national level

  • Incorporating Social and Emotional Learning into all of our academic programs

  • Creating learning environments where children are engaged, challenged, and encouraged to learn from their mistakes

Engagement in learning, through discussion, dialogue, and hands on activities, is a major contributor to our students’ academic success. We have learned that our students are more likely to be engaged if their classrooms are inviting spaces where trust, respect, and optimism are communicated to all students.

CR Classroom Practices:

  • Create an intentionally inviting classroom by building positive relationships between teachers and students

  • Students know that each student matters and contributes to the class

  • Students understand that mistakes are opportunities for learning and not something to fear

  • Students believe that success comes from hard work and persistence rather than innate ability, and we expect everyone in our programs to be successful learners