Summer Internship 2026: Growing Beyond My Comfort Zone

My name is Saketh Samudrala, a rising sophomore in high school from Apex, North Carolina. I have been associated with VT-Seva for the past 4 years and I participated in the VT-Seva internship during the summer of 2026. This internship took me to a few different places, the Statue of Equality, the tribal schools in Allampalli and Beersaipeta, and the Nethra schools in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, and each one pushed me a little further out of my comfort zone. Along the way, I built connections with people whose lives looked nothing like mine and came away with a much fuller picture of what VT-Seva stands for.

My first stop was the Statue of Equality in Hyderabad, where I learnt about Bhagavad Ramanuja and the philosophy behind the monument. A few details stuck with me, Swamiji designed the statue's dimensions and other details of the monument, so their digits would always sum to 9 (Ex: 108 ft height of the statue, 36 elephants, 153 ft high staff, 108 temples etc.), and the adjoining temples house deities from across India. Understanding Ramanuja's teachings gave me a much clearer sense of where VT-Seva's core values actually come from.

The next day, I traveled to the tribal school in Allampalli, a remote village in Northern Telangana near the Maharashtra border. We were welcomed with a full celebration, and I knew immediately this would be a different kind of experience. I'd assumed the schedule would be rigid from dawn onward; instead, mornings began with yoga and prayers, followed by a surprising amount of free time before assembly. During the school day, the kids there loved playing games. For example, the younger children loved playing a game called “Swamy Says”: a variant of “Simon Says.” The older students wanted me and the other interns to visit them just to have a conversation. Under the burning hot sun, I played sports like cricket and volleyball with the children until the evening and had a great time.

The best part was the late night chats the other interns and I had with the students there. We talked about various topics like IPL, village life, video gaming, Hindu deities, their hopes and aspirations etc. In these conversations, I learnt just how differently two people can experience the same world, and came away with a real respect for perspectives I hadn't considered before. There were also many things that we shared in common, like SRH fandom. One incident in Allampalli was particularly memorable. The power went out one night, and the temperature rose to a point that I couldn’t sleep. My fellow interns also had trouble sleeping, so we stayed up until midnight playing card games while the faculty tried to find someplace else to sleep. The faculty allotted a room upstairs with cool air coming from outside, for us to sleep. That was the best sleep we had in the whole trip. What I took from it wasn't really about the heat or the cards; it was that some of the moments I'll remember most weren't the ones on the schedule at all.

Later I visited Allampalli’s sister school Beersaipeta. The Beersaipeta school felt more modern than the school in Allampalli. The days moved faster there than in Allampalli. The routine was similar to Allampalli - first classes then sports. My time in Beersaipeta lacked the spark I experienced in Allampalli. Sports were competitive there, but not the kind of competitiveness where there were surprises. Allampalli taught me to embrace the unexpected, but Beersaipeta was a reminder that not every place will ask that of you and that's fine too.

After visiting the tribal schools in Allampalli and Beersaipeta, I visited the Nethra school in Visakhapatnam where students learned very differently. For example, they use the Taylor frame for math to do calculations. The Taylor frame looked complicated at first since you had to precisely angle the pieces to display numbers. They also use a special stylus to make dots on paper to write braille: dot patterns representing letters. I also struggled playing Goalball a sport without sight–because I heavily depended on my eyesight and not my other senses. That has given me insight into what the students experience every day.

We finally made it back to Hyderabad Nethra school after leaving Visakhapatnam. I learnt about how the students use computer systems to aid in their education. They use audio based software to help the students know what they’re typing or what’s on the screen. The teachers also help them memorize computer shortcuts because using a trackpad would be difficult. The faculty explained how college education works for Nethra students and their future paths. They may work in the government as clerks or IAS officers just to name a few. Interactions with the kids reinforced what I'd learned from the other Nethra school in Visakhapatnam. It reframed how I thought about the students I'd met: not just kids adapting to a different way of learning, but kids with the same range of ambitions as anyone else.

This internship reshaped how I adapt to different situations and circumstances and deepened my empathy not as an abstract idea, but through lived moments where I couldn’t have understood secondhand. The night incident at Allampalli and interactions with the students in the Nethra schools in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad serve as perfect examples of instances where one can’t just listen one needs to experience the moments. Learning about Bhagavad Ramanuja’s influence in the founding values of VT Seva and seeing how the organization works in villages and schools has given me a much clearer picture of its mission and a much stronger sense of how I want to support it going forward.