New Jersey, January 11, 2020: When Poorna Malavat, an ordinary Telangana girl turned the youngest mountaineer who scaled Mount Everest at the age of 13, visited New Jersey on the invitation of American Telugu Association, Elementary and Middle School students, who came to see her, had plenty of questions: “Did your parents supported your venture to climb Mount Everest?”, “How many hours you practiced for mountaineering?”, “Did you carry your own luggage?”, “Is mountaineering your profession or a hobby?”, etc.
Poorna, now a college student at the University of Minnesota, had a lot to talk about: Since scaling the summit of Mount Everest she scaled all major peaks in Russia, Africa, Europe and South America. Mountaineering is her hobby. She wants to help other kids achieve big in life. And yes, her parents supported and blessed her in all her ventures. She believes: ‘Girls can do anything.’
Poorna is a role model for the younger generation. She is a living representation of hard work, commitment and above all, “Girls can do everything.”
At the event I honored Poorna on behalf of Hind Sangam Foundation. I informed her that we taught our Hindi learners about her as a role model on Day Four of the SANGAM-FRANKLIN STARTALK HINDI PROGRAM 2019 at Franklin High School in NJ. Our instructors presented the life story of Poorna first to familiarize our students about her daily activities. The lesson plan for Day 4 was titled, ‘My Hobbies’. We wanted learners to explore the life of Poorna starting with her daily activities. We presented Poorna as a normal person with whom learners could identify. Our instructors prepared a Power Point presentation with varieties of photos about Poorna and engaged learners learning key words and expressions. Once learners were done watching the PPT they filled a work sheet using a word bank provided to them. Our instructors opened one square at a time in the PPT, asked the learners to guess-Who is in the picture? Poorna Malavath. When the next slide appeared: ‘What is this picture about?’ Mountains and snow…The first youngest person to climb the highest Mountain, Everest, at the age of 13 was…..
When do you think the picture was taken? 25th May 2014.
Is it hot or cold in the picture?

The Interpretive activities as above helped learners understand and explore Poorna’s life. The young learners were able to express in Hindi as they understood aspects of Poorna’s early life: ‘I can express, ask about and react to preferences and opinions about major characters of a story I learned in my class using simple questions and asking questions to keep the conversation going.’

पूर्णा का जन्म १० जून २००० को हुआ।
पूर्णा पकला,तेलंगाना में रहती है l
पूर्णा की माता का नाम लक्ष्मी है l
पूर्णा के पिता का नाम देवीदास है l
पूर्णा का एक भाई है l
पूर्णा के माता पिता खेती करते हैं l
पूर्णा बहुत मेहनती है l

पूर्णा १३ साल की उमर में माउंट एवेरेस्ट पर चढ़ी l
पूर्णा २५ मई २०१४ को शाम ६ बजे एवेरेस्ट पर्वत/माउंट एवेरेस्ट के शिखर पर पहुंची l
पूर्णा ने निश्चय कर लिया था कि लड़कियाँ कुछ भी कर सकती हैं l
Learners answered the real life scenario questions and put themselves in Poorna’s shoes and answered the questions, such as:
If Poorna had to move to a new school what would she do? (अगर पूर्णा को स्कूल बदलना पड़ा, तो वह क्या करेगी ?)
If Poorna has to make new friends in new school what will she do? (अगर पूर्णा को नये दोस्त बनाने पड़े, तो वह क्या करेगी ?)
If Poorna has to learn a different sport what will she do? (अगर पूर्णा को नया खेल सीखना पड़ा वह क्या करेगी?)
If Poorna’s phone is taken away from her what will she do?
(अगर पूर्णा से उसका फोन ले लिया तो वह क्या करेगी?)
If Poorna has to attend a Math competition what will she do? (अगर पूर्णा को गणित प्रतियोगिता में भाग लेना हो तो वह क्या करेगी?)
We had set a larger goal for Intermediate learners: ‘I can explain my feelings and opinions with my peers in support of a character in my favorite story and provide advice about adopting some of the values represented by that character in our daily living using series of connected sentences.’
We engaged learners in a number of Interpersonal and Presentational activities to make sure they understood and were able to analyze the story of Poorna:
Novice students developed a list of questions about Poorna. They interviewed their classmates about their preferences and opinion using few questions from the list they prepared. In groups they shared their findings about with their partner and repeated the activity in different groups. Intermediate learners worked in groups of two to create a list of interview questions about Poorna. Then they used the list to interview 3-4 of their classmates and asked them questions about the values that represent their favorite character, Poorna. Next, as one big group, students shared their findings from the interviews. They talked about different values of different characters and discussed which value(s) is important to them and why? Lastly, students organized the information and decided upon some of those values that could be adapted into their own lives.