Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship 2014
How was your trip?
That is a question I've been asked numerous times and I've struggled to answer every single time.
What do I say? "The trip was unbelievably amazing, it changed my life!" That would just be an understatement;
the journey that I shared with the European and American fellows was beyond anything I could ever imagine. I
cannot find the words to express how incredible the trip was because there aren’t enough words to do so. We
shared laughter and tears (on departure) and experienced a side of America that you only see on TV screens. We
watched baseball matches, went horse-riding, had thanksgiving dinner! We ate the typical American foods (yes,
I'm referring to peanut butter and doughnuts!), lived with an American family whose kindness and hospitality
can melt your heart. We watched world cup matches on theatre screens, played football on the campus fields,
celebrated the 4th of July with sparklers and dances and sang incompatibility with music blasting out the
speakers and the list goes on. All of this is a small fraction of what the Ben means to me.
As a 17-year-old girl, I never felt that my contributions to society would ever be effective; I always felt
that society will continue on its path of self-destruction and nothing that I say or do will matter. The Ben has
made me realise how unbelievably wrong I was. We engaged in classes and workshops that taught us how to
create a project that can help benefit society, how one project designed by a single person who takes initiative
can in fact change the life of another. It showed me the importance of helping those in our community.... Our
civic engagement segment of the programme is what had the deepest impact on me and is what enthused me to
make a difference; we all had to plan interactive activities for children in the Salvation Army summer camp and
the smiles on those children’s faces and their reluctance to leave, made me want to fill society with nothing but
laughter. I know those children will not remember what we did or what we said, but they’ll remember how we
made them feel, and that is more than what I can hope for.
...The participating fellows are more than just representatives of different countries; they are familymy international family. When we began our journey, we were told that the first week would feel like a week,
the second week would feel like 3 days, the third week would feel like a day and the fourth would feel like an
hour. Those 11 days and that one hour had such a profound impact that it changed my life in a way I never
thought possible....
...When Benjamin Franklin looked at George Washington's chair, he couldn't tell whether the
engraving of the sun illustrated a setting sun or rising sun, but later concluded that it was a rising one and this
journey, like the sun, has not come to an end but has only just begun.
Hena Patel, Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellow 2014