Hi Everyone!
After 6 amazing weeks in Mysore and 2 weeks of intense
traveling in North India, I have made it home to D.C. Leaving India was hard;
after two months I feel I barely even scratched the surface of all there is to
learn in such a huge country. Still, it feels good to be home for a bit before
heading back to school, and I’m certainly taking advantage of some down time.
During my last week in Mysore, I worked to finish my report
and then gave a final presentation to the other Cornell students, my mentor, so
of the graduate students at V-LEAD, and other SVYM staff. During my
presentation I focused on the work I’d been doing, specifically highlighting
what I had learned from the two companies I interviewed with.
I learned a lot from the two companies, specifically about
the important roles of technology in providing accommodations for people with
disabilities. I also got to see the importance of support from the leadership
team in developing inclusive environment, which definitely helped me better
understand why some companies are more successful than others in implementing
equal opportunity policies.
I hope that my work at GRAAM will be meaningful as they take
the interview framework I created and use it to analyze other companies. I
learned an incredible amount from working at the organization, and I am
extremely grateful that SVYM, GRAAM, and EDI provided me with the opportunity
to participate.
From here, I hope to take my understanding of some of the
key issues in employment for people with disabilities in corporate settings and
apply that in different settings. I don’t know where that will take me, but I
look forward to figuring out!
Have a great last few weeks of summer!
Abigail
