Kamlesh Baral and Sanjay Basnet are international students from Kathmandu, Nepal. They are also the president and chief justice of the New Paltz Student Association. The two moved to the United States in 2020, pursuing a better education after struggling in Nepal.
Basnet moved to Nepal from India with his family when he was a child. “We moved to Nepal to find a better opportunity for my family,” Basnet said. When he first moved to Nepal, he and his brother were enrolled in government school, Nepal’s version of public education. “I was just happy just being in school,” he said.
However, once he started his education, he found it was very different from what his family had in mind. “It’s a very bad education. The teachers don’t show up, and they showed up to beat you, torture you,” he said.
Baral, on the other hand, had a different experience with education in the country. He was also born in India and moved to Nepal when he was three.
When he was six, his father moved to Malaysia to avoid being forcefully drafted into the military during the country’s Maoist revolution. While in Malaysia, his father worked and used the profits from his job to send Baral to an English school in Nepal, the equivalent of a private school.
“He sacrificed his youth so that we could get the proper education. He said that no matter how difficult it is here, I’m gonna make sure that my kids go to private school and learn English,” Baral said. “Learning English is very much a big deal in a country like Nepal.”
Nepal is one of the most impoverished countries in Asia. About 25% of rural-living Nepalis and 18% of urban-living Nepalis live in poverty, with a total of more than 25% of the entire population living below the national poverty line. The number of homeless people living in Nepal is around 250,000, with an estimated 2.8 million more living in poor and overcrowded conditions.
According to UNICEF, as of 2022, “At all levels, rural and poor children have [education] completion rates below the national average, whereas urban and richer children have [education] completion rates above the national average. In particular, children belonging to the poorest quintile have much lower completion rates than other groups.” Additionally, about 387,300 primary school-aged children and about 75,000 lower secondary school-aged children were out of school in 2022. The drop-out rate by grade 10 is 32%.
The quality of education can also vary greatly by gender, especially in more rural parts of the country. “[In] many of the villages, people still think that girls shouldn’t go to school, because they [believe that women should] get married and go to their husbands’ houses,” Baral said. “It’s a patriarchal country. The customs and traditions are still so much rooted in the mindsets of people, which blocks the education that [girls] get, which keeps the tradition along with the rules and regulations in everyday life.”
The education that students do get in government school can often be lacking. According to Basnet, “At government schools, they’ll just teach you some basic stuff … no, [traditional American educational] knowledge. They’re just there to give you some basic knowledge about math, science, very basic stuff,” he said.
While in English school, Baral met Lauren Yanks. “[Yanks] had been doing a different program in Nepal before she met us. The year [we met], she was doing a teacher’s training in Nepal, and she works a lot in the field of education in Nepal,” Basnet said.
He continued, “She just moved in this neighborhood where we were living, and it just happened that [Baral] met her.”. Yanks was able to sponsor both Baral and Basnet’s education and assisted them in their visa process. Basnet was moved from the government school to the English school with Yanks’ help.
Yanks traveled to Nepal every summer to visit them. She is the founder and executive director of the Blue Butterfly Foundation. The Blue Butterfly Foundation is a foundation that focuses on “educating victims of trafficking and enslavement in Nepal,” according to the site. The Blue Butterfly Foundation ended up sponsoring Baral and Basnet’s U.S. studies.
The transition from government to English school was not easy for Basnet. “The first year, I failed all my classes because I just didn’t know how to read or write in English. But then, I tried every day, practiced and taught myself how to read and write English,” he said.
After graduating high school, Baral and Basnet applied for their American visas in 2020. Since the COVID-19 shutdown was in full force, the U.S. Embassy in Nepal was closed. The nearest open U.S. Embassy was in India. Though the trip by plane is only an hour, the two wanted to make their journey to India as cheap as possible.
The two opted to get to the U.S Embassy by walking and taking buses. The total trip took 15 hours. Making it to India was only the start of the process of obtaining their visas. “We were asking questions to each other anytime we got the chance,” Baral said. “We had the series of questions that they might ask in the embassy. So, we were practicing every time we got the chance.”
“They will ask you a series of questions, like, ‘why are you going to the USA? Who is sponsoring you? What college?’” Basnet said.
“I was very much stressed and anxious. I had no idea what the results would be. We were prepared, but the situation was very difficult,” Baral said. The two stayed in India for 45 days. Baral was approved for his visa in July, and Basnet was approved for his visa in August.
After their approval, Baral and Basnet applied to Missouri Valley College. “That was the school that was taking the international students, providing scholarships that were just in partnership with the consultancies in Nepal so that they could get as many students as possible. They gave us a pretty good scholarship,” said Baral.
After one year, the two moved to New York. Once in New York they began to study at SUNY Ulster and live with Yanks, who the two refer to as mom. “We moved to New York, because my mom was here,” Basnet said. He shared that Yanks encouraged the two to come to New York to get education and a “good American experience.”
At SUNY Ulster, Baral became the president of the Student Government Organization and Basnet was selected for the Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, the highest honor a student can be given by a university.
After getting their associate degrees, they decided to get their bachelor’s degrees at SUNY New Paltz. The transition from government school to English school was difficult, but the transition from an English school to an American university was even harder.
One of the first struggles was getting used to doing schoolwork on computers. “In Nepal, using computers and this technology is not the mainstream. We still use handwritten assignments and use pen and pencil,” Basnet said. “It’s just the speed and understanding what to write and the small, small, small things like how to write an essay or what a citation means.”
The two also struggled to get a grasp on the technology used at college. “The using of computers and this technology is not the mainstream [in Nepal],” Basnet said. “I was definitely struggling doing my assignments on computer. I don’t know how to write at the computer.”
The two are set to graduate this May with their bachelor’s degrees in history. Their visas will expire after their graduation, so their current challenge is working on their application for Optional Practical Training, a 12-month work authorization for F-1 students.
After receiving their OPT, they are planning on staying in the U.S. to pursue a career in human rights law. “We came from a different background, but still, we didn’t lose our hope.,” said Basnet.
Ultimately, the two both want to return to Nepal. Basnet’s dream is to become a human rights lawyer.
Baral’s dream differs, he wants to become the prime minister of Nepal and hopes for change in the mindset of the nation. “We can build roads, we can build infrastructures, we can build schools, we can build hospitals, but what about the customs and traditions that have been so embedded in the country for years? I think that needs to be changed,” he said. “I think education is the most important tool that could change the mindset of the people. I think the system needs to be changed, so one day I can be able to go back and run for office.”
photo courtsey : Sanjay Baral
courtsey : https://oracle.newpaltz.edu/from-nepal-to-new-paltz-a-pursuit-in-education/