Woodberry students are always interested in broadening their horizons, and Vas Gnanadoss ’12 is no exception. Vas spent part of his summer earning college credits in humanities by participating in Germanna Community College’s 2009 India Abroad Program along with faculty and students from Germanna, Roanoke College, and James Madison University.
The two-week adventure gave participants opportunities to tour, study, and enjoy this emerging global power while reading books and writing essays on its wonders. Vas, a son of longtime Woodberry faculty member Jay Gnanadoss and his wife, Sunithi, especially enjoyed Jaipur, where he rode a camel for three kilometers to Samodh Palace, rode an elephant to Amber Fort, and visited a local school.
A highlight of the trip was the Taj Mahal, which members of the group described as “ethereal, suspended in air, surreal, and beyond any expectations.”
Vas particularly enjoyed Kerala, where the group watched the Kumarakum team practice for the Allepey snake boat races. “The boats were very long,” he says, “with fifty rows of oarsmen, two abreast.”