About the Partnership

Since October 2015, Wooster has partnered with Rashmi Secondary School in Kathmandu, Nepal. Rashmi School, founded in 1980, is a Pre-K through10 school that serves primarily students from families living in poverty, many of whom are migrant or agricultural workers.

Wooster Students and Faculty engage with Rashmi through student-led collaborative projects, professional development, infrastructure improvement and independent projects.

Wooster School's partnership with the Rashmi Secondary School in Kathmandu, Nepal began in October, 2015. Matt Byrnes, Head of School, and three Upper School students traveled to Nepal to learn firsthand about Rashmi School, Nepali culture, and to lay the foundation for our current partnership.

Since this first trip, students and faculty have actively engaged in the following projects and the list continues to grow:

• Redesigning the Early Childhood program over several years and incorporating many of the philosophies and programs used at Wooster School. This included ongoing teacher training and the refurbishment of learning spaces including a computer lab for use by all grade levels.
• Created a new computer lab with 17 computers built by Tyler Marcos '16, as a part of his SIS, and in partnership with OLE Nepal, a Nepali non-profit which helps provide technology to schools in Nepal for over a decade.
• Redesigned and built a new playground for Lower School students
• Wooster hosted two head administrators from Rashmi School in October 2016 for three weeks to engage in a deep dive into our curriculum and community
• Chef Rick and faculty prepared a meal for all of Rashmi School
• Helped to Assess building plans for the new school location
• Assessed and Collaboratively expanded the Science curriculum and created a new sustainable science lab complete with equipment
• Provided teachers with professional development training on-site
• Collaborative project between Wooster and Rashmi Upper School students to plan and build a new library space
• Jaya Singhal '21 led the student team in collaborative projects including a pen-pal program now being implemented in our Humanities classes.
• Kaylie Singhal '23 organized a crayon collection and repurposing for Rashmi for her Girl Scout Silver Award, bringing newly created crayons to Rashmi's youngest learners
• Provided a microloan to enable Rashmi to move to a larger location, create a compound boundary wall, tile the walkways, create a dining room with new utensils, and paid for in-country an Early Childhood professional development.