Tech Abroad

Jasmine Hentschel experienced a “teaching moment” during her two months in India in 2015 as a graduate student in the University of Michigan’s Global Information Exchange Program (GIEP).

Before traveling to the vast South Asian country, Hentschel and two other University of Michigan graduate students who had signed up for GIEP worked together for five months to plan a technology-based training model for Digital Green, an international nonprofit organization that trains farmers in India’s rural villages to help other farmers improve their agricultural practices.

However, soon after arriving at their client’s headquarters in New Delhi, the three students discovered that the model that they had developed at the University of Michigan “was not going to work,” said Hentschel. “We realized that we would have to take a step back.”

The three students initially could not agree on their next steps on the project, which they had already spent countless days and nights working on in Michigan. “We argued about whether the plans that we had created in Michigan were usable or whether they should be thrown away,” said Hentschel.

An official of Digital Green who served as the students’ mentor noticed that something was wrong. “It was the look of anguish on our faces,” joked Hentschel. After hearing about the students’ dilemma, the mentor told them to “embrace uncertainty, because it’s part of the process,” Hentschel recalled. “When she said that, a light bulb went off. This was a serious teaching moment for us.

“We all realized that we had