Travis Ghirdharie a recent graduate from Syracuse University’s Master of Public Administration Program with a Certificate of Advanced Studies in South Asian Studies. As a Guyanese-American, he is a product of the Indian diaspora and actively seeks ways to connect with his heritage. He is a NYS-certified educator and has taught Social Studies as an educator of Multi-Language Learners. He has played harmonium and dholak since he was a child, and started to formally learn Hindi in 2021 as a Syracuse University FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) Fellow. He has travelled to India with the American Institute for Indian Studies to learn Hindi and improve his harmonium skills. As a participant of the 2022 YHS Fulbright-Hays GPA, he has worked with his colleagues to develop a comprehensive Intermediate Hindi curriculum with an emphasis on performance-based learning. He hopes to merge his passions for education and Hindi to eventually teach the language to other Caribbean-American students and reconnect youth with their heritage.