The program was designed to reach girls and boys new basketball and youth leadership skills, introduce them to sports in the United States and have them interact with American youths their same age. And the program has turned out fruitful as these young minds traveled around and saw what´s out there and learned different aspects of life.[break]
14 year-old Alina Gurung and 15-year-old Urja Singh Thapa was amongst the six girls chosen from various schools to go to the US. They study at Bhanubhakta Memorial Higher Secondary School in Kathmandu and St Mary´s School in Lalitpur.
"I started playing when I was in class six because I´ve always wanted to play basketball," said Alina adding, "I even clicked pictures with NBA players and it was such a cool place."
Alina loves the basketball and her eyes gleamed as she watched her friends score a basket. An informal game between these young athletes, the Marines, and other interested Embassy personnel´s was held on May 21 at Budhanilkantha School.
Urja came out of the game but was all eyes in the game. When asked since when she started playing the game, without moving her eyes from the game, she said, "I´ve been playing since I was in class six." This 15-year-old watches NBA games on television and was very happy when she actually could see the game live in the US when they were there. "I took autographs of the players and clicked pictures with them," she said and went right back to the game.
Some of the youth athletes want to pursue sports in the near future while some haven´t given it a thought. But Urja seemed confident about what she wanted to be. "I want to study medicine, be a doctor and help people through United Nations (UN)," she said. She always wanted to work with UN and now she is sure she wants to pursue it as a doctor.
For these young kids, life is studies and sports at the moment not knowing what the future holds for them. But the enthusiasm they show to do something, either in sports or other field, seemed very positive and promising.
While they are juggling studies and sports at the moment, the experience they´ve acquired is priceless.
"There was so much to learn, about team work, basketball, culture and a whole lot of things and it was so clean," said 14-year-old Prashant KC from Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya. Adding to that 15-year-old Bijay Gurung from Valley Public School said when he landed back in Kathmandu, it looked dirty and unmanaged. "The high rises, people, food, everything was great in the US but when I came back home it looked dirty but Nepal is the best place no matter what," he said.
The young boys and girls were taken to basketball clinics organized by various coaches and basketball experts in the US aimed at introducing the technical, practical and psychological knowledge required to be a skilled and experienced basketball player.
Apart from basketball, they also visited various schools learning about the education system in the US and were also exposed to various aspects of US culture.
The team left for the United States on January 11, 2010 and returned home on January 24, 2010.
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