LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. — Two Siena students who spent several months in Calcutta, India, teaching and caring for the less fortunate, were recently featured in a publication of the Diocese of Albany, The Evangelist.
Katie Vittengl of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Midhuna William of Springfield, N.J., traveled to Calcutta last semester as part of Siena’s program with the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership, a New York City non-profit group that links service and study.
While in India, the young women continued their college education at Loreto College, learning about Indian history, morality, ethics, leadership and politics.
They visited groups that care for the poor, taught English and mathematics in an orphanage, and cared for the terminally ill at Kalighat, Mother Teresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying, according to the article in The Evangelist.
The article continued: “We saw a lot there. This facility gives the hopeless and dying a place to die with dignity. We cared for these people. All of them were from the street and had no other place to go.”
The students attributed the program with giving them a better understanding of how people live around the world.
They also visited Mother Teresa’s Orphanage, operated by the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta.