Our Rising Star Outreach school programs in India provide many opportunities for our students to learn and grow, not only intellectually through receiving an education, but also socially and emotionally to one day become independent and self-reliant citizens.
This December, our campus in Tamil Nadu was able to reopen a student favorite – the STAR Store!
The STAR Store program has worked in the past and has recently been reimplemented in order to help students learn how to set goals and save in a responsible and self-reliant manner.
What is the STAR Store Program?
Throughout the day, students have the chance to earn up to 5 STARS for good behavior, helping others, completing assignments, being kind, etc. This teaches the children not only to behave well and be kind but also the importance of working hard in order to earn their own STARS.
The STAR store is then the opportunity for the students to redeem the STARS they earned for some fun stuff! This program builds a bridge in their minds between hard work and success. This helps them see the benefits of their effort to earn the STARS and motivates them to continue earning STARS through their actions. The store is on campus and available for students to visit after their studies.
In addition to the materials Rising Star provides, the students have the opportunity to purchase additional school supplies, clothing & accessories, and fun toys from the STAR Store!
Some extra/personal school supplies that students may trade their STARS for include: pens, pencils, crayons, erasers, glue sticks, calculators, rulers, composition notebooks, school pouches, and pencil boxes. Other items include articles of clothing such as shirts, dresses, flip-flops, socks, and scrunchies.
And of course, the kids can buy fun things from the store like bouncy balls, jump ropes, bubbles, glitter, stuffed animals, dolls, and even jewelry such as baubles and bangles! The kids love being able to buy a little something of their own!
In order to kick off this celebratory reopening of the STAR Store, each student lined up outside to enjoy some special chocolates together. In India, chocolate is a rare and special delicacy. In fact, all candy is referred to as chocolate, even when it clearly isn’t chocolate at all, making it an especially special treat! Afterwards, students had the opportunity to trade the STARS they earned in the store for whatever they wanted!
