Luke Clifton

My name is Luke Clifton, and I am a rising senior from South Salem, Oregon. I worked for the Mumbai-based NGO Magic Bus India this summer. Magic Bus provides skilling classes to 18-24-year-olds in impoverished areas across India that are meant to lead to job placements. 

I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity. Simply put, working at Magic Bus has changed my life. During my work weeks, I would visit skilling centers and would help the staff mobilize. This meant that we'd go to slum areas in Mumbai and take down names of prospective program participants. Going into these communities was one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life. These days will forever shape the way that I view the world. From then on, having the ability to attach these faces and names to the office work that I was doing taught me the importance of working for an organization that has an important mission. Even if I had a boring task for the day, I could motivate myself knowing that my work would somehow benefit one of these young people. 

I returned home with a restored sense of faith in the world and greater appreciation for my opportunities at Stanford. None of this would have been possible without you.