News
Updates on our projects and work.
When Michelle first traveled to Nepal nearly eight years ago, she had no idea what was in store…
Growing a monastery’s English language program
Building a solar system to give students light
Providing scholarships to deserving youth
Founding a community learning center
Starting a barista training program
Organizing a free outdoor film festival
Thanks to your help, we’ve encouraged Nepali students as they pursue work and education goals.
We’re so, so proud. Thank you.
Our team’s hearts are with Nepal as COVID grips the country. If you’re interested in helping, these resources can guide you:
From scholarships to job offers, our students are soaring!
Receiving good news from our student leaders inspires us to keep going, keep encouraging, and keep looking for ways to help young adults flourish.
We are proud of you!
2020 was marked by uncertainty and confusion for families around the world.
For Nepali students in the United States, unclear messages and new policies heightened the typical stresses associated with living in a new place, managing studies and tuition fees, and keeping track of loved ones from afar.
Because of you, we are able to make a difference in a real, tangible way:
Young leaders received needed resources to pursue professional and academic goals.
Students are encouraged to enter and complete higher education programs.
Communities become enriched as knowledge is cultivated and shared.
As we begin a new year, remember that small acts can have tremendous ripple effects; what we do today extends into tomorrow.
Thank you for your continued support.
We’d like to recognize the 7-year anniversary of Michelle’s first visit to Nepal. Her adventurous spirit and courageous attitude set in motion a culture of generosity and inspiration, and we couldn’t be more proud.
In celebration of her energetic tenacity, we have an exciting new announcement in the works. We are overjoyed to continue to look for ways to encourage leadership and education among young Nepali leaders.
To Michelle and to all of those who follow their dreams, we value your contributions to the world around us. Keep going, keep dreaming, keep learning, keep giving!
Sheetal continues to soar!
This week, Sheetal is a featured artist at Mountain View Campus Kiva Gallery. She says, “I have always been inspired by my father who is an artist portraying natural landscapes. Right from my childhood, I have enjoyed watching and playing with colors with my father. Watching my father paint nature, I have been more interested in mixing colors to product abstract images.”
Sheetal left Nepal to pursue formal education in art and recently graduated with her Associates degree. Sheetal was awarded scholarship for her studies at Mountain View.
“Whenever I feel the abundance of negative spaces in my art, I try using cool colors to blend the backgrounds with joy and positivity.”
We’re proud of you, Sheetal. Keep creating!
2019 scholarship recipient Sheetal Nepali has graduated with Presidential High Honors from Mountain View College, where she has completed her Associate Degree in the Arts.
Sheetal, a talented artist and determined student leader, has held dreams of higher education and a career in arts education.
You’re well on your way, Sheetal. Keep up the great work!
“The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create.”
Being away from your family and friends during a difficult time is stressful.
If you need help or assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out. Our team has arranged care packages and is standing by to support you. Whether it is a phone call or something more urgent, we’re here.
We are proud of you and your commitment to your education and studies. Hang in there. We’re in this together.
Nawang Gurung has completed his Master’s in Education at Prithvi Narayan Campus Tribhuvan University. He is the first in his family to pursue and obtain a master’s degree.
Everyone is so proud.
“Commit yourself to lifelong learning. The most valuable asset you’ll ever have is your mind and what you put into it.”
The best educators understand the lifelong commitment to learning and self development, and Nawang is a perfect example.
Keep inspiring, Nawang! You are a true leader.
Each year, we like to thank the students and team of Learning House for their ongoing commitment to education and leadership in Pokhara, Nepal.
It is inspiring for us to watch confidence and skills develop. We’ve seen members of our community start businesses, enroll in higher education programs, graduate with degrees, interview for jobs, get better jobs, make meaningful friendships, and start conversations that matter. As we like to say: “As the number of books in our library increases, so does our impact.”
From our original crowdfunding campaign to a Facebook community of over 25,000 — we are sure that yes, You can be the change you wish to see! And we are very, very grateful.
Here’s to another year of learning, leadership, creativity, and growth.
Thank you for being here with us.
Your support helps us keep doing good work.
On Giving Tuesday it is our honor to recognize those who have generosity helped bring our projects to life. Your donations have allowed us to create learning and leadership opportunities within our community while encouraging our own hard-working team.
Fundraising isn't easy: It's asking for help. Specifically, it's asking for money. Which rarely feels good.
Members of our board have encouraged us to revisit our views and beliefs around money; this isn't a weakness or defeat or deficit, it is a need for us and our team to continue the work that we do.
It costs a little over $1200 to run Learning House each month. We generate most of our expenses through the classes we offer and some of the add-on services we provide. The remaining $4,200 we need to cover annual costs is provided by really generous, supportive individuals.
Our larger community events like Outdoor Film Festival, Latte Art competitions, and Education Days require additional funds to organize (one event can range from $2,000 to $10,000 USD), and we look for sponsors or donors to help us produce these experiences.
Money is a tool, not a complete indicator of our success or progress. It's one element of many that helps contribute to a thriving, healthy community.
We are thankful for our supporters, our mentors, advisors, so many encouraging words, our curious students, energetic volunteers, and hard-working team. All these parts contribute to our story, and we are grateful for all of it.
Photos from Learning House's 5th Anniversary Celebration are online.
The whole team feels love from near and far! It was such a special day.
Thank you for supporting leadership and education in Nepal.
Your support and encouragement keeps us all going. Thank you.
Congratulations on your 5th Anniversary, Michelle, Nawang, Soni, and all involved in the Learning House Team!
Having first met you in July 2015, and visiting again in 2017, the incredible changes and achievements were evident between those occasions. Keeping up to date through your social media presence, the advancement continues.
“Our house is your home” is not just a statement. ‘Learning House’ is more than a house. More than a home. It is a community. It is a learning ecosystem. One that has a positive and powerful impact on anyone and everyone that has contact with those who are, or have been, part of the Learning House network.
It forms a space for people to mix, meet, learn, develop, understand. Each person receives a gift of the possibility of expanding their potential. Each gives a gift of mutual respect and support in expanding the potential of others.
Perhaps the most powerful element of the Learning House environment is the constant seeking of new ideas and opportunities and connecting them to further ideas, further opportunities. The training of Barista skills, for example. A simple form of earning potential that can be utilised anywhere in the world to support individuals when embarking on further studies. Combining the learning of very useful, pragmatic, life skills of manufacturing, marketing, business finance, with the subjects chosen for study.
Perhaps more importantly, through your own example, you provide a laboratory of opportunity, creativity, people skills, business skills that everyone can see, feel and experience. Because you are constantly learning and developing yourselves and putting that learning in to such pragmatic and effective use.
Reaching 5 years is a remarkable achievement in itself! You are probably in the top 1% globally of community entrepreneurial enterprises that have made it past 2 years. The ripples of your influence will continue to grow in the years and decades to come.
I look forward to reading the books, seeing the documentaries, made about Learning House in the future.
Wishing you all the very best for the next 5, 10, 20---50 years!
Rob Thomas
Dear friends,
Time flies! I can not believe that it’s been five years. These five years have been incredible and we have been through a lot of changes. As a result, we can see the outcome and can be proud of it. This success would never have been achieved without Learning House staff efforts and people who have been supporting us from near and far. I and my team can’t wait to celebrate.
Five years sounds like a long time but it’s not when you are passionate towards work. Still, sometimes you have this feeling that you are not doing enough and then you realize you just have started and still have a long way to go. When I, my friend Manoj, and Michelle started dreaming about Learning House, it was just a dream. We didn’t know whether we’d be successful or not. We had this fear because we were going to start something new or you could say something that didn’t even exist in our community. I remember we were kind of frustrated for a couple of months in the first year because we had few people coming in and participating in the seminars, workshops, and events that we organized. People were questioning: What is Learning House? We didn’t quit, however, and kept doing different programs, workshops, and seminars. Later on, people started recognizing the services we offer and the help we want to do for our community.
Since that time, we have served over a thousand students across the world including locals and foreigners and have helped them to achieve their goals. Personally, these five years really taught me how to be a good leader and the skills you need to become a good entrepreneur.
I want to thank Michelle, who has always been there for me. She is such an inspiring and hard-working person. Learning House wouldn’t be a home if she weren’t here. Obviously, there are always ups and downs in life but she has always been a strong woman to overcome the problems. For me, she is a super woman in a bit different way — someone who has the power to change the world, not saving the world like superheroes from aliens. :)
Finally, I want to thank everyone who has been a part of Learning House and who has helped us grow and become better. We hope that we can keep helping the community every single possible way and have lots of support from everyone as well to keep make Learning House better than before.
Ngawang
Dreams are funny things. Sometimes they are soft like whispers and you can choose to ignore them.
Sometimes dreams come like fierce, howling winds, blowing open windows and rattling doors.
Learning House was the latter.
Had I known that when I came to Nepal nearly seven years ago my life’s course was going to completely change, maybe I wouldn’t have come.
But I did, and me being me, I started asking questions. Then I watched. And Nepal being Nepal brought me endless cups of tea and conversations and obstacles and problems to solve.
I fell in love, and I knew I couldn’t leave.
That blustering wind carried me as Learning House came into existence, and I see those same gusts sweeping students inside the door as they come with dreams of their own: To learn English, to find community, to meet an encouraging smile, to provide for their families, to start something of their own.
Every time I think I’m done, that I’ve had enough, that I miss New York or Colorado or my home, that wind comes back, bowling me over and reminding me how much more work there is to be done and why we started in the first place.
When we first dreamed of Learning House, we knew what we wanted to create: An energetic space where people of all backgrounds could gather and learn and exchange conversations and hearty laughs over coffee.
That happened. As I write this, the hiss of milk frothed in the kitchen competes with the sound of belly laughter erupting from the downstairs community lounge.
I don’t know what the future holds, but I am confident that the same community that has help dictate what Learning House has become will steer the ship with those same winds of ambition and dreams; the right course will be charted.
I sure am thankful to those who have supported me personally, and also my team. Constantly creating and giving while staying energetic and positive isn’t always easy; sometimes I fail miserably.
But then there is that wind. Whipping me away, yet again, with a new idea, a new concept, a new dream.
In this moment, with the celebration of Learning House and all those who have participated in their own unique way, I am filled with gratitude, joy, and pride. Thank you.
Ngawang, none of this would have been possible without you.
Michelle
Meet the student where she is, not where you think she should be.
When I met Michelle Welsch she was a 17-year-old student in a required one-year writing course I was teaching at New York University. Although I had been teaching for several decades, my practice was (thankfully) still evolving as I discovered that teaching was really about active, experiential, learning. My role was to be a facilitator of a process and a builder of a community of learners.
Over a long career as a writing teacher, I occasionally had the opportunity to work with a student that showed great potential from the very first day of class. I saw that potential in Michelle, and now, eighteen years later, I see it still—Michelle is a teacher, a learner, and so much more.
“When we write, we present ourselves as the fragile beings we truly are. We become susceptible to scrutiny and criticism. We allow ourselves to become open to those we usually slink away from. We emerge from the shadows of insecurities to tackle the world head on. Writing empowers. Writing strengthens. Writing perseveres.”
—Michelle Welsch, 2002
Michelle has led an extraordinary life—she is an entrepreneur, an adventurer, a writer, and a woman who inspires others. We have stayed in touch over the years and throughout her travels. More than six years ago Michelle was fundraising for an event that would require her to climb to the base camp at Mt. Everest. She achieved that goal and from there she volunteered to teach English at a monastery in Nepal. And then, so changed by her experience, she moved to Pokhara and, with the help and support of the local community, she founded the incredibly aptly named “Learning House.”
Michelle and her team have built a community of learners literally from the ground up. Learning House shows what is possible (even when it seems unimaginable); how a community can grow by listening and responding to the needs and dreams of its members.
Of course, a community needs support to stay alive. Learning House needs volunteers, visitors, and money, so please send a donation and be an active participant (even from thousands of miles away).
Carole Deletiner, Board Member
Lifelong Learner
My name is Soni, and I am working for Learning House.
It’s been four and half years I am working here. I am very lucky that I got the opportunity to work here. Learning House always supports me and other staff and students. As a single mother it is very difficult to manage everything, but I never feel that Learning House is an office, I feel like this is my home and I can work freely. Learning House has done so many events and programmes that encourage people to do what is good for them and help them to find out. After working here I feel more confident. People here are awesome and generous. They help people like a family member which I love most.
I wish a very happy 5th anniversary to Learning House and hope we can celebrate a 25th.
Thank you so much for Learning House, team Michelle, Ngawang, Hema, Chirring.
You have always been there for me.
Soni
Dear Friends,
Five years of Learning House. Wow.
There’s so much to celebrate — test scores improved, colleges attended, careers conceived, etc. — but let me resist the urge to quantify. Instead, I’d like to write the fundraising letter that Michelle never would.
Learning House is not about Michelle Welsch, of course. When I think of my time there (I volunteered in Summer 2016), I remember students’ fierce hope. It pervades every hour of programming: Every workshop, exercise, and example. I was prepared to teach English, but not for what it meant to my students, who infused the place with their dreams of a better life, family, village, and in some cases a better Nepal. Learning House, of course, encourages all this. It is a safe space for dreamers.
But the dreamer who started it all, our beloved Michelle, is not, exactly, in a sanctuary of her own. It’s hard enough to set up a non-profit learning center for underprivileged kids in the United States. Michelle faces a whole slew of challenges — cultural, operational, political, etc. — that many of you never hear about, that I can only begin to appreciate because I spent two months there.
On this special anniversary of the founding of Learning House, I’d like to call attention to the enormous personal sacrifices that Michelle has made, and that she will continue to make, in order to keep a corner of Nepal safe for dreamers. Five years of enormous achievement for Learning House and its students. And five years of great personal sacrifice from its creative, bighearted founder.
From a friend and huge fan, I implore you to show your support for Learning House and Michelle, and make your year-end donation this month. If you have time, do it right now! Your gift will enable some stress-free, long-term planning. And no doubt you’ll help Michelle, and the rest of the staff, feel more supported, celebrated, and energized!
Gratefully yours,
Douglas Faneuil
P.S. If you’re unfamiliar with the day-to-day achievements of Learning House, visit Facebook or its homepage.
What started as a dream in 2014 first blossomed into a heroic effort of 122 individuals who recognized the value of a center dedicated to leadership and education. Their backing helped establish the foundation of a thriving learning community, Learning House. Computers were purchased, furniture was built, books filled shelves, and we opened our doors in Pokhara, Nepal.
With additional support from The Pollination Project and U.S. Embassy Nepal, a committed and very dedicated core team, enthusiastic volunteers, and a group of good-hearted individuals, a movement began:
Our library expanded;
Over 1318 students enrolled in classes;
Barista training flourished;
Over 338 workshops, seminars, leadership experiences such as camps and discussions have taken place;
150+ guests from around the world have exchanged conversation, cultures, and ideas;
Scholarships supported deserving young people’s higher education and career goals;
2600+ participants have attended in-house seminars and trainings;
Over 900 hours of free individual counseling and advising services have been offered;
80+ leaders met their dreams of pursuing education or employment abroad;
And over 29 community programs such as the Outdoor Film Festival, Latte Art Competitions, Service Programs, and Education Days reached even more members within our community.
Leadership skills and confidence fueling leaders within our nation and across the world.
Goals reached and exceeded.
Students standing taller, speaking with pride, and finding the strength to step in and speak out for themselves, their families, and for their communities.
To our community and to our friends:
Thank you.
Thank you for helping us along this journey.
For shaping this space.
For sharing your trust, your time, your hopes, and your support.
For mirroring our own energy and hard work and love.
As we like to say, “Our house is your home.”
Let’s celebrate together. We have so much to be thankful for.
The Learning House Team
“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. ”
