Boston to Mysore Scholarship
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Visiting Mysore and practicing at KPJAYI is an important and magical part of the Ashtanga journey. For a Boston Ashtanga Shala student limited by financial hardship, we are offering a $2500 scholarship to make the trip to Mysore a possibility. Applications will be accepted from August 1st to September 1st, 2015. The recipient will be announced by mid-September. Please familiarize yourself with the KPJAYI requirements and application process before submitting this application. This September 2015 scholarship is valid for a trip occurring anytime before December 2016.
Dear Students,
My first yoga class was in 1999 at a club in downtown Burlington, Vermont. It was a led primary series class taught by a young woman who I knew through my dietetics program. I fell in the love with the practice immediately, but at the time (and for years to come) I could not afford any continued attendance. Luckily, I managed to find David Swenson's primary series book and followed along until I had memorized the practice. A rather unorthodox approach to the method, but very low cost. In the upcoming years I practiced alone in whatever apartments I was living in. Some of the places were so small that I could hardly fit my mat between the kitchen sink and the bathroom. At my first apartment in the North End, I remember trying to teach myself to do a headstand and slicing my shin on a coffee table after a rough fall. Around this same time I met a wonderful Mysore teacher - Cary Perkins - who told me all about Guruji and said that I had to go to NYC to see him. I followed her advice, and I went to see Guruji. It was a truly magical experience to meet someone that exuded such an indescribable love for his students. At that point I decided that some how and some way I would get to Mysore. In the spring of 2002 I purchased my first ticket to Mysore, but by summertime I had returned the ticket due to some unforeseen financial difficulties. The years carried on and although I was working multiple jobs as a dietitian, a bar tender and a yoga instructor, I could barely keep up with my college loans and rent. My first trip to Mysore remained on hold.
Over the years as the school has grown, I have been able to pay off debt and start making yearly trips to Mysore. To study at the source has been an incredible honor for both Alessandra and I, and now we would like to help provide this same opportunity for our students. We look forward to reading your applications.
-Alicia
My first yoga class was in 1999 at a club in downtown Burlington, Vermont. It was a led primary series class taught by a young woman who I knew through my dietetics program. I fell in the love with the practice immediately, but at the time (and for years to come) I could not afford any continued attendance. Luckily, I managed to find David Swenson's primary series book and followed along until I had memorized the practice. A rather unorthodox approach to the method, but very low cost. In the upcoming years I practiced alone in whatever apartments I was living in. Some of the places were so small that I could hardly fit my mat between the kitchen sink and the bathroom. At my first apartment in the North End, I remember trying to teach myself to do a headstand and slicing my shin on a coffee table after a rough fall. Around this same time I met a wonderful Mysore teacher - Cary Perkins - who told me all about Guruji and said that I had to go to NYC to see him. I followed her advice, and I went to see Guruji. It was a truly magical experience to meet someone that exuded such an indescribable love for his students. At that point I decided that some how and some way I would get to Mysore. In the spring of 2002 I purchased my first ticket to Mysore, but by summertime I had returned the ticket due to some unforeseen financial difficulties. The years carried on and although I was working multiple jobs as a dietitian, a bar tender and a yoga instructor, I could barely keep up with my college loans and rent. My first trip to Mysore remained on hold.
Over the years as the school has grown, I have been able to pay off debt and start making yearly trips to Mysore. To study at the source has been an incredible honor for both Alessandra and I, and now we would like to help provide this same opportunity for our students. We look forward to reading your applications.
-Alicia
