Rina Deshpande Contributing Writer
Rina Deshpande believes in the beauty of cycles. She grew up with yoga philosophy shared by her parents in her own Florida home, rediscovering it again in her adult life when she began as a New York City public school teacher in 2004. Getting to know her own students’ identities and cultures, she was inspired to reconnect with her own roots in India. For eleven years and forevermore, she practices yoga and meditation, recently having completed her 500-hr yoga certification from Ishta Yoga in NYC. A lover of academics and arts since childhood, Rina helped found an elementary teaching masters program in New York City – Relay GSE - and recently wrote and illustrated her first children’s book, Cupcake. She presently studies and researches the psychological, physiological, and academic effects of yoga and mindfulness through Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Medical School.
Rina still cannot make dosas as delicious as her mother does but hopes her future kid will. Her favorite quote comes from the young adult novel, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt: “But dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born…Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing.”
Rina Deshpande believes in the beauty of cycles. She grew up with yoga philosophy shared by her parents in her own Florida home, rediscovering it again in her adult life when she began as a New York City public school teacher in 2004. Getting to know her own students’ identities and cultures, she was inspired to reconnect with her own roots in India. For eleven years and forevermore, she practices yoga and meditation, recently having completed her 500-hr yoga certification from Ishta Yoga in NYC. A lover of academics and arts since childhood, Rina helped found an elementary teaching masters program in New York City – Relay GSE - and recently wrote and illustrated her first children’s book, Cupcake. She presently studies and researches the psychological, physiological, and academic effects of yoga and mindfulness through Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Medical School.
Rina still cannot make dosas as delicious as her mother does but hopes her future kid will. Her favorite quote comes from the young adult novel, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt: “But dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born…Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing.”
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