REDMOND, Wash.—Ayush Herbs USA finalized an externship arrangement between Bastyr University of Kenmore, Washington, and the Rajiv Gandhi Government Post-Graduate Ayurvedic College (HP), India (RGGPGAC), effective October 18, 2014.
The arrangement, brokered by Shailinder Sodhi, BAMS (Ayurveda), ND, of Ayush Herbs USA, is the first of its kind between a Western-based institution and any Indian Ayurvedic medical university to train Ayurvedic (naturopathic) students in an externship program within India. The externship program will be offered two times per year, and will place Bastyr students in real-life learning situations in Indian Ayurvedic hospitals.
“We are very excited about this program, as it allows Bastyr students to get training in Ayurvedic medicine in real situations in India, where Ayurveda is a long-practiced and recognized medicine," Sodhi said. “It took a long time to get through all the legalities both here and in India to get this externship program finalized, and we at Ayush Herbs USA and Ayush Herbs India are proud to have facilitated this union."
According to Sodhi, this is a unique situation because no opportunity of this kind is available anywhere in the United States – currently, no Ayurvedic hospital exists here. He believes that this is a first step in the getting Ayurvedic medicine licensed and recognized throughout the United States.
The first externship program is scheduled for December of this year. Eight students will be participating in the program.
In recent years, AYUSH Herbs took on a project where it constructed a hydroelectric facility to power its farms and the communities that surround them.