India, Dec. 6 -- Twenty-five students from Pune Zilla Parishad schools have returned from a 12-day educational tour of the United States - a journey that took them from the halls of NASA to the heart of Silicon Valley, opening up a world many of them had only seen in textbooks.

The 12-day trip, which began on November 15, was a part of the Pune Model School Project run by the Pune Zilla Parishad in collaboration with the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). From a pool of 17,000 rural students, IUCAA shortlisted and selected 25 meritorious students - 9 girls and 16 boys - through a rigorous three-stage evaluation. IUCAA scientist Sameer Durde accompanied them on the tour.

For many, this was their first time bo...