Adhyapana goes rural

Earlier this year we started a new rural focus program. under this scheme we offered to conduct free training programs for rural students provided the college offered to give us the required teaching infrastructure, and took care of the travel, stay and food during the training period. VDRIT, Haliyal is the first college where we have been able to impart the placement training program under this scheme.

Though we have been visiting many rural colleges near Bangalore, this is also the first college for us in North Karnataka.Haliyal is situated at about 30kms away from Dharwad.

Nearly 100 students from the 8th semester attended the training. it was a challenge to manage such a large number of students that too from different branches.the day started with breakfast with the principal.Over breakfast we discussed various topics including the college's efforts to provide opportunities to rural students, and the need for collaboration to take the initiative forward.

The training sessions was formally inaugurated by the principal and the placement officer.The day was packed with technical and non-technical sessions.Each day would start at 9 and continue till 6 in the evening. Over the 3 days we covered most of what we had planned.The students and staff of the college were very hospitable. they took care of all our needs and we had a wonderful time teaching them.

The soft-skills training was well received, with heated group discussions and good interactions. The students looked forward to the technical and aptitude training. they learnt a lot of new tricks and short cuts during the courses. the feedback at the end of the course was also very satisfying with the average course rating at a healthy 3.3 on a scale of 4. surprisingly group discussions emerged as the favorite session with a average rating of 3.68.

The training concluded with a short presentation about us and our initiatives. The principal presented us with momentoes and a generous donation towards the Adhyapana Trust fund.We hope to visit many more rural colleges this year and help more and more students in real need.

Goal Setting

An article on Goal Setting written by Shiva has appeared in the Educational supplement of the Deccan Herald today(25/2/2010). The article discusses the need for goal setting and how students should go about this activity.The entire article can be found in the following link:

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/54583/make-smart-choice.html

Doctored!!

We had a very unique opportunity this weekend. On Saturday,the Adhyapana Team was invited to conduct a training session for Homeopathy Doctors as a part of their ongoing AYUSH trainings.It was a wonderful experience. There were nearly 30 doctors from different parts of the state.Teaching a meture audience is a different ball-game altogether.

Prof. Rajamani,an eminenet sociologist had already conducted a few sessions for the doctors. I decided to organize my session around the topic of communication skills for doctors and the need to indulge in leasure activities.The morning session was conducted by Dr.Latha, where she spoke about her experiences with taking Homeopathy to the villages. She also discussed a lot of interesting case studies.

My session started after the coffee break. I was really nervous as to how the session will be received by the audience. however they whole-hartedly indluged in all the activities. We had lively discussions with the doctors relating to what i was saying with examples in their real life.We broke for lunch.

After a heavy lunch, the session continued with some more activities,.It was surprising to see the doctors indulge in all the activities and games with so much enthusiasm.They were more lively than normal college students. We wrapped up the session with a discussion on the need for hobbies. Prof.Rajamani then proceeded to explain about working in teams , leadership and time management. Overall it was a great learning experience for us. This was also the first time i was conducting a workshop for adults and i really enjoyed it.

-Shiva