VSM Karyakata workshop - 19th April 2015

On 19th April 2015 Karyakata workshop was held at Parshwanath College , Thane for Vidyadaan Sahayyak Mandal Volunteers. Around 80 karyakarta's attended the workshop. It started sharp at 10 am and was concluded at 5 pm.

Ranjana Kulkarni welcomed all and conveyed the purpose of the workshop. The workshop was held for the orientation of new volunteers and as a refresher course for experienced ones.

All the volunteers introduced themselves stating their name and place of residence. 

Bhau Nanivadekar unfolded the VSM journey – about how and why was it started . He said that Students, Donors, Volunteers and Palak Karyakarta's are the four pillars of VSM. He gave some examples of dedicated volunteers.

Swati Agate explained about the responsibilities of palak karyakartas. She said that he/she works as a mentor for the student and has to convey the discipline of VSM to him. He/She has to be like a potter giving shape by one hand and support by the other.

Radhika Gadiyar talked about communication between Volunteers and VSM and also between palak karyakarta and his ward. She highlighted 5 points as follows –

1. Commitment - we should read all the emails sent to us, send monthly ahwal on time,find and convey budget of the ward,inform students about various workshops, ensure that the ward submits the vouchers on time.

2. Communication - there should be good bonding & tuning between the ward and the palak karyakarta and also among all VSM members. The mails should be answered promptly.

3. Value for time - Bhau is very particular about the time , we all should follow his example. There are 40 people who send the ahwal on time without the need for any reminders.

4. Involvement - Everyone must try to be present for meetings and other programs arranged for us. She gave an example of Mr. and Mrs. Malshe who try to be present everytime and Dr. Sujata Kelkar who travels from Bhusawal for the events.

5. Expression - Express yourself freely by talking , by mail. Finally Radhika told about her own ‘Help Desk’ . If anyone has any query regarding VSM he/she can contact Radhika.

Next Parag Rede was asked to discuss about Goal setting of students. He had taken a workshop on the subject. He covered following points : we can tell the students that we are same as you and goals may change sometime in life, be ready with ‘Plan B’ i.e. alternative plan.

Make them focus on short term goals. We can report in Ahwal about short term goals. Goal setting helps one understand what one should not do.Goal setting is an ongoing process. Differentiate between goals and means.e.g. reading 3 books in a month is not a goal but ‘means to end’. Once you set the goal one has to work hard to achieve it. But before that one should think about the ‘tipping point’. A boy getting 55% may work hard to get 60% and get first class. But if he gets 35% , then even if he works hard he may not get 60%, instead he can invest his energy on something else which will help him to get employment. So the goal should be attainable.

Swati Khare and Ujwala Ranade gave presentation about various careers for students.Ujwala suggested careers such as travel and tourism, massage, x-ray technician, dialysis technician etc. she said that everyone need not try to become average engineer, instead can choose any career suitable for his condition and try to reach the top. She gave an example of her niece Rujuta Divekar who is now a well known dietician.

Swati Khare showed various slides about career selection. While doing branch selection after 10th one should consider –

1.  Aptitude test which shows different types of intelligence. 

2.  Student’s interests. 

3.  History of student from 8th std.

               i)   Marks 

               ii)  Experience of competitive exams 

               iii) Extra curricular activities

4. Financial capacity of the parents.

Review after 12th std is necessary. Slides on options after engineering and commerce were shown. Swati also told that developing core competence and doing internship is important these days. Engineering students should do different projects, attend different exhibitions displaying various projects, prepare for group discussion in their friends groups. GATE entrance exam score is used nowadays while offering jobs at public sector organizations.

She suggested that for commerce students after CPT they have to appear for 4groups for becoming CA but after one group and certain experience they can opt to become ‘Accounts Technician’.

After lunch Shubhada Puranik informed us about ‘English Language improvement program’. Shubhada Puranik & Ameeta Shaha along with other volunteers will conduct this program. 

Group I - 9th std to 1st Year of college.

Group II - 2nd year onwards.... 

Each student will be given two notebooks of 100 pages. Each month they will be given 20 assignments which they will write in the notebook and return next month.

Suhasini Thakur converses with her ward in English so she had some suggestions about improving conversational English.

i)   Use short sentences. 

ii)  Read aloud in front of the mirror. 

iii) Encourage thinking process in English.

After this some Karyakarta palaks (Varsha Joshi, Archana Damle, Anjali Pednekar and Mr. Solegaokar ) narrated stories of their wards. Narration by Solegaokar brought tears to the eyes of many. He said that ‘Rule should not overrule the objective.’ Gopal Athawale also told about his wards and said that for the outstation student we must search at least one local guardian.

Nivedita Joshi explained how we have ‘एकमेका सहा␣य क␣ अवघे ध␣ सपु ंथ’ at VSM.

She gave some examples such as – Narayan Ponkshe helped Shakeela to pass in Chemistry,Vijay Kelar went to Shahapur from Bandra to teach Dhanke about ‘Book Keeping’, Veena Shenoy teaches English conversation to Hostel students , student Rohan Jalgaokar helped Rahul Bhalke for Interview , student Rameshwari Thorat teaches English to another student from VSM and so on.

Last session was conducted by renowned Psychologist Dr. Shubha Thatte. Neeta Apte and Vandana Shirke presented cases of their wards. Dr. Thatte gave us many guidelines for interaction with our wards. Following points were stressed by her –

 At VSM we don’t need only dependence or independence but we need interdependence.

 Palak should not feel bad or guilty if his ward is not getting as many marks as others.

 While talking to student ,find out the subject of his interest. 

 We should communicate that I am ready for talk , but every child is different.

Teenagers may not like to talk too much.

 One has to consider one’s strengths and then decide about our goals,destination.

 If child has any dreams we have to assess whether he can really do that ,what difficulties can come etc.

 If his efforts are less we can point that out but we can not insist.

 Students have to decide what is important and what is urgent.

During all the sessions Geeta Shah was giving her inputs wherever required. In the end Narayan Ponkshe summed up the day’s proceedings. Written feedback was collected. Ranjana Kulkarni thanked everyone and all went away thinking over various lessons learnt during the day .

Report By : Dhanashree Ketkar