October 26-28, 2018
Empowering the Vision Project (ENVISION) held its Career Exploration Workshop for the first time in the Northeast of India from October 26-28 in three schools: Sambhota Sonada, CST Darjeeling and CST Kalimpong. All the three schools have no assigned Career Counselor except for a Northeast Career Counselor who visits the school twice a year. Based on our many interactions with students from the Northeast in Delhi, we felt a need to reach out to the region.
Our workshops covered 117 students of which 35 were Class IX & X students of Sambhota Sonada, 38 were Class XII students of Darjeeling and 44 were Class XII students of Kalimpong. The workshops were facilitated by Youdon Aukatsang, Director and Tenzing Migmar, Executive Assistant on behalf of ENVISION.
The Career Exploration Workshop had three main objectives:
- Create self-awareness by helping students in discovering their values and interests
- Provide information on college options/career choices/scholarship opportunities
- Share information on ENVISION’s programmes
Throughout the morning session of the workshop, students were given ample time to develop self-awareness through introspection and other activities aimed at discovering self. Students also participated in an exercise to identify their own personality and possible career interest based on the personality type.
In the afternoon session, students were provided information and guidance on college admission with focus on Delhi University. They were also informed about which all subjects they can pursue under their stream, scholarship opportunities and career options. Since CST Kalimpong had only Arts and Science and CST Darjeeling had Arts and Commerce with Hospitality Management, we tailored the PPT according to needs of the schools. Additional information was added with regard to choices of subjects in college according to streams.
Students in these schools not only need a lot of motivation and career guidance but most importantly they need help in building self-awareness and self-esteem. There were quite a few students who were unsure of pursuing further studies.
In the feedback session, many expressed that they have never participated in self-exploration activities before and that was the most useful session of the workshop.
“I was thinking of discontinuing my studies but after attending this workshop, I gained a clarity on what to do in life and about various career options”- Gyatso, Class IX, Sambhota Sonada
“This is the first time I am getting some time to introspect and understand myself”- Tamding Tsewang, Class XII, CST Darjeeling