In a bid to help the deserving students from the hinterland of Uttarakhand to crack the various engineering entrance examinations through a 20-day free of cost residential camp in Dehradun, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) in conjunction with Uttarakhand Government has been running Project Abhilasha since 2003 as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The stress is on high-end training in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.
The Directorate of Education, Government of Uttarakhand is assisting the University to identify the toppers and bright students of class 10th from the Government- run schools across the 13 districts of Uttarakhand. Thereafter based on pre-defined criteria, they get selected and are subsequently invited to the camp. These free residential training camps are being held every year since 2005 and over 500 students have benefitted from these camps thus far.
“Abhilasha -2015” is being organised in UPES campus since June 1, wherein 69 students, including 26 girls, from six districts of Uttarakhand participated. All these students are 10th class toppers of their respective schools in 2013 and have entered their class 12th this year. This batch will again be called for the second phase of their training in “Abhilasha-2016” camp. Apart from imparting extensive training in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, the participants were engaged in physical activities of outdoor games like Football, Volleyball, Cricket etc. A conducted tour of the laboratories and libraries was also organised for them during their stay. The batch was also taken on a tour of the Kandoli campus of UPES where the chief secretary, Uttarakhand N Ravishankar interacted with them.
Speaking at the valedictory’ function of “Abhilasha–2015”, the chancellor Dr SJ Chopra applauded the efforts being put in by the CSR team of UPES and encouraged the participants to come back next year to complete the process initiated by UPES for their benefit. The vice-chancellor Dr Shrihari Honwad in his talk with the participating students of this camp advised them to make use of the vast information available on the internet to improve their comprehension on various subjects. Dr Mandira Aggarwal, deputy director, CSR, presented details of the activities which were conducted in “Abhilasha- 2015”. During the valedictory function some of the participants also shared their experiences of this training camp and were thankful to UPES for assisting them through ‘Abhilasha’ camp.