Students of XlRI, under the banner of Samarthya, a student body, organised the second edition of ‘Meet the Mentors, Train the Trainers’ on September 17 and 18 on the campus.
Its objective was to make teachers more attuned to youth psychology and their own self so as to help them mentor and counsel their students better. The event saw an enthusiastic participation from teachers of five different schools–DBMS, St Mary’s, ADlS Sunshine, Kerala Samajan Model School and KPS Kadma.
The trainers who helped made this workshop a huge success were Prof Manish Singhal, Chairperson, Organisational Behaviour; Fr Oswald AJ Mascarenhas SJ, JRD Tata Chair in Business Ethics & Student Counsellor; Fr S Tony Raj SJ – loyola College and Board of Governors, XIMB and Fr. Anton Joseph, Delhi University. Fr. Francis M Peter, SJ, Faculty Coordinator Samarthya, worked tirelessly to ensure that the event went smoothly.
Fr Oswald AJ Mascarenhas inaugurated the session. The sessions covered Emotional Intelligence, Coaching, Mentoring and Challenges facing teachers and included various activities and sessions designed toa make teachers reflect and introspect on their own selves and teaching styles. The session aided them in becoming better mentors and councillors for their students and their parents.
The students in Samarthya, the youth wing of CEMlR, regularly go to schools to engage with students on various topic such as Joy, Fear, Stress, Relationships, Failure, Speak Up, Exam Preparation among others. They engage with 700 students of classes 9th to 12th on a weekly basis throughout the year. They seek to become ‘buddies’ of students and jelp in solving their problems and issues.
Understanding their own limitations of scale, ‘Meet the Mentors, Train the Trainers’ was conceptualised by Prof ISF Irudayaraj last year, to be able to reach the teachers instead because they were the ones who interacted with students and parents regularly.
Anuja Singh, a teacher at Kerala Samajan Model School appreciated saying that, ‘The strength was the emotional attachment given to the workshop, the involvement of the students and the extremely committed resource persons’
Reeta Bhusal, a teacher at St Mary’s commented that, ‘It was a very informative session and will surely help us to perform better in our workplace’.