Category: Priyam Manoj Joshi

On the teacher’s day, I along with other students of my grade volunteered to take classes in younger grades, so that the teachers could take a break for that day. We dressed up as teachers and then proceeded to organize fun learning interactive activities in grade 7. We designed one activity to test the math skills of the students, we divided the class and then conducted a quiz, the other activity was designed to test creativity and sales techniques. We asked to students to design an advertisement for a vacation in Maldives. After this, we organized a khokho and kabbadi game for the students.

Through this activity, I was exposed to multiple situations where I had to manage young students, I also had to think creatively to come up with activities which would keep the students interested but also, provided them a learning experience. I identified that while creative thinking for games and activities was a strength of mine, but I realized, that management skills could be something I could work on. I felt good about my creativity as the students told us that they really enjoyed the activities, but at certain times I felt helpless as I could not manage and pay attention to every student at the same time. Maybe if I had better management skills, it would’ve been an even more fluent and enjoyable experience.

This activity was a new challenge for me as I am not used to taking care of children and don’t spend a lot of time around children as I do not have a lot of cousins either. The experience wasn’t as terrifying as I had expected it to be as I had already asked a few of my friends ( who had done this before ) about how I should prepare and behave with the students, which made it easy to overcome this challenge. Through this challenge, I also learnt teamwork and creative thinking, as I had to work with 2 of my other friends prior to the activity to plan out the schedule and activity of the kids. I also learnt how to be open to ideas, as we had a lot of different ideas for the activities and to be patient with younger students. These skills will help me when I will repeat this activity or go to NGO schools to teach children or plan activities for other events.

I am usually comfortable with working with others as long as they have the same thinking patterns as I do, but it was not the case this time, which developed me to be more open minded which will help me when I am planning other activities, I also felt good that I could be patient and listen, but I still have a long way to go.

There were various ethical issues that I had to keep in mind, I had to be careful that I was behaving patiently and appropriately with the students, I also had to make sure that I was making the most efficient use of their time as well as ours which made us plan fun – LEARNING activities, I also had to be open minded so that there were no major verbal disagreements among the people who were planning the activities and to pay proper attention and heed to the instructions of the organizers. These issues made me feel like I was turning into a more patient person.

Overall, I had a fun new experience, which tested my creativity and social skills.

I belong to a family which absolutely LOVES travelling, so I had been on a lot of treks and trips in the north before I took this trip with my classmates. And just like I expected, this trip was also an amazing, spectacular and beautiful one.

As a part of our grade trip, we had decided to go to a beautiful place called ‘Naggar’ near Manali, as soon as I came to know about this, I was very excited as I had been to Naggar before and knew that it was an amazing town.

Even though it was my second time going to Naggar, this trip was one of the best treks I’d been to. We got involved in walks, activities, rides, sunsets and so on.

One of the challenges I faced in the trip was the immense walking and physical exertion. Especially, during our long trek to Rumsu village, I noticed myself getting very sick and exhausted. Since I am not a very athletic person and dont work out daily, I had some difficulty in maintaining my strength throughout the day. However, out of fear of missing out ( 😛 ) I still continued every single day despite my legs aching badly. I realised that I needed to work on my fitness. Luckily, we were taught yoga and exercises almost every evening, so I could incorporate those in my daily routine once I got back to surat.

One of the best things about the trip was the kindness of the local people, I had so much fun talking to them and knowing about the history of Rumsu, it showed me that despite having little resources, these people made the best of what they had and were very contended with it. They respected themselves, everyone around them, nature and especially their cultural values. We even saw the house and works of a very famous artist, we saw paintings, their rooms, the architecture, their books etc. And as someone who loves knowing about art and history, this was one of the highlights of my trip.

We also indulged in adventure activities, like skiing and tubing, as I am not a very adventurous person, this was a bit of a challenge for me, but since I had friends who were motivating me, I tried it anyway and had a LOT of fun! Turns out, we shouldn’t say no unless we have tried it.

Since, we were on a school trip to the himalayas, we had to be ethical and judicial when we were using our resources, we had to be careful that we did not waste too much food or supplies and kept everything clean.We tried not to use plastic bags and bottles, and to not waste too much electricity. Further on, we also had to make sure we did not litter as it would spoil our natural resources.

Since we were on a grade trip, it was important that we adjust as group members and not become very demanding, we had to cooperate with each other and share what we had for the common good. Also, all of us were happy to do that as this trip gave us a much needed break among the hustle of submissions and deadlines.

I was a new student, so this trip was very special to me as I made a lot of new friends, and memories which I am going to cherish for a life time, there were some conflicts among our classmates, but all of us resolved them with ease and understanding. I got to know a lot of people in my class in a way which I wouldn’t have in school, we heard horror stories, danced, celebrated new years, laughed, played cards and as someone who shys away from making new friends, this experience was truly eye opening for me.

Overall, this trip was a very memorable experience filled with adventure, historic knowledge, horror stories, yoga and fun! 

Books are a man’s best friend. Ever since I was little, I’ve been an avid reader and imagining a world without books is next to impossible. On a recent visit to a government school, I was shocked to find that a school where hundreds of underprivileged kids studied had a shortage of books.

I was highly motivated to do something about this, so I decided to get involved in  a book drive…but then I thought, why not do something close to home? I decided to organise my own book drive in my neighborhood. At first, I was really scared and lost as I didn’t know the process of how to collect books or where to donate the books I got. I asked a few people about book drives and prepared myself for this new challenge. I and a few of my friends planned carefully about how to approach people, which kind of books would be beneficial to the kids, which houses to visit, how to organize the books etc.

The next step was to find an NGO which would take our books, through some contact we found an NGO called “Yuva Unstoppable” who were ready to take our donations.

We decided to make posters and talk to people to spread awareness about how there is a very dire lack of resources for kids in our city.We made colorful, eye catching, bright posters with slogans about books and the necessity of reading in everyone’s life, including the ones less privileged. While researching and preparing for what to say, I was able to increase my awareness about resources, NGOs, the kind of resources needed according to the target population etc.

When we did go around to people’s houses, I found that people weren’t as open-minded as I thought they would be, it took a lot of convincing for people to even give us books they weren’t using, they would rather give it to the ‘pastiwala’. This was a little disappointing for us, and also increased our work load as we had to go to a lot more houses than we had planned as we did not get enough books at first. I realized that maybe I had to work on my convincing and public speaking skills, and I also realized that I should have a backup plans. However, as we had a group of people working together, we eventually managed to collect some books.

We continued this task for a month, this was a little difficult as all of us had time scarcities due to daily work and studies. But, we were committed to making this book drive happen as we had given our word, so with utmost perseverance we collected books whenever we had little time here and then.

Our next task was to segregate all the books according to genres, languages etc. We had to plan very carefully about this, and we, as group members had a lot of conflicts about this but finally we segregated it and sorted it out.

We finally donated all these books to an organization called “yuva unstoppable” and it was an amazing experience to contribute a little to make their lives more knowledgeable and interesting.

This activity made me realize a very important skill which I needed to develop – my communication skills within a team. I was not able to correctly portray what I expected from my friends and thus there were problems in our planning which led to last minute hassles. Further on, when there were conflicts about making any decisions like how to approach people, making posters or other forms of advertising etc, I was not able to make quick decisions. I observed that this area is something I needed to work on.

One of the ethical considerations I had to keep in mind was that, since I had committed to this cause, I could not fall back as I had given my word to the NGO, I also had to make sure that the books were of decent quality as they were to be given to other people to use and could not just be of bad quality.

Also, as a leader of a team, it was important that I stay rational and calm, and make smart decisions while respecting my teammates and their ideas.

 

Despite shortcomings and hurdles in our plan, I genuinely felt good doing this activity. I had lots of fun making posters, and felt proud when we collected a large number of books. Though it was a very small scale activity, I learnt important lessons on team work and Books impart knowledge in a way media never can, it improves language, stretches our imagination and implants new ideas in young minds. It is a necessity and the lack of available resources for underprivileged is a global problem and this small scale activity made me realize what a great problem this is and that we should all take steps to bring solutions to it.

Youth run ‘ 16

Women empowerment is a recent uprising agenda which is grabbing attention deservingly. A youth run was organised by DAIICT Gandhinagar on republic day, to raise awareness about this agenda.

I had participated in the 7km run organised.

I am not a very sporty person but I am a feminist, so on a little persuasion by my mother and motivated by the women empowerment agenda, I decided to take up this challenge. Before the marathon, I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to complete this run and was sure that I would be the last one to complete. But, on reaching there, I realised that there were people from all age groups participating. From 5 year old kiddies to old aged grandma’s which gave me solace that maybe I wasn’t alone in trying a new thing.

This was a very new experience as I was preparing for the marathon, I had to regularly go for runs or practice on the treadmill, I had to push myself to practice and take care of my fitness so I was comparatively ready for the day. For this, I had to also be motivated by my mother, I developed a good habit of running which I managed to maintain even after the event ( even though the regularity has decreased ) Overall, it was a huge challenge to push my limits of what I was capable of physically.

The ceremony began with a very interesting and knowledge – enhancing speech by the mayor of Gandhinagar, who is herself a successful professional woman.

Even though it was tough, I completed the 7km run, and I felt very proud of myself.

Further on, there were street plays by the college students and art work which increased my knowledge about what problems exist in this world, and what steps we could take.

It would have been easy to quit in the middle of the run, or take a short cut, but I chose not to compromise my ethics and ended up learning a new skill of trying new things.

I felt proud that I took up a challenge and was able to complete it and have already registered for another marathon next month.

The entire event not only helped me personally, but also broadened by understanding of the agenda of women empowerment through speeches and street plays.

I have always been an avid participant in activities which are related to public speaking and oratory so ever since I participated in my first MUN, I have always looked for other MUNs to participate in. FSMUN 2.0 was my ^3rd MUNning experience and thus was a comparatively new challenge for me. I was the delegate of India in the committee of DISEC.

The actual MUN lasted only for the matter of 2 days but the preparation had begun a few days prior to it, where I had to research about the agenda given to me, about my allotted country. Through my research, I was able to expand my knowledge about global issues, which I was previously unaware about like the problems in Syria, the terrorism, the warfare etc. I also became more  aware about the politics of other countries, but as a result of all this planning and preparation, I felt confident before the MUN.

During the committee sessions, I had to work with other delegates to form a resolution to make our committee successful. This required patience and collaboration and helped me develop my communication skills so that I would be able to put my ideas in the group effectively and help in reaching win-win decisions.

There were a few ethics which I had to keep in mind, one of them was that I had to be respectful and calm while communicating with the other participants, I also had to use correct factual knowledge about different countries and have valid sources for whatever information I had used as basis for my argument.I also had to be extremely respectful towards the chairs and had to use specific terminology and language so as to not offend anyone (which included not speaking personal pronouns )

This activity made me bring out disciplinary characteristics in me to show perseverance while researching prior to the MUN and also debating during the MUN so as to be well informed, it further made me more knowledgeable as I learnt a lot of new information about different political controversies and histories of various countries.

I noticed a drastic change in the rise of self-confidence I got when I won and could relate this to thinking that oratory was something which I was good at and was my personal strength, I realized that I could develop this skill even more with participation in more MUNs and debates, I learnt new techniques of researching which I have been using in my research for my IAs and EE. I also think that the solutions and the resolutions we found could actually contribute to helping to the agenda someday.

Overall, it was an enlightening and fun experience, where I even got a chance to socialize with students from different schools and cities. I look forward to participating in more MUNs!

A literary fest was organized, out of which, one of the activities which I took part in was “Adds to add up”

In this activity, we were given a product and had to design an advertisement for it.

Firstly, I had not planned to take part in this activity, and it was spontaneous which was a very new thing for me as I was completely unprepared and knew that this competition would be a challenge.

Now, this activity required us to use our marketing skills as well as our creativity, I was accompanied by a few BM students and a lot of juniors.

We planned out our advertisement with suggestions from everyone and then I allocated everyone their duties. I realized through this that I was good at taking leadership and this activity helped me identify and improve my skill which has been useful to be in other activities which I have done.

I also made the poster with some help and employed my drawing skills which I had learnt in the past grades. One of the ethical considerations I had to keep in mind was that since i was the oldest member of the group, I had to be extremely careful to be patient with the younger students and not get angry or be rude when they weren’t able to understand my commands.

We had a few stumbles in our presentation, as even though we had planned there was a shortage of time and we weren’t able to communicate effectively throughout.

This activity was a very new experience for me as I am not a business management student but could find relativity between language, art, psychology and sales techniques.

 

 

An activity, which I have always enjoyed, is oratory. Recently, I had participated in young orators 2016, where I secured the second place in the semi finals and the second place in the finals. This competition is held on a wide scale consisting of about 100 participants from three different cities, so I had to carefully plan my speech over a period of 2 months for the semi finals as well as finals. The topic given to me was about “Dashrath Munjee – the mountain man”, which was something I was previously unaware about, thus by researching about it, I was able to expand my knowledge about great Indians and their stories.

In the finals, I was given an extempore topic on how it feels like to fail in class. I had previously never attempted extempore speeches and it was a challenge to come up with ideas in 15 minutes, but through the tips given to us, I was able to speak confidently and secure the second place. This helped me identify my strength of speaking, and I look forward to developing my skill of extempore speaking. In the competition, I also heard speeches from educators and radio jockeys who spoke about the importance of having good communication skills. They shared their stories of struggle and success and about issues of global importance like illiteracy, poverty, lack of proper education etc. These talks were very inspirational and gave me a lot of new information and made me aware about what we, as individual citizens, could do to have better personalities to make our country better. Overall, participating in young orators helped me identify my love and skill for speaking, made me attempt extempore speaking and also made me realize that I should broaden my imagination to come up with ideas instantly. I also learnt that planning in advance for a good speech gave me more time to include more ideas and portray them efficiently. The speeches given by the educator ( principals of 3 different schools ) and a few radio jockeys opened my mind to look at global problems like illiteracy and lack of education in a new way and inspired me to organize an educational fest. Oratory has always been something I’ve loved, and winning in a competition among a large number of participants was a very memorable experience!

“What’s the good word?” was a competition in the literature and humanities fest 2015 ( 22nd-23rd august ).

It was undertaken by me and Maharsh. This competition required a lot of planning and coordinating which helped me achieve LO3.

In the first stage, we had to gather participants and constantly mail them about the details of the meetings. We had a few problems in organizing the meetings as we could not co-ordinate the timings of all the participants as they were from the 7-12^th grades and also, since the art fest was going to take place at the same time.

But we took help from our mentor teachers and found solutions to these problems, which helped me achieve LO2

After we had 3 meetings to explain the rules of this competition, our next phase included publicity where I made a poster and posted on the blog urging people to participate, as this was a fresh and very interesting game. Next, we held the semi final rounds and selected 1 team from each house for both the middle years and the higher grades.

We then proceeded to find words and prepare for the competition day by arranging for the chairs, mikes and other requirements. The competition was fun and we received great feedback from the audience as well as the participants.

Overall, even though we had a few problems in the beginning, we overcame the challenges because Maharsh and I had systematically divided our duties and tried to be perseverant and committed so we got our work done quickly and also owing to the fact that the other art fest coordinators had been very cooperative with us.( addressing to LO4) I am currently working with Maharsh on another activity as well.

The organization of this competition helped me identify my strength which is leadership and also helped me learn how to plan an event as it was a new experiences for me which in turn helped me achieve LO1. Along with that, I learnt meanings of lots of new words while researching for the competition, which helped me develop my vocabulary which are helping me while I’m preparing for SAT. I also enjoyed making the posters and have made posters for other events after this one. These skills helped me accomplish LO8.

One lesson that I learnt is that in an event like this…it is important to have some fun activities planned for the audience as well so that they don’t get bored.

To conclude, it was a fun event and I’m really glad we got voted as the best organized as well the most favourite event.