Last friday, I got to be part of a beautifully planned and executed field visit of government school students from GHS Agara to a reputed institute in Bangalore, NIFT. It was here that the buzzing thoughts of a 14 year old left me in awe and reminded me once again about the super critical purpose of what we do at United Efforts -helping young minds from economically weaker sections find their spark.
The institute has a high cost, production quality, programmable weaving machine for its students to use, understand and explore. The guide shared that this is one of the few institutes in the country, that gave this facility to their students. A 14 year old Chinmay( true to the meaning of his name) immediately asked, “Why don’t you start production with this machine as well, and sell the product? After all the students may not use it all the time right? You will get some funding too!”
I was amazed by his business sense, his quick thinking and the confidence in posing this question to someone, who was after all a stranger to him!
Our guide for the day patiently answered his query with a smile, explaining why it was important that the student’s need to learn should come first at the institute, and it should be free of distractions. This set the young mind at rest and set a few more questions buzzing.
The real world exposure from the field trips to different industries and institutions surely gives them a flavour of work life. But I think that an even larger gain are the sparks of curiosity that are lit and will stay with them forever.
#experientiallearning #curiousminds #success
A spark, a question, a possible success story. – By Meera Venkatesan.
