Foreign pupils promote student social responsibility in Odisha

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Bhubaneswar, July 4: For the
fourth consecutive year, international students from the Virgnia Tech and
University of Wisconsin came down to 
Odisha and involved with students of the Ganjam district and together
carried out several developmental projects in the area in order to empower
local youth and promote Student Social Responsibility(SSR). 

The seven students who
reached Odisha and worked for over 40 days along with the local students to
implement projects on sanitation, personal hygiene, youth empowerment and
signature campaigns.

For six weeks, they
conducted spoken English classes, computer literacy training, visiting
institutions and micro-projects, all of which were led and implemented by the
local students.
“We began with English
classes and computer literacy classes, and shifted gradually into a focus on
micro-projects. We separated the students into a junior and senior class,
practicing basic vocabulary and grammar with the juniors and practicing more
advanced conversational English with the seniors. In the computer classes we
began with typing skills and progressed through Microsoft word, PowerPoint, and
excel. Once the micro-project planning became more concrete, the students used
the Microsoft applications to further develop their ideas. It was a great
exercise for both project development and computer literacy,” Elizabeth Bahret
a student of Psychology and Sociology at Virginia Tech.
More than 60 students
from different schools and colleges of Gopalpur were   made to assess the needs in their
communities, chose a focus and develop an action plan for each village. They
were then guided on how to carry out the micro projects such as sanitation in
Venkatraipur and Deegipur villages, personal hygiene in New Baxipali, and the signature
campaign in Gopalpur.
“After introducing the
goals and expectations of the micro-projects, we divided the students based on
village, assigned one or two Nourish interns to each group, and got to work. We
hope that the project has inspired the students to continue enacting positive
change throughout their lives,” said Elizabeth Dennis and Samanta Marie from
University of Wisconsin.
The other students in the
project included Caed Cunningham, Jacqueline Spigai Samuel Gittelman, Elizabeth
Dennis and Samanta Marie. The students were members of Nourish International, a
student body that engages with students for community empowerment. This rural
youth empowerment project was organised by the Voluntary Integration for
Education and Welfare of Society (VIEWS) at Gopalpur on-sea
S B Rao from VIEWS
said, “Every youth must contribute for their own community. The whole idea of
this students’ engagement is to promote Students Social Responsibility (SSR)
for community empowerment.
Susant, a student from
Deegipur village said “It was a great opportunity for us to interact with international
students and learn more about communication skills and computer skills for our
future development”. 

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