Blogs

(In collaboration with Gandhi Fellowship and Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Human
Development and Family Studies, University of Mysore)

Today the world is at the cusp of transformation and hence, there is a constant need for upkeep to stay abreast of the metamorphosis surrounding us. This calls for the development of certain skill sets and competencies that support us over and above what the academic degrees offer us. In view of this, a workshop was organized with the final year students of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the seminar hall of University of Mysore.

Details of the Event
The session began with the keynote address by Dr. Komala M, Chairperson and Head, Department of Food Science and Nutrition who set the context for the session in terms of value addition the students could have through this brief workshop and interaction. She also stressed the need to stay relevant in today’s world by constantly updating ourselves on the changes around us. The need for collaboration between universities and organizations is more than necessary today to guide the students onto becoming assets for the nation and focus on their holistic development.

Dr. Prabhavathi, Professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition; also graced the occasion and spoke to the students on the importance of multi-faceted and domain agnostic opportunities like the Gandhi Fellowship which gives students a peek into the administration and running of the nation, along with a host of other skill sets developed by working on ground.

There was a formal release of the posters of the 18th batch of the Gandhi Fellowship by the faculty of both the departments followed by circulating it among the students, who were intrigued by the
uniqueness of the posters.

This was followed by an interesting icebreaker activity rejuvenating the group of youngsters who participated in it enthusiastically. The first segment focused on defining Change for the students. Many daily life-based interactive questions were designed to ensure more active student participation. There was an incredibly positive response from the students, who actively shared their interests and choices finally culminating in our key pointer “What is Change and How do you define it.”

With this key metric defined, we went ahead with our next segment establishing the change across various sectors in terms of Jobs. We also made sure that the students work individually on identifying jobs available in their respective sectors today, the ones that could be in high demand over the next few years and the ones that could become obsolete by the end of the next decade.

This exercise brought the importance of the role of technology, Artificial Intelligence, Data analytics in bringing a change in basic assumptions in jobs and what the new age jobs look like and the kind of pivot that today’s students need to undergo to adapt themselves.

This scenario helped the students to understand the nature of future jobs and the kind of skills they need to equip themselves with to have a long and fulfilling career ahead. What surprised me was that the students themselves arrived at these skill sets after collective reflection and brainstorming in their individual focus groups.

At the end of the activities, Deekshitha. S (Alumni of Department of Food Science and Nutrition and the wife of Gandhi Fellow R. Manohar) shared a few highlights of the Fellowship and how it holds relevance across all domains and sectors.

After this, there was a brief sharing of the nuances of the Gandhi Fellowship program; why is it important for today’s youth and what are the factors that make it relevant for them much more than ever before? There were few incisive questions raised by the students at this point, proving their thoughtfulness and interest in such kind of programs. This was laced with interesting, funny and some odd anecdotes from the Fellowship Journey (Kheda, Gujarat) of Manohar.

The session was concluded by summarizing Gandhi Fellowship as not just the story of one Manohar (also a batch-11 Fellow), but a sum of thousands of equally talented and supremely dedicated individuals who have now gone on to become high impact individuals across various sectors.

The vote of thanks was proposed by Ms. Srujana, Faculty, Department of Food Science and Nutrition who urged all the participants to think actively about the questions raised and the change mechanism we all spoke about for the previous hour.

Way Forward

We look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with the esteemed institution University of Mysore and hence, would work very closely on providing the students with all the information and guidance needed to proceed with their applications and candidature for the eighteenth batch of the Gandhi Fellowship Program.

Also, we would like to partner with the University on various other programs and workshops and would like to build a strong coherence with them on the shoulders of NSS-led partnerships and like-minded collaboration