The Programme Creates Great Leaders

Pathways World School, Aravali organised a special IAYP assembly to honour and recognise the Bronze participants. Samanata Prashant and Mansi Agarwal, Bronze Award holders share the report with us.

The International Award for Young People, India (IAYP) delivering the The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award was introduced to the students of Grade 9 in November 2016. Sixty-five students enrolled for the Bronze Level of the Award – which is also the entry level. The programme requires successful completion of the four components of Skills, Adventurous Journey, Service and Physical Recreation. The Bronze Award journey culminated in our achievements not only being carried out but also diligently recorded and meticulously validated by our adult mentors and then approved by the IAYP office. The manifestation of this elaborate exercise was in the form of the IAYP Assembly, which was a special occasion to recognise our skills/achievements.

The room was filled with bliss and excitement as all the awardees walked proudly onto the stage with their Certificates and Badges. After receiving the certificates, there were performances by the students of Grade 9. Displaying great talent, a few of the Award recipients enlightened the crowd with their experience of this journey. The enthralling musical performances, mesmerising dance and mind blowing beatboxing left the crowd spell bound. The proud Award holders will soon continue to take a step forward to achieve the Silver Level. We were congratulated by our Director and Principal motivating us to further take forward this journey and achieve Silver and Gold in the coming years ahead.

This programme brings up great leaders and teaches them to train themselves into independent and balanced individuals. At the Bronze level, we completed 4 components, which required a lot of persistence, effort and willingness. Here at Pathways World School, we get different opportunities to complete all these aspects by unleashing the Adventurous side in us by being a part of the Annual Adventure Camps. As we have Physical education lessons, the students worked on their sport for their physical activity component. For the Service component, the student chooses various ways through which they could help the community and do good for their society. Some students helped keep the school building clean during the breaks, some taught the underprivileged, while others helped in the library and most of us also worked at the Eye camp. Nonetheless, all of them learned something new and it was a good exposure. For Skills, students choose their hobbies and the field they are interested in and worked on them.

We feel really blessed to be offered the Award Programme which has an international recognition and has instilled in us great leadership skills. This was a great platform to showcase our talent in the best way forward.

Donate a Blanket, Save a Life

Two Silver Award participants, Shilpi Daimary and Kavery Mahela from Miles Bronson Residential School, Guwahati, are sharing their experience during the Blanket Donation drive to protect pavement dwellers from the cold.

Inspired and motivated by the initiative of NDTV and Uday Foundation’s mission to keep the pavement dwellers of North India warm, we, the Award participants of Miles Bronson fraternity also joined hands in saving the lives of the people in need. On 3rd December 2015, it was announced in our morning assembly that we had to collect blankets and warm clothes for people who were dying from the cold on the streets, in slums, orphanages and old age homes. On Sunday, the 6th of December 2015, we collected a huge pile of old warm clothes and blankets from the Bronsonians and the teachers. It was wonderful to see that some of our teachers and Bronsonias brought not only old warm clothes but also new blankets, warm clothes, socks and gloves to keep people warm. After collecting the donations, on 13th December 2015, we, the Award participants, along with our mentors, distributed the blankets and warm clothes to the pavement dwellers living near the Sukreshwar Mandir, Panbazar, Guwahati. It was fulfilling to see the smiles on the faces of those pavement dwellers and we wish all our friends and teachers a heartfelt thank you in taking such initiatives and make someone's life worth living in cold winters.