First Get Ahead Mentoring Session - Feb 14, Dharwad

It was the perfect date, 14th of Feb. While the ocassion provided for spending time with their loved one, we at Get Ahead, began our affair as well. Our affair with what we love and are most passionate about - facilitating mentoring of students from Tier-II towns. The first Get Ahead Session was conducted at the Graduate Finishing School at the Vidya Poshak Campus by Mihir Deshpande. Our thanks go out to the Vidya Poshak Team for helping us in organising this session.

About Vidya Poshak's Graduate Finishing School

Vidya Poshak's Graduate Finishing School is a unique effort with the support of Shri Sarojini Damodran Charitable Trust, Bangalore to bridge the gap and empower the non-technical graduates (BA, BCom, BSc, BBA & BCA). In a period of three months, the students are being rigorously trained in the areas of “English Language, Communication Skills, Basic Computer Skills, Analytical Skills and Personality development etc. On successful completion of the training, they will be provided with the placements.

The session was attended by close to 60 students from the Graduate Finishing School and we are extremely pleased that they not only enjoyed the session, but also found valuable and practical advice, tips and suggestions to help them in their careers and their lives.

Photos From First Get Ahead Session

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

Well Begun Is Half Done - Introduction to Get Ahead
From L to R: Mihir Deshpande - Mentor, Nikhil Kulkarni - Get Ahead Team, Sanjay Vaidya - Vidya Poshak Graduate Finishing School

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

Taking Them Through - Mihir sharing his experiences with the students and giving them valuable tips and suggestions

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

Enjoying The Interaction - Mihir sharing an anecdote with the students

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

Engaged In Conversation
The planned duration of the session was one hour, but then it extended to well over two hours with requests from the students who seem to be really enjoying the session.

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

Gaining From Get Ahead - Students listening keenly during the session

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

How I Gained From Get Ahead? - Students Sharing Their Experiences And Feedback

From Get Ahead Session I - Dharwad Feb 14, 2009

How I Gained From Get Ahead- Students sharing experiences and feedback


Mihir's Presentation To Students

Get Ahead Mentoring Program - Session I

View more presentations from Get ahead Mentoring. (tags: mentoring india)

Student Testimonials And Feedback

It was very precious class to us because we learnt some special things
which we did not learn in our degree and in the 21 years of my life. Once again I would like to thank to your team behalf of our friends and class.
Manjunatha Kumbari - Student, Graduate Finishing School (via email)

It was the nice session which you spent with us. I would like to thank you and your team for spending your valuable time with us. It was good that you made aware of those thing which we were not knowing. By sharing your experience you have showed some new ways to lead the life. From that day I have started meditating for 10min everyday. If any help required to me I will be in touch with you. Kindly reply whenever I send mail to you and be in touch with me.
Shantinath Magadum - Student, Graduate Finishing School (via email)

Videos Here

First Pilot Session - Dharwad | February 14

Excited about the first Get Ahead Session. Mihir Deshpande has agreed to do the session and we're hoping to do it at the Vidya Poshak campus.

About Mihir

Mihir is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from SJCE,Mysore. While he was an engineering student, he has taught Signal Processing and Electronic circuits to two batches. He has conducted electronic design contests and played an instrumental role in spreading awareness about Linux. He is passionate about Linux and conducted free Linux tutorials for 2 successive years and now the initiative he started has been taken over by the Computer Society of India (CSI).

Apart from the educational activities, his interests are psychology, mathematics, agriculture, traveling and spirituality. He finds in inspiration in Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru. Mihir currently works for a leading software company in Bangalore.

While in Dharwad, Mihir studied at K.E.Board's High School and Karnataka College.

How Can You Help

• We are presently looking for mentors who can help students from schools and colleges in Tier-II towns and cities. If you are a young professional/student/entrepreneur from a Tier-II background, in the 24-35 age group, willing to share your experiences on the opprtunities you missed, or grabbed, or the ones which you never knew existed, challenges you faced and how you overcame them and give practical and sensible advice, guide and mentor students, the first thing you should do after reading this is to share your contact details using the form below and we will get in touch with you.
  
  
• We are also looking for people to help us with content, website development and mentor-student coordination. If you have some spare time and like spending time on the internet, let us know and we could use your help.
  
  
• If you wish to start a similar activity in your school or college, let us know and we will help you get it started.
  

To know more about Get Ahead's activities or wish to get involved, please share your contact details using the form below. We shall get in touch with you.



You could also send an email to nikhilnk [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thank you for your interest.

Why Mentoring For Students from Tier-II Towns?

Students from towns, Tier-II and below, are stuck in the middle and stuck badly. Neither are they as deprived as those in the rural areas nor do they have the as much access to resources as those in the urban areas.

Working in rural areas is fashionable and working in the cities in profitable

The hardware(textbook knowledge) is all there, but what is missing is the software (awareness).

• Bring out talent and motivate them to work towards realising their dreams
  
  
• Connect them with people they can relate to
  
  
• Convey to them that they can dream, and that if they have the drive, there are enough people to help
  
  
• Make them more aware of the world around them
  
  
• Help them make informed decisions based on their interaction with mentors
  
  
• If they can dream, they can.
  

About Get Ahead

Goal

Get Ahead aims to become a platform that facilitates mentoring of students from towns, Tier-II and below, by achievers from the same background.

Aims

• Make the students more aware of the word around them; help them realize their potential by engaging them to explore various possibilities to trigger their interest, and facilitate further learning through mentoring.
  
  
• Connect students with mentors with whom they can relate to, and hence convey them to that if they think beyond the obvious and have the necessary softer skills; it is possible to get to better levels in personal and professional lives.
  
  
• Inculcate the culture of trying without the fear of failure and provide reassurance through necessary support to help them dream bigger and achieve them.
  

Model

Every school/college that is part of the Get Ahead Network to have a chapter which would comprise of 3-4 active student members, a faculty member and a member from the Get Ahead Network to facilitate conducting regular activities.

The activities can be from the following –

• Interaction sessions between an achiever and a group of students
  
  
• Screening of videos, short films and documentaries
  
  
• Circulation of books, articles and other material
  
  
• Quizzes, debates and other informal activities
  

The model is to be in a simple format which can be taken across schools and college. The Get Ahead team will initially work with the chapter to start the activities and the chapters will be equipped to carry out activities by themselves, with the Get Ahead team playing only a facilitating role.

Get Ahead Team will build a database of mentors willing to help students and will work with the chapters to coordinate interaction between the mentors and the students.

Get Ahead will also facilitate one-to-one mentoring in case students are interested in being mentored. The students will be able to get in touch with the mentor over phone/email at least once every month and meet the mentor in person once every six months.

Get Ahead will organize an event every six months to bring together students from schools and colleges across different towns and provide them an opportunity to interact with achievers from various fields and take part in activities which will broaden their horizons. The events will showcase Get Ahead’s progress and students will hopefully be motivated to start chapters in their schools and colleges after attending the event.