Youth advised to contribute to positive changes

Manipal:  The 2^nd National Conference on Youth in Social Change began at the Dr TMA Pai Hall here on Saturday with three panellists sharing their experiences with about 600 youth from 50 institutes across the country and impressing upon them how they could contribute to positive changes in the world.

After the formal inaugural function, at which Dr H.S. Ballal Pro Chancellor Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) was the chief guest and Dr H. Vinod Bhat Vice Chancellor the guest of honour, the panellists, change-makers in their own spaces deliberated the role of youth as an agent of change.

Venkat Krishnan N, the Founder of GiveIndia and one of the minds behind DaanUtsav moderated the discussion. The three-member panel had Ms. Kanika Sinha, Director Outreach of Community – The YouthCollective, Prof. (Dr.) MadhuVeeraraghavan, Director and Finance Chair, at TAMPI and Mr. Vivek Sharma, Programme Director of the Gandhi Fellowship. All panellists agreed to the fact that Impact Careers were picking up and a sense of social responsibility, humility, and a radical change in the current pedagogy in all spheres was of utmost importance.

Dr Ballal in his address spoke of the good work MAHE’s Volunteer Service Organization (VSO) has been doing in organizing the national conference and several other programmes, including DaanUtsav in creating awareness in the youth about the joy of giving. He spoke of the importance of this conference and hoped that it would have a positive impact on the participants.

Dr Bhat gave a brief on VSO from the time of its commencement. And, for the participants at the conference, he related the story of Ryan’s Well Foundation. The Vice Chancellor’s advice to everyone was to make a positive change in the world. Ryan a six-year-old, grade one student collected money to dig a well in Uganda and then went on to dig thousands more.  The story is a reminder that all can make a difference.

Student Convenors, Vishal Kashyap and Tarangini Saran gave the Welcome Address and the Vote of Thanks respectively in the presence of Dr. Anup Naha, and Mr. Abhishek Chaturvedi, the Convenor and Co-Convenor of the Conference.