Best Practice – 1

Personality Development Workshops

Goal- The goal of these workshops conducted immediately after the commencement of the academic session is to train the students in the sense of dress and address and to infuse in them a feeling of confidence. Since most of the students hail from the highly backward areas which are patently rural in nature, they need lessons in refinement and confidence. The purpose of these workshops is to bring out the potentials in them so that they may conduct themselves confidently not only in matters of academics but in co-curricular activities also. These workshops include lessons in Theatre Arts, Dance, Music and Literary activities and create among the students a culture of working together as a team member.

The Context– These workshops are conducted in the context of the rural background of our students. Most of these students speak vernacular and cannot speak even Hindi properly . They are to be trained in the art of communication without which they cannot even dream of competing with the students from the urban background. These workshops train and groom them in both these areas so that sense of confidence and effective communication is generated into them and they become properly equipped to compete with their urban peers in a level field of global competition and modernization.

The Practice -These workshops have been regularly conducted since 1998 in the months of August and September annually. Every student of the college is eligible for participation in these workshops as per his/her inclination and choice. “Asmita”, the Cultural Cell of the college is responsible for the conducting of these workshops under the guidance of Sh. Shyam Vashishtha, Assoc. Prof. of Commerce and In-Charge of the Cultural Cell. On the basis of Trials held about a hundred students are selected and are given training in speech culture, body language, mask making, back stage preparations, fine arts, dance, singing and other technical aspects of theatre and cultural/literary activities such as stage craft, light designing, set designing, costume designing, use of colors in theatre, pantomime, mimicry etc. They are delivered lectures on personality development, confidence building, communication skills, health and hygiene. They are also taught stress busting techniques. This practice is unique in the Indian higher education system. in the sense that  our students under going tremendous positive change in their lives which in turn gave them a high level of confidence, inter personal skills positive attitude to compete and achieve higher goals in life.

Evidence of Success- Besides the positive changes in the personality and ethical values of the participants the success of these camps is loudly reflected in the performance shown by them in the cultural events like the Zonal, Inter- Zonal Youth Festivals organized by the affiliating university and Inter- University and National Youth Festivals In spite of being a rural college, our students have posed stiff competition to their urban counter parts and have won trophies repeatedly. The college has won the overall trophy of Bhiwani Zone Twice. Our achievements are not restricted merely to the university or state level our students have represented the University in the Inter-University North Zone Youth Festivals and All India National Youth Festivals Going beyond the achievements in the cultural fields the confidence building measures in these workshops have resulted in our students gracing high positions won in the various competitive exams to prove themselves as leaders in their respective fields and have acted as icons for newcomers to the college.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required– The organization of these workshops usually encountered the mental blockage of the parents and sometimes the students also. However with the full support with the College Governing Body and the College Administration all such problems were overcome. The financial and infrastructural resources were liberally provided for by the College Management. On an average an amount between 2 to 3 lac rupees are spent on these workshops every year but the returns are always higher in terms of results. We have enough infrastructures to conduct these workshops  and the properties required for the same.