I conducted a custom workshop recently for adolescent boys & girls in Pune discussing their own career preferences, ideas and factors influencing them. All the boys and girls were in the 14 to 16 years age group, from 8th to 10th standard. We discussed their ideas about their own career, what do they want to be when they grow up and I also asked them if their career preferences were related to their own interests as of now. I tried to make them ponder why & how they would be choosing their stream of study such as arts, commerce, science or something else after their 10th standard examination.
We also saw few interesting videos including Ishita’s talk that I have shared here. I presented two interesting case studies of young students and their first books on how they chose their field of study & profession: Rahul Alvares with his book ‘Free from School and Samyuktha with her book ‘Learning the Heart Way‘. They both took their own time, stayed away from mainstream education for a while and explored their own interests to figure out what they rally wanted to do in their life. Their stories were largely unknown but absolutely inspiring. If you haven’t read them, I would highly recommend reading both these books!
Here are some photos from the workshop.
All of them enjoyed the workshop. I am glad that I am reaching out to younger students and taking all those largely unknown but hugely inspiring stories to them. Making them ponder about the influences that affect their career preferences at this stage, making them aware of the lesser known alternatives. I hope it would make them think about their own interests, inclinations and abilities when they choose their own field of study! As a result, I hope that they would ultimately choose their work because they love it, not simply because of peer/family influence or monetary rewards. 🙂
