Value Education Seminar for First Year Engineering students
Organised by Basic Science and Humanities Department
on Friday, 22 February 2019 (10:15 to 12:15 and 2:00 to 4:00)
Seminar Title: ‘Make Each Day your Masterpiece’ Resource person: Ms Deepa Panakkal
(Sub topics: life skills like mechanisms to cope with stress, goal setting, being assertive, handling
failure, empathy and humility.)
Some key issues and concerns observed among adolescents include those relating to forming a self-
image, managing emotions, building relationships, strengthening social skills, and dealing with or
resisting peer pressure. Students at this stage are more prone and vulnerable to high risk situations
and may easily succumb to it.
How well an adolescent deals with these issues is decided by a host of factors that include their
personality, psychosocial support from the environment (that includes parents, teachers and peers),
and the life skills that they possess. Our contribution as teachers, came in the form of the value
education seminar that was organised for our First year Students.
The value education seminar was organised for all the 8 classes of first year engineering. Given the
large no. of students, the sessions were conducted in two slots for 4 classes each. The resource
Person, Ms Deepa Panakkal, focussed majorly on helping students identify and enhance upon some
of the important life skills using real time examples that were easily relatable to students. She
emphasized on how students need to focus on their ability for adaptive and positive behaviour that
would enable them to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life and also better equip
them to handle failure as a learning experience. ‘Positive behaviour’ implies that a person is forward
looking and even in difficult situations, can find a ray of hope and opportunities to find solutions.
This was one of the main messages extended to students.
The session also focussed on interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve
problems, think creatively, communicate effectively, empathize with others, and cope with
managing their lives in a healthy and productive manner. While all these capabilities were
discussed, the importance of being respectful and humble was also emphasized. Thus the session
focussed on helping students value skills that truly matter to make them not just competent
professionals but also individuals with a strong sense of values and character.
(Inputs by Ms. Deepa Panakkal, Asst. Prof. Basic Sciences and Humanities)
