WWS

“Walk With a Scholar” is a mentoring program functioning under the “New Initiatives in Higher Education” of the Department of Collegiate Education, Government of Kerala. This scheme introduces the idea of mentoring to under graduate students and builds on the concept of mentor as a ‘Guide’ and ‘Friend’. Mentoring is a process where a mentor with greater experience and wisdom guides the mentee to develop both personally and professionally. Walk With Scholar (WWS) scheme proposes to arrange specialized mentoring programs for students in Under Graduate Programs in Arts, Science and Commerce and to provide guidance and orientation to prepare themselves for employment or select areas for higher study. The mentoring scheme for students will be purely voluntary in nature.

The Scheme aims at giving necessary orientation to needy students, to prepare them for employment and give them necessary guidance, motivation and necessary mental support to identify appropriate areas for higher study as well as employment. The mentoring scheme is planned to identify the opportunities available for the scholars, the areas suitable for them the manner in which the scholar should proceed before them and evolve ways by which they can be acquired. For the purpose of mentoring, two categories of mentors will be identified. One will be ‘Internal Mentor’ and the second will be ‘External Mentor’. The Internal mentor will be a faculty from the Institution in which the student (Scholar) is studying. They should be persons who are able to do mentoring and support the scholars and act as a Guide, in building their career. External Mentors are being identified from persons working in Industry, as well as from Professions like Engineering, Medicine, Architecture, Law, Hospitality, Media, Business, Teaching, and Administration or from any field as found necessary according to the local needs of the Institution/students. It will be open for 30 students of the first year of the Under Graduate Programme of Study in the college. The selected students continue in the Programme for the entire 3-year duration of their Under Graduate Course.

HIGHLIGHTS OF WWS 2019-2020

Dr. K. N. Raghavan IRS, Executive Director, Rubber Board, interacts with students in the “Meet the Expert Programme” of WWS

Dr. Honey John, Professor, Dept. of Polymer Science & Rubber Technology, CUSAT, Kochi, interacts with students in the “Meet the Expert Programme” of WWS.

Ms. Nisha Purushothaman, Chief News Producer, Manorama News Channel is taking a session on ‘Gender Sensitization’.

Dr. C. M. Joy, Former Registrar, KFRI and Rtd. Professor, S H College, Thevara, is taking a session on ‘Environment Sensitization’.

Dr. C. George Thomas, Rtd. Professor and Dean, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, Thrissur, is taking a session on how to write and review a Journal article.

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Director, Skill Birds Finishing School, Kochi, is handling a session on ‘Soft Skills and Presentation Skills’.

Motivational visit of WWS 2019-2020

Motivational visit of WWS students at University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram- Aquatic Biology Department, Archeological Department, Manuscript Library, Bioinformatics Department.

Motivational visit of WWS students at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram (IISER, TVM)

BEST PRACTICES OF WWS 2019-2020

1.Innovative and different ways of implementing the programme

A few internal mentors have adopted the platform of Google Classroom to communicate with their mentees which is found to be effective and interesting.
Power point presentation by the mentees in different subjects helped the students to reduce their stage fear and improved their presentation skills.
During WWS 2018-19, one of the internal mentor and her mentees visited Cochi Biennale and that helped to improve the rapport between them.

2.Participation of WWS students in Social Service Sector

Many WWS students are active members of NCC, NSS, Youth Red Cross and Lahari Vimukthi Club of our college.
WWS mentees actively participated in ‘paper pen making’ as part of the “Environment Management Training Program GO-GREEN EMT 2019’ organized by the Department of Physics in our college.
They involved in many environmental conservation activities after getting motivated by the class of ‘Environmental Sensitization’ by Dr. C. M. Joy.

3.WWS students who got motivated and excelled in research

Many students got motivated by the WWS programme, among them two outstanding performance by the mentees- Jinu John and Arsha S Kumar are mentioned below. They got the confidence and motivation mainly through these WWS classes (according to their own feedback).

The third and second year WWS students participated in Young Innovators Programme (YIP) 2019, put forward by Kerala Development & Innovation Strategy Council (K-DISC). Three teams consisting of five students in each (most of them are WWS mentees) were selected upto the final state level competition after the initial level screening and then the district level competition held at Kalamassery. The team lead by Jinu John of III B.Sc. Physics has won the final state level competition, for their innovative idea- “AI based brain signal interpreter”. Jinu John attended the National Knowledge session held at Thiruvanathapuram on first Kerala Innovation Day (23rd January 2020) inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister.
The WWS mentee Ms. Arsha S Kumar of III B.Sc. Physics is selected for the ‘Summer Research Fellowship Programme (SRFP)’ at the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, sponsored by IASc Banglore, INSA Delhi and NASI Prayagraj and successfully completed SRFP during May-June 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Arjit Kumar De, IISER, Mohali.

Many of the third and second year mentees participated and presented papers in National Seminars at various colleges during this year.

Students participated in seminars and YIP presentations are:

III year mentees: Sweta S. Kumar, Fathima Nazily, Arsha S. Kumar, Jinu John, Varsha M. Vijay and Aneeja George.

II year mentees: Anjitha Devassy, Fousiya C.S., Jolsana Sibi, Anjam Ameer, Ashna P.S., Anitha Thomas, Anjima K.P. and Ann Maria Jose.