The 10th standard students of Millennium National School and their parents witnessed an amazing futuristic event on Wednesday, December 21, 2011. It was the alumni felicitation event held at the school. But it was not just the normal gathering of alumni. The 2011-12 batch of 10th standard students had gone into the future for some time and were talking in the year 2040! They had gathered in the year 2040; almost 30 years after leaving the school! They were talking about their careers and achievements; sharing their experiences and giving words of advice to existing students of the school.
The event was organized to give students a vision of what their strengths are, what they want to achieve in their lives and which career paths should they choose to accomplish their objectives. Also giving students a flavor of talking about their success in future and building up their public speaking confidence were amongst the other objectives of the event. Students were dressed smartly according to their chosen professions and carried themselves very confidently. In short it was an enchanting atmosphere!
It was very interesting to see that apart from the conventional careers in medicine, engineering, accounting and architecture; students had thought of a range of career options. This included varied professions and fields like expert linguist, professor, event management, lawyer, businessman, hotel management, astrophysicist, computer games designer, columnist, corporate trainer, fashion designer, product designer, nutritionist, researcher, chief editor, HRD, commercial pilot, psychiatrist, equity fund management, marine biologist, civil engineer, fashion journalist, interior designer. The list is endless!
Some students had passion for sports and had become renowned sportspersons in cricket, chess, football and basketball to name a few. Some of them had decided to turn their hobbies into a profession. They had chosen professions like wildlife photography, classical dancing, painting, film direction and mehendi designing. Some followed the professions of their parents while others thought of completely new fields. Many students wanted to be in research and were aiming to bring in new inventions and innovations to help the mankind.
Students had interest in not only doing jobs but many wanted to become successful entrepreneurs. They were seeing themselves at positions such as CEO, partner, proprietor which was quite promising to know. Few of them had even opted for freelance work. And there were quite a few Nobel Prize winners in the bunch as well!
It was remarkable that students had clear vision of where they want to pursue their higher studies. Many students opted to go abroad and were aspiring to study at universities like Harvard, Oxford, MIT, Stanford etc. IIM and IIT were the popular ones amongst the Indian institutes.
Also many students mentioned about coming back to India and “giving something back” to the nation after completing the higher education and working abroad for few years. Many students said that they work for social causes such as providing affordable treatment for incurable diseases, providing affordable homes to masses, building eco-friendly homes. This showed their long-term vision and social awareness.
As the children stood on stage, walked the red carpet and their achievements were announced, they got a feel of success and fame. They were interviewed on how they reached the level they were at then and they spoke about hard work and perseverance.
After short speeches of all the students from the future; the event ended with sharing views of parents and students. Parents felt that this one-of-a-kind exercise helped their children to build a thought process about their future. Students also shared their experiences of how they prepared for this event and how it helped them to think seriously about their career. Other students of 8th and 9th standards who attended the event got to know about the numerous career opportunities.
“This is our endeavour to shape the future generation and keep them focused on what they wish to achieve. The chances of straying off the path of hard work and perseverance greatly reduce if one has a taste of what lies at the end of the road,” quoted Nikhil Karkare, who was the brainchild behind this event.
“This will help the children plan and think about long term goals in whatever decisions they take in their life. That is really what the next generation needs to get an edge” says Arpita Karkare, director of Millennium National School.
At the end of the program, each student was given a bookmark with the event marked on it, the student’s name and profession on it and some memorable motivational quotes from noted personalities. This will be a keepsake and remind them of the thrill and exhilaration that they can work towards.
When Dr. Phatak, founder of Millennium National School, started the school with a focus on all round development, he did say at the very beginning that 30 years hence we will see our alumni across the world as leaders in various fields. Looks like these confident students will go ahead and fulfill that dream.
All in all it was a very incredible and delightful exercise for students as well as their parents! We even gave it a cool name – Dreams Unlimited!
