Fear to Confidence

Teaching is a two way street

Name: Renuka K
Class: 3rd Year 6th Sem
Age: 21 Years
College: Sri Sairam College of Engineering
Background:
Renuka hails from a family of four members. Her father serves in Army and her mother is a
homemaker. Renuka has a sibling and currently pursuing the education. She has been a part
of Anveshana program for the past one year and has done a project on Nandi – An
autonomous ground vehicle. She has also won the first prize worth 50,000 rupees for the
project.
Before Anveshana:
Renuka says she is not new to the concept of science fairs and exhibitions as she has already
been to a development program on ICT enabled physics experiments. She has always been
interested in science experiments and projects and says she has worked on the projects like
manufacturing Go-Kart and its mechanism. According to Renuka, it is important for every
student to have a vision and a mentor can help him achieve his vision. She was earlier
mentored by her lecturers in the college and they helped her with her course. Renuka says
that Anveshana is the first platform where she had a chance to mentor someone.
During Anveshana:
Renuka says that she was very thrilled and happy to interact with the school students and
mentor them. Though she had a small doubt whether the students would be able to understand
the concepts well; after meeting them regularly and breaking the ice with them made her
comfortable and clear the doubts. Renuka says the key to interaction was that she encouraged
the mentee to ask various questions. That made the mentee gradually understand the project
and get involved in it. Renuka says the key is to have a seamless communication stream.
Renuka also says that her parents and college lecturers supported her while she embarked into
this new journey and she is very thankful to them.
After Anveshana:
While she completed her mentorship at Anveshana, Renuka says so many of her friends were
interested to learn about the concept and she explained everything about the Anveshana
project. She says she is still in contact with the mentee and spoke a couple of times after the
sessions. She says that with Anveshana, she could improve herself with respect to personal
communication skills, confidence levels and having a clear thought of what and how to talk.
Even her college lecturers could notice her improvement. She says that she is very thankful to
Anveshana for this transformation.