The Mindsmart 2016 - Adolescent Peer Educators Leadership Course in Life Skills and Well being.

Expressions India invited our students to enrol for MINDSMART 2016 - Adolescent Peer Educators Leadership Course in Life Skills and Well being, a six part workshop for students. The programme has pioneered adolescent health promotion across the country vide its Peer Educators methodology for more than 12 years. Peer education, an essential aspect, needs to be imparted to each and every child as it helps making informed choices, building healthy relationships and empowers young lives.

The prerequisite of the workshop was to select five peer educators to attend the six workshops and in turn, share this knowledge with fellow classmates and students of the School during the zero period, as well as in the citizenship classes. The five peer educators who were nominated from the School for shouldering this responsibility were Manan Chhabra (XI-A), Shubhangi Arora (XI-B), Pratischtha Kain (XI-B), Avantika Chodha (X-A) and Muskan Sancheti (X-A). Five parts of the Mindsmart Series 2016 were held at the National Science Centre, Pragati Maidan, where they were accompanied by the School counsellor, Ms. Enakshi Rai.

A value addition to Mindsmart 2016 was the newly launched Mobile Classroom Van for Health and Wellness Education (MCHWE). During the peer educators course, this unique Education Van would visit schools with experts to interact with peer educators and other students of senior classes.

The inauguration and the introductory session on Common Adolescent Issues and Concerns was organised on 27th July, 2016. It addressed issues like eating disorders in adolescents, attraction towards the opposite sex, role of hormones and challenges of student life. The session also dealt with applying life skills to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Moreover, participants were handed over Student Empowerment Badges titled: Peer Ambassadors for Life Skills and Well being and training material during this session.

The focus of the second workshop was Understanding and Coping with Emotions like Anger, Loss and Sadness and was conducted on 19th August, 2016. This session also highlighted the importance of Gender Sensitisation, which is essential to being safe and responsible.

At the beginning of this session, students were asked to prepare a role play on anger management. The students of our School portrayed conflicts between parents and children on trivial issues in order to convey to the audience the emotional connect shared by parents and their children. The students included art and even offered suggestions for anger management.

This was followed by a warm, inspirational speech by Lt. Gen. Arun Kumar Sahni, Former Commanderin-Chief of the Indian Army who was Special Guest of Honour. His motivational talk touched many hearts. Dr. Jitendra Nagpal addressed students and discussed the common problems faced by them. This was followed by an an interactive session on general issues like anger management, dealing with emotions and the importance of sex education.

On 7th October 2016, peer educators from our School attended the third addition of their training workshop. The topic in focus was Preventing Substance Abuse and Allied High Risk Behaviours. The session began with presentations for the teachers, to get a grasp of what we, as individuals already know of the issue. Thereon we moved forward.

The students were told about the different types of drugs and intoxicants available and how they do great harm. Related concepts such as tolerance, withdrawal and dependency were also discussed.

Losing one's sense of your environment and self, hallucinations and unlikely behaviour, are experienced under the influence of intoxicants. The students were told about how one becomes dependant on such substances on a day to day basis which is both extremely expensive and unhealthy at the same time. Dr. Nagpal also talked about withdrawal symptoms that most addicts face such as vomiting, high fever and extreme pain. All the necessary information was provided at the workshop. It opened several eyes to the sad reality of what drugs can do to them.

The fourth part of the series was on 15th November, 2016. It emphasised Family Bonding and Communication An Emerging Paradigm and Media Literacy: Learning Life Skills from the Visual Medium. The workshop dealt with the dynamics of the family and how one can improve relations between members. It highlighted the importance of healthy communication, sharing, comfort and openness with loved ones as key ingredients to a happy family.

A few dramatisations were also enacted which helped students to understand how articulating one's feelings helps to be comfortable with your oneself, thereby making one feel lighter than when one clings to one's emotions or holds grudges against people. Conversing and expressing feelings formed the crux of this session. As we comprehended, several problems are avoided by doing this in the long run.

The theme of the fifth workshop of the MindSmart series was First Aid and CPR Training in Schools A Citizens Responsibility. The session was undertaken by an instructor who specialises in dealing with emergencies of all kinds. He used acronyms such as bhagwan, gagan, vayu aag and neel to teach concepts relating to emergencies. He interspersed his talk with humour.

The instructor made the session interesting by asking students to participate and demonstrated various techniques on how to lift patients so they receive adequate first aid. He briefly discussed cardiac pulmonary resuscitation as well. The students learnt techniques that would come in handy when they encountered similar situations.

After the five interactive workshops, the sixth part of the MindSmart 2016 series was the Convocation and Graduation Ceremony which was held on 7th December 2016 in Summerfields School, New Delhi. As a part of the convocation, the students and the accompanying teacher, Ms. Enakshi Rai received the Citation of Life Skills and Wellbeing Empowerment with a Scroll of Honour for the School titled Mindsmart School for Mental Health, Life Skills and Wellbeing Promotion.

In totality, it was an enriching and comprehensive experience for the students. It, added value to the learning and inculcated a spirit of citizenship and responsibility in the students. The students were happy to be a part of the peer education series and they shared their experiences with their classmates, once they returned.

Efforts By: Avantika Chodha, Manan Chhabra, Mushan Sancheti, Pratischttra Kain, Shubhangi Arora.