Jatin Pawar, a BA (Hons) Economics student from Hansraj College, Delhi University who has always believed in action rather than words. He has been part of 8 months SMILE Fellowship and 9 months SMILE Professional Program at Pravah achieved his goals and established himself as a doer.
Here, Jatin is sharing his experience being a SMILE Fellow and Professional at Pravah, Delhi. His apprenticeship will certainly propel him ahead of the curve.
Go ahead and know what his story has to offer to aspiring youth so that you can easily find a path of self-growth.
What was the location?
Hansraj College, Madipur Colony and Work From Home post-pandemic
How did you come to know about the internship?
Through a fellow in a training
What were your responsibilities here?
During the fellowship, I was supposed to run a social action project on the thematic of Gender and Sexuality that i’d chosen. I organised some on-ground workshops, sessions in my college and a coaching centre. Later during the ongoing SMILE Professional program, I with the entire team supposed to run the SMILE Fellowship program right from ideation to implementation as well as Co-leading the Batch-6 Fellows nurturing them to keep motivated to bring social change and thus learning from them.
How much time did you contribute on a daily basis?
2-3 hours
Share your proudest achievements and how were you able to realise them.
When I organised a session in my college on Gender and Sexuality and post that the kind of positive feedback i received was really an overwhelming moment for me. I was able to realize them when participants personally came up to me and thanked me to bring clarity to such topics. Later as a SMILE Professional, I’ve been able to provide a space for fellows to talk, share and listen.
As a SMILE Professional engaging with young people, I identified my inner strength of being an enabler, a multitasking youth facilitator who is thriving more and more while working closely on the nuances of problem-solving. this space also helps me in locating myself through broadening my perspective to look at a scenario through multiple lenses based on other young people’s insights.
What are the top learnings, skills and values that you acquired here?
- Leadership skill
- Fundraising
- Communication/ Facilitation skill
- Organizing skill
- Finance skill
- Problem Solving skill
- Visibility
- Graphic designing
Apart from these skills, I’ve been able to get out of my comfort zone and actually tried to bring change in society that I always wanted to. I started prioritizing my values, unlearned to form preconceived notions about certain things/ people.
I learned to challenge myself, my stories and my perspective, during the course of this social work I started introspecting more, reflected and where all those rigid notions coming from and to what extent are they authentic.
Do you feel this experience is a stepping stone towards success in life? Illustrate how the experience gained will help you going forward in your career.
Yes, absolutely it’s a stepping stone towards success in life. All of these that I learned and experienced from the SMILE fellowship and professional, will definitely help me in my professional life in the future.
In some ways when I have to deal with a bunch of people from very diverse background and view, I’d be able to create a space for them, I’d be able to showcase my teamwork skills, fundraising which is a very important component in any work.
Moreover, communication and facilitation skill that I learned is going to help me along with relationship building. I am in possession of knowledge where I know how to carry out a program and lead young people, so further in case if I choose to start something of my own, it’ll definitely help me.
What is your advice to those, who are aspiring for the same or a similar internship?
If you want to bring social change in society on issues that you are passionate to work on and a little bit hesitant about how exactly can you begin with, I’d recommend that this SMILE Fellowship platform is meant for you. The program builds the leadership capacity of young people through the self to society concept while also making them self empathetic and a socially responsible leader.
How can we (Friends, Family, YI Fraternity) encourage young students such as yourself to involve themselves in different opportunities?
To talk on the issues that really irritates us but we don’t tend to put efforts to solve the problem or don’t even try. letting them know about the stories and work of young changemaker will motivate them or word of mouth will be the best way to mobilize people to get them involved in different opportunities. having a proper conversation on how certain opportunity will going to help a person who is afraid to enter into. Naive people always tend to be fearful and carry the confusion of ” What if”, it’s our responsibility to cease their hesitation by talking to them.
We at Young Influx would take this opportunity to thank Jatin for taking a leap of faith and sharing his impeccable story. We are humbled and grateful, your efforts mean a lot for the youth seeking growth and development.
And hello, dear readers, we welcome you to explore the platform with an open mind. Help yourself gain the most out of the experiences and opportunities listed here.
And before you bid us adieu, we would like you to know that you can read more such student stories here.
