Some updates

Well, "A" is out of station for six weeks or so. While he ensured he volunteered personally for the 'Disha' workshops, unfortunately we will miss his action for the exhibition. Remember his infamous speech (less??) during Disha'04 presentation ceremony? "Disha" is a separate topic on its own and hence let's come back to it in a separate discussion.

Not many mails on egroup for last few months. We are missing quite a few updates. There has been lot of good news and updates to share with. Given that it is already close to six months since we started supporting new batch of PUC students, now is the time probably to keep documenting what happened. We might get some time as we now know which students are expected to come regularly, who are not coming, who are facing issues and what is their academic status as of now. We can probably start planning better based on the interaction so far.

If I look at students from 2007-08 financial year point of view, I see that there are close to 70 students are on roll for FoCh. Here is the broad classification as of today:
Joined in 1st year PUC: 28 [3 boys and 25 girls]
Entered in BCom final year: 15 students [3 boys and 12 girls]
Passed BCom: 10 [All girls]
All others are one or two in their specific category.
Let me start with the ones who already completed their course.
All the BCom students [Sharada, Usha Rani, Lakshmi, Mercy, Mohana Priya, Sheela, Manju, Thenmoli, Renuka] passed with first class, but for one. Of these, Sharada [who scored close to 73% aggregate] and Usha Rani [who scored around 70% aggregate] got selected Oracle Financials. It is certainly a great achievement and hard work by them. The good news is, all other students also got some or the other job in accounting itself even before they got their results. They are happy. So are we.
Kalaivani, who was brave enough to go to Belgaum completed her diploma in nursing, passed with 76% and got a job in Vani Vilas Hospital.
Usha completed her BFA at Chitra Kalaa Parishath with 67% [my memory is too short. I am sure she got a little more than this]. In a quest of improving her skills, she joined in Master of Fine Arts at Gulbarga! Another one to go out of station for studies!!
It is equally and extremely rare to find students like Nancy [who topped her class with more than 80% in her final sem in her BE-InfoScience @ UVCE and secured a job at NokiaSiemens], Harish [who completed BE in ECE @ BMS and also got a job in Nokia Siemens], Nagarjuna [who completed his BE in CS @ BMS, got 98.8 percentile in GATE and joined MTech at IIT-Kgp], and Kiran [who completed his BE in CS @ Ramaiah, got 99.1 percentile in GATE and joined in MTech in IIT-M]. I don't think I should praise them further publicly as we have lot more expectations from them in reaching greater heights. Harish and Nancy now primarily take care of the PUC science students.
Gousiya has not been able to get her BE degree yet. However, if one wants to learn how to face difficult situations in life, fight against them and make progress, probably she is one of the best examples. After completing various mechanical CAD courses and waiting for few months to get a reasonable technical job of her domain, finally she has been able to get one. She is now even more confident and positive in her life.
There is certainly a very special place for Meenakshi too, who has not yet completed her studies. After successfully completing BSc with 72% in psychology, she joined in MSc in Bangalore University!! As Bhanu Kiran says, she is a rare gem and is probably "over qualified" for her selection for her masters admission. :-) [Her efforts require a separate write-up on her.]
Of the ones who completed BCom last year, few deserve a special mention: Leema, Jyothi are volunteering actively to give some free time to Prakash. And there is Kousalya, who manages her time extremely well, performing equally well in her BBA and volunteers at St Teresa's as well as Vatsalya! I feel all the volunteers have a lot to learn from her - at least I should.

All the volunteers are really proud to be associated with each and every one of these students. Rather, probably the volunteers are more privileged to be able to help them in some way or the other. It is always amazing to see that these kids are so brave to fight the odds and still come out with flying colours. To be frank there are some students who never turned up after we pay the fee. And some may even drop out. However, those kids who are putting sincere efforts are the ones who inspire us and ensure the efforts are going on at St Teresa's on every weekend. Without them, there is no meaning of Friends of Children.