Dubai: Broaden Your Child's Horizon - A fruitful Workshop
Report by Deepak Machado.
Pictures by Kumar Fernandes.

Dubai, Oct 25: Have you ever woken up someday to realise that you were doing the right opposite in your professional life than what you dreamed of? You dreamt of becoming a professional athlete, an artiste, a trainer, an astronaut, an engineer, a banker, a businessman? Where do you stand now? When at Mangalore Konkans we mused on this, we thought that our children or the coming generation must not go through the same dilemma as we went through. And LO....Roadmap to professional excellence was born. On 23rd of October 2009, children and parents alike came together for a unique program conducted by Mangalore Konkans, Dubai-Roadmap to professional excellence. The Part One of the series of events ‘Broaden your child’s horizon’ concentrated on guiding the children who are on the anvil of taking a great decision in their lives as to what subjects do they chose for their college which would sketch their career path.

There were three speakers for the day, Dr. Rose Kamath, Rema Menon and Rev. Ashish Thomas.

The seminar started exactly at 10.30am as mentioned and kicked off with an interactive session conducted by Dr. Rose Kamath. Dr. Kamath, who is a sports psychologist, gave an important message as to how we under-estimate ourselves and where we exactly stand with our capabilities. She highlighted the topics of Self-Esteem, passion and right career choice.

Mrs. Rema Menon, who runs Counselling Point, explained the importance of having a clear cut vision from the beginning towards which career an individual would choose. Students must be aware of their hobbies, interests and values, Mrs. Menon explained. There are umpteen and endless opportunities in the world for anyone who is passionate about what he or she wants to achieve. She also explained that one must set realistic goals, make a flexible plan, prepare plan B, learn to adapt to changes while choosing universities and colleges. Choosing career where the passion lies would bring ultimate satisfaction, she explained. Mrs. Menon concluded by quoting a famous saying by Walt Disney that “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Rev. Ashish Thomas, a successful businessman spoke on the importance of ‘values’ in the students. He started by saying about his own life experience as to what he wanted to be in future and how with systematic plan he could achieve it. He reiterated the importance of family values and personal values. He mentioned that the greatest gift that Indians have is the gift of ‘values.’ We must give up our ‘Çhalta Hai’attitude, he said. Having been to several countries he cautioned the participants not to give into frugal financial temptations of life that they may come across. While doing studies students must be aware of the bad impacts of drugs, unsafe sex and other anti-social activities, Ashish said.

Later, Dr. Kamath, conducted an exercise for the participants on what their interests are and what might be a possible career option depending on the passions and interests the children have through Holland’s six Personality types. She also gave a questionnaire where various possible career possibilities could be derived depending on the answers.

What followed was an intense question and answer session.

Few of the participants were asked to share their experiences with the other participants. The seminar concluded at 2 pm, followed by lunch.

Deepak Machado welcomed the gathering while Manohar Pais was the master of the ceremony. Clinton Mendonca proposed the vote of thanks. President of Mangalore Konkans, Santosh Nazareth presented mementos to the speakers.