The ` Annual Venkateshwar India-UK Summit’ was organized by Sri VIS, Sector-18, Dwarka in association with the Childreach International on January 21, 2012. The summit was an extension of the British Council’s International School Award (ISA) project, developing the pupils’ awareness of the cultures of other countries, while promoting an understanding of their own. Apart from the majestic Annual Venkateshwar Summit Rolling Trophy for the winning team’s school, the top three teams were to be awarded cash prizes of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 respectively along with individual trophies and certificates.
The summit was a reminder to the future leaders that every incident in history teaches us to take better care of the future, while planning for the future. The colonial past has left different legacies. The summit coincided with the republic day related activities of the month. The guests for the day were Ms Amita Sharma, the Manager Programs and Mr Vishesh Shukla from the Childreach International India. Childreach International India is a development organization that empowers children across India to achieve their right to education, healthcare, protection and prepares them to grow up as sensitized and responsible leaders of tomorrow.
22 teams from prominent schools from Delhi participated in the event. A written screening preliminary round was held along with some non-evaluative brainstorming activities for sensitizing the budding leaders such as a social responsibility test and a graffiti writing/wall magazine activity on why study English, what UK offers to us, what India can offer to the world.
The six best teams from different schools were t shortlisted after a tie breaker round for the sixth spot, which added the Modern convent team to the famous five – Sri VIS Sector -18, Dwarka, Venkateshwar Global School Sector- 13, Rohini, Loreto Convent Delhi Cantt., VIS Sector -10 Dwarka and IPIS Sector -10 Dwarka .
The final quiz had five rounds. The first two rounds- `Guess me Right’ and `Audio round’ ’ saw last four teams being selected. They were Loreto Convent, Modern Convent, VGS and Sri VIS teams. The ‘Check your Memory’ round led to elimination of the Loreto team.
The brain churning final `Rapid Fire Round’ decided the final winner. Sri Venkateshwar International School team members Aryan Gupta and Pranav Suri brought laurels and the rolling trophy to their school as they finished with 88 points. The First Runners up with 78 points were Vagisha Malhotra and Hardik Goel from the Venkateshwar Global School , while the Second Runners up were Harsh Kumar and Divanshi Khurana from the Modern Convent School with 47 points.
In the non-evaluative, yet socially stimulating and sensitizing activities organized by the Childreach International, graffiti written for the wall magazine by students from Loreto Convent and NK Bagrodia School were found to be highly commendable and were awarded medals.
A Social Responsibility Test – to awaken the spirit of social service and sensitivity saw the children giving situational responses in a mature and responsible manner, such as if their mother was sick and they were alone, all of them said that they will administer the first- aid, call a doctor and family members and take charge till others arrived. To the question, what would you do if you see a child begging or working in a roadside eatery, majority said that they will feel bad and many added that they will ask their parents to give money and clothes and a few also added that they will try to have the child put in a school with help from adults. To the question on garbage disposal, they had the right responses. It seems that society will see much improvement through these social messiahs.
