From the Director's Desk

The true test of education is to measure whether it is truly transformational.  How does it change you? How does it get you to see the world differently? Or your own life and actions differently? How does it  get you to see another person or society differently and to understand it more?  What does it enable you to do better?    These are the questions which have become increasingly pressing in the 21st century. They are the questions which we ask ourselves each year, questions which are at the heart of an IB school.

Over the past few weeks we have seen multiple events which encourage students to personalise complex and abstract ideas.

The grade 5 PYP exhibition was a wonderful showcase of  moving from thinking about systems in society to exploring different systems – NGOs, technology, health, environment and many others – to looking to see how even young children can change the world. Fund raisers, awareness drives, posters etc followed. Shared below is a notable example of a student who reached out to Mr Suresh Narayanan, the Chairman & MD of Nestle and his amazingly helpful response and encouragement to a little girl. Take a moment to read the heart warming exchanges. That’s an example of transformation.

In a similar vein, Our school’s Interact Club has been part of Responsenet’s drive for collection of food materials as a part of Delhi NCR Foodbank initiative. They galvanized the whole school community to contribute We are very proud that our school was the highest contributor in the Schools’ Category and was awarded at a glittering function on Saturday night.

This year’s Jharokha succeeded in being transformational education with its focus on understanding how a common humanity breaks up into prejudice, discrimination and hostility. Students from Grade 4-11 re-examined through this idea what they were already learning on immigration, partition, displacement, racism,

the economic effects of new laws, literary texts etc.  With presentation, graffiti, drama, music, art they conveyed a strong understanding of attitudes.  Many parents shared that an understanding of Otherness has extended into the entire family.

In a different way the adventure camps too are transformative. It begins with the overnight stay in school for Grade 1 – for many children and parents this is a big step in separation. Other groups are out seeking adventure in the hills or in villages trying activities for the first time. For the first time, Grade 11 went to Bhutan to experiene a new culture in a little explored part of the world. In a departure from adventure and in continued exploration of their history theme grade 8 goes to Amritsar.

Guest Faculty from the UK

We were delighted to welcome for a week Geoff and Anne Readman, two practitioners of Theatre in Education. They worked with students of Grade 4, 7 & 11 and ran teacher workshops, using drama to deepen student understanding of their units and literary texts. This provided powerful learning through a new medium, summed up in one student comment that “This is the best workshop I have ever attended”.

Examination grades

Grade 12 are preparing for their final weeks in school before proceeding on prep leave before their IB exams. It is an emotional time for everyone in school as we see the little children who entered Pathways many years ago grow into fine young men and women we are all proud of. We celebrate all the parents of Grade 12 students for whom too this is a landmark time of transition. We are delighted at the excellent college placement offers many of them already have and will be sharing details later. Meanwhile we prepare for Graduation on 6th April.

      Grade 10 students too are coming up to their Board exams – the final IGCSE batch of the school before we switch completely to the MYP. A first external exam is always nerve-wracking and I would urge you to ensure that in the time remaining your children work steadily, get sufficient rest and keep their nerves calm.

Food Council

I must acknowledge the dedication and focus of the parents who have been giving their time to attend the Food Council meetings. Together with a group of teachers from across the school, administration staff and Caterman our catering company, we have had extremely fruitful discussions, reviewing the menu, suggesting changes. Council members took the time to understand the challenges of providing menus which will appeal to both 5 year olds and 17 year olds, different tastes and food cultures and the constraints of items where a thousand people need to have food within 30 minutes. Health and balance were central to the review and we have had offers of help with demonstrating cooking of certain items to the chefs. Changes in the menu will be implemented in April.

Dr Shalini Advani

School Director

NESTLE Chairman supports PYP Students

Produced below is the charming mail exchange between Joel Gaba our Grade 5 student and Mr Narayanan Chairman of Nestle on providing support for the fund raiser for an animal shelter

Dear Mr. Narayanan,

I am Joel Gaba, I am 10 years old and a student from Pathways World School, Noida. This e-mail comes to you as a request.

Me and my 3 classmates are planning and determined to put up a Maggi sale stall in our school to collect donation for an animal shelter in Delhi. We have ourselves visited this animal shelter and felt that they need help. But before we help them, we need your help in getting 400 maggi cups for the stall. We are requesting you to kindly provide us 400 maggi cups as this is for a good cause. Looking forward to your response.

Thank you!

Yours sincerely,

Joel Gaba

Primary School President - Grade 5

Dear Joel

I am so happy to receive this email from you and very proud of the fact that despite being such a young girl , you think about how to help animals lead a safer life . May God bless you and your friends because when you give more , you receive even more in life !

I will be happy to support the noble cause of setting up an Animal shelter and am pleased to gift you and your friends 400 MAGGI CUPPA which you may use to sell to people who can helpin collecting funds .

My colleague Shail & Yasha will contact Pathways School to ensure that this happens .

Once again , I feel proud of you and your class mates and of the wonderful school that encourages you to give back to society . We are all proud Indians and never forget this !!

Blessings and good wishes 

Suresh Uncle 

Dear Mr. Narayanan,

I am very excited and extremely thankful for your reply! 

We can't thank you enough for the help that you are extending to us. As you have become our 'angel investor' we would like to mention you in all our steps of our journey. It will really help us earn more towards the cause. Now I need your help to understand how do we get the maggi cuppa packs from you? Would you require any conveyance?

Also we have spoken to the director of our school - Dr. Shalini Advani and she suggested if we could get your e-mail on your company's letterhead. 

Once again, thank you very much for extending your support towards this cause.

Kind regards,

Joel Gaba

Dear Joel

I and more correctly Nestle is honoured to be your " angel investor " and I will continue to give you my blessings and support as best as I can.

I am requesting my colleague Rita to help coordinate the sending of 400 MAGGI CUPPA packs to you .I want you and your young enthusiastic classmates to plan how you will sell MAGGI and how much you need for an Animal shelter in terms of funds .

Best wishes

Suresh Uncle 

Thank you notes

Dear Suresh Uncle,

We are very grateful to you. Thank you very much for supplying us 400 Maggi cuppa! The whole school enjoyed the sale hosted to collect donation money for the innocent souls at the shelter. I am very sure that the animal shelter would feel very happy. We had our PYP exhibition and our topic was NGOs, we took the initiative regarding that. You have really helped us and as a result we mentioned you in our story because you contributed a lot towards humanity! I will never forget this experience.... Thank you very much!

We have attached some pictures.

Lots of Regards,

Joel Gaba

Grade 5

Primary school President

Note from Bhavya Balaji

Dear Suresh Uncle,

Have you ever seen 300 children standing in a line to buy Maggi ever? Yes, it happened on the 2^nd of March at our school and you will be happy to see the photos attached. All this happened only because of your help.

All the students were very enthusiastic to buy, eat and contribute towards donation for Sai Jeev Ashram, the dog shelter home at Mehrauli near Vasant Kunj. This dog shelter NGO has over 350 stray dogs and find it difficult to manage funds. We found this when we had visited them for our research on NGOs. We felt bad and wanted to help immediately and at the same time didn’t want to ask our parents for money. Then we thought about the Maggi sale and we were so happy to collect the money for the NGO. The best part was all children were happy to eat Maggi at our school cafeteria.

We sincerely thank you for your immediate support and it was our first experience in getting a sponsor who could understand our feelings of charity. We hope you continue to support any such cause which we will organize once in a while.

Affectionately,

Bhavya Balaji

Grade 5 A

Note from Ikshvaku Garg

Hello sir,

I am Ikshvaku from Grade 5A. I am writing this letter to you as you have helped us so much in helping Sai jeev ashram. We had a successful maggi sale in our schools’ cafeteria. We are really thankful to you contribution in our Maggi sale by giving us Cuppa noodles for free and that is how we were able to collect Rs 23,000 and it was a complete success only because of you.

Thank you sir for your help and the contribution you have done.

Yours sincerely,

Ikshvaku Garg

Grade 5

Note from David Abraham

Dear Suresh Uncle,

This is a thank you letter for the 400 cuppa maggis. It was a big success all over the school. You will not believe how much excitement the sale caused when the children heard about it. This was the first ever Maggi sale in Primary school at Pathways Noida and that too with a good cause. It has helped us a lot because this is going to the NGO Sai Jeev Ashram. Once again I would like to thank you so much for helping us , we have been really blessed by the experience. We will never forget your help.

Best Regards,

David Abraham

From the Senior School Principal, Mr. Alexander Abraham

There was a time when school was repetitious and awfully boring

Quite often the kids couldn’t be blamed if they were found snoring

Then cloned to think as if in a packaging factory

Learning stereotypically could never be satisfactory

Today to perceive the delight on young expressive faces

Excitedly exclaim “School is cool” and “engaging with learning will take my life places”

Education is no longer the old conformist drudge machine

Rather it celebrates uniquely the individual @ PSN in 2017

How education has changed over the years and each year teachers continue to strive to find new ways of engaging learners and improving teaching learning practices because it is no longer the teacher who is the center but the student who must learn for life and apply the concepts. Therefore, new themes are explored in beyond classroom experiences to enable education to be truly relevant and meaningful. Transformational Education is not an end in itself but a process that is as important and worth celebrating.

I began this piece with my own hand at a bit of expressional poetry

to celebrate our 3 students who travelled to Bangalore in February to take part in a Spoken Word Poetry and their compositions both individual and collective were simply so creative yet simple. This is a new area this year where we as a school have encouraged our students to share their deepest thoughts in simple verse or slam poetry.

Our Grade 12 and 10 students have been busy with their Mock examinations and will commence with their final examinations from the end of April. Our graduating batch of Grade 12 are on the threshold of moving out from the school and as they have a few weeks before we bid farewell to them on the 6th of April, we fondly reflect how they have matured over the years and shown great promise in every sphere, having contributed wonderfully to the school life, making a significant impact on the community. We are confident that they will be truly remarkable young men and women who will make an impression wherever they go. The world and its wonderful opportunities await them. We wish them all the very best that life has to offer.

Our Grade 11 is in Bhutan and this is a first time event. The idea is to enable our students to get an exposure to this beautiful land and to learn of the culture and values of the land. This is a wonderful exposure for our students to travel to a land renowned for being the one with the highest “Gross National Happiness”.

The students are really excited about the trip and the possibility to engage with the people in Bhutan and observe customs and traditions and appreciate the values and richness of the land. Our CAS Interact Club has been very active with the various fund raising drives and working with various organizations to raise

awareness on social issues. It is truly wonderful to see the magnitude of work our students do in their engagement in collective and individual projects. Our Grade 11 students made a trip to Savda Ghera in North West Delhi on 21 Feb, to paint houses as part of a co-engagement of our school CAS with Habitat Build.

We also had the Career Day for Our grades 9-11 students on 2nd February where a few of our parent community shared from careers ranging from Medicine to Journalism to Computer Animation and Business and enabled perspectives for our students. As educators we have seen that when students are able to listen to varying perspectives on the various career options for them in today’s world they are better prepared for college and able to make a more aware choice. Over the years our parent community has been making such a consistent and committed contribution to the community life at Pathways School Noida.

It was a truly awesome experience to have Mr. Arjun Puri, Joint Director at O.P. Jindal University come in and speak to our students and share how to be passionate about career and to go all out to make an impact and excel in what one is truly passionate about. The mesmerizing talk was a high impact one and Mr. Puri kept students thoroughly engaged sharing his unique style of teaching History through food and culture.

There are another ten weeks of this academic year left to go but each one of them is filled with academics and activities that make for a real learning atmosphere. There is not a single day when we as educators do not thrill at how there will be new engagements and new challenges and through it all something beautiful will make itself manifest and change of perspective will take place to make an enduring influence.

Jharokha

After this very hectic but productive day, I can very confidently say that this year’s Jharokha was definitely an enriching and stimulating event for all the children throughout the grades. As we entered the school building, we could feel the excitement and enthusiasm of teachers and students in the atmosphere, be it in hanging posters to depict history with ‘othering’ or to prepare students for the Hindi skit.

The subjects Economics, Psychology, Business Management, History, Geography and English were all represented in this year’s event and in the classrooms we looked at “othering” through these lenses.

 I, with a group of 8 more students, decided to compose a live-graffiti art piece to convey our understanding by making connections to English as a subject. For the first few days, our form tutor, Ms. Divya Pandanda and the students brainstormed for new thoughts and ideas on how we could depict this year’s theme “othering” through symbols and graphics. We connected it to the literary texts we had studied over the year. After a lot of suggestions, deliberations and a session with Mr Anil Goswami, our art teacher, we came up with a concrete idea of what we wanted to create. This itself was a very enlightening process since we got to know about how one’s thoughts can be interpreted in various mediums, how we ‘other’ people in so many ways without even realizing and also how our own ideas can be formulated and constructed through diverse mediums.

My graffiti depicts a girl weighing herself on scales, which shows 92 kg. It had a banner which said: “In the conquest for perfection..” This depicted how media, ads and society itself has made such an image of a perfect body and perfect skin color that people strive to become ‘perfect’ and in the process, they start losing their own identity. When we asked some parents, what they thought of the image, some of the comments we got from them were:

“I think it shows the girl’s insecurities about her weight and how she thinks low of herself compared to others.”

“Maybe it shows that the golden ribbon is a sash and the girl wants to compete for the miss world/ universe and is struggling to meet her ambitions because of her weight.”

It was so fascinating to watch how the viewers interpreted one painting in so many ways. We realized that no one was wrong or right. They all had thought processes that were practical and eye-opening. I certainly enjoyed the interactions with parents and learned so much through a mere 2-minute talk with them. Some of my classmates from grade 9 also made a movie of freeze frames that showed how “others” are created both consciously and unconsciously. At the end of the day, as a group, we believe that differences exist, but they are there to be celebrated.

All-in-all, it was a very fruitful day that we can add in our ‘Pathways memorable-event list’.

Nehal Agarwal, Grade 9A

Imagine creativity, knowledge, history, and art all coming together to give you something impactful and meaningful! This is this year’s Jharokha, a peak into the vibrant pathways community. This year, the theme was “othering” – A very meaningful topic to everyone. Somewhere or the other, someone is being viewed as alien and different, and that is just helping people establish a wall in their mind and a block towards inclusion. Without even realising, people fix their mindsets with borders everywhere, and that is what we intend to break.

In every topic – from English to Environmental Science - we found deep connections with us as individuals, and this world as a society. We were able to find an “other” in every scenario, but our main aim was to find “who is the other”. With this in mind, students created a display of work connected with the theme, including art music. The journey through time and space took us from Slavery in America to partition in India, all having an “other”, and a “fixed mindset”. It made each one of us question our own mindset.

An Opportunity like this one helps not only students understand this serious issue but also encourages adults to realize and bring a change in themselves and the society.

 Noyonika Gaba, Gr 8

PYP Field trips, Vandana Parashar PYP Coordinator

A field trip opens up children’s minds to new possibilities and learnings. At Pathways we continually  strive to provide our students with engaging and exciting field trips which allow them to be an adventurer, an explorer and a learner. Extending learning beyond classrooms has its own relevance and we have seen a significant rise in student thinking and their ability to make connections with what was taught inside the classrooms.

These field trips are carefully chosen and planned keeping the learning objectives for a particular age group in mind. In early years, we concentrate on taking children outdoors for a real life experience.

Our Nursery students went to the Zoo recently while they were learning about living beings and got pretty excited about seeing the animals in real- for the first time! For them, the sight of a rhino or a tiger was so fascinating that they kept talking about how these animals walked, ran and lived in the ‘jungle’. Similarly, the pre-nursery tiny-tots visited a vegetable store when they were learning about things we eat. When we allowed them to pick their own food items that are healthy, we saw a transformation in all the kids as they applied their learning to fill the basket- and supported their choice with a  good reason! We have also had our KG students visit farms where the students got real life experiences of vegetable which grow underground (and the ones that grow on creepers) and they were allowed to pull them out; wash and eat!

As we move high up the grades, our trips become more structured aiming at unit related learning.

Grade 3 students visited different historical monuments to understand what monuments are and what they tell us about the past. Their initial ideas and expressions got transformed as they went for historical walks with professional groups like Itihaas and Intach. Appreciation of history and the architecture is what we intend to develop through such excursions. Grade 4 students while learning about Migrants, visited a Tibetan colony in New Delhi which still nurtures its

tradition and culture. Students interviewed the migrants and got familiar with their lives, and the struggles they went through during the migration period and also while resettling in India. This experience not only enhanced their understanding of what migration and resettlement means, but also encouraged them to empathize with the people as well as appreciate the way they have upheld their culture and traditions. Some of the most exciting trips were planned by our Art teachers when they took the students to the National Gallery of Modern arts to show them what installations are and how they depict an artist’s vision and thinking. We also planned a trip to Kiran Nadar gallery in Noida, where the students were exposed to some very unique medium of presentations.

Not all the trips are planned by the teachers! As equal partners, parents have suggested and organized some very informative and highly engaging field trips for our students. One such example was Grade 3’s trip to Café Ohio where the students learned how to make healthy snacks, while inquiring into balanced diet. Similarly, last year, a parent had invited the Grade 5 students to see the back-end operations of a five star hotel. This was in conjunction with a unit on economic activity. There are times when the trip are identified and planned by the students. For the PYP exhibition this

year, some of the student groups who were inquiring into how NGOs work, got in touch with different NGOs and planned a couple of trips focusing on interviewing the managers to learn more about their organizations. Similarly, the group inquiring into religious systems also found out that visiting a Gurudwara might help them learn more about the Sikh religion. Once they experienced success with this trip, they planned another trip to the Lotus temple to learn about the Baha’i  faith as well as to ISCKON to find more about their belief system. When the students take ownership of their learning, we see a change in their confidence and attitude towards learning.

We continue to look for more spaces and places where our children can learn through experience and exposure. Because this is where the real learning is!

FLEXING MUSCLES ON SPORTS DAY

Pathways School Noida had its annual athletics meet, a day that’s looked forward to by one and all and not just because there are no classes! While the Day always belongs to those blessed with athletic grace and fitness, this year began a little differently or should one say more inclusively. Class 4 children opened the event - after the walk-past and the unfurling of the school flag – with a display of yoga asana, reminding us that physical dexterity is also about mental wholeness -Yoga, of course, the ancient Indian tradition that combines both.  These little yogis and yoginis were poised, flexible and very cute to say the least. This was followed by a dazzling display of gymnastics and zumba by the agile students of Grade 6 & 7.

Our special guest this year was none other than Mohammed Azharuddin, a cricketing great, best known for his ‘wristy action’. He began his career in 1984 with a century, going on to play ninety-nine more tests that wowed people at home and abroad. We also had two other guests – Martin Uzorma Ndukwe, the technical head of IOT Arsenal in the Delhi, NCR and Danny Walson, the technical head of IOT Arsenal Soccer School.

And finally it was time for the real stars, those taking part in the races, high jump, shot put and other forms of athletics. Of course they had all been training intensely up to the event and on this day had a chance to showcase their prowess, beat others’ and sometimes their own records.  Cheered on lustily (the fans too had been training their vocal chords) by their Houses, the athletes gave us a most exciting, last minute pipped to the post type dramas that all good verities of life are filled with.

      The best athlete awards in each category were as follows:

1.  Prabhir Bal                        Form 3 Boys Advance
2.       Noura Bhatia                    Form 3 Girls Advance
3.       Euihyun Peak                    Form 3 Boys Intermediate
4.       Gauuri Singh                     Form 3 Girls Intermediate
5.       Vivaan Sen                        Form 4 Boys Advance
6.       Arya Varma                       Form 4 Girls Advance
7.       Hardit Bal                         Form 4 Boys Intermediate
8.       Kimaya Bahri                    Form 4 Girls Intermediate
9.       David Abraham                  Form 5 Boys Advance
10. Suhani Goyal                    Form 5 Girls Advance
11.   Avish Khandelwal              Form 5 Boys Intermediate
12.   Bhavya Balaji                    Form 5 Girls Intermediate
13.   Madhav Gupta                   Form 6 Boys
14.   Iha Jha                              Form 6 Girls
15.   Devmay Dewan                 Form 7 Boys
16.   Aadi Singh                        Form 7 Boys
17.   Varsha Pandanda               Form 7 Girls
18.   Paarth Kohli                      Form 8 Boys
19.   Arti Khurana                     Form 8 Girls
20.   Vedant Chauhan                Form 9 & 10 Boys
21.   Sarah Khungar                  Form 9 & 10 Girls
22.   Tanishq Mathur                 Form 11 & 12 Boys
23.   Zahra Khan                       Form 11 & 12 Girls

Also worth special celebration was Mirza Yusuf Beg who set a new school record for high jump.

And the fiercely competed for Champion House trophy went to FIRE HOUSE

But of course no great event can be one without the contribution of teachers and parents. The hundred-meter parents and teachers race was so popular that they had to have several rounds to accommodate everyone. Let’s not mention the fact that both before and after, the lines at the Dunkin’ Donut and Dominoes counters were long, despite the Pathways caterers having taken the edge off things with copious supplies of tea, coffee and snacks.

The weather was perfect, the day great, because there was so much to cheer about!!

Broken Fairy Tales

The theme for our Rhyme Time Day gave children – from pre-nursery to grade 1 - the perfect opportunity to explore the world of fairy tales. Through short snippets of nine stories, they explored what a fairy tale is, how they evolve, the varying emotions in each story, the variety of ways they can be presented and even how they can be retold with a twist.

 From songs, to dances, drama and simple retelling, this Rhyme Time Day gave our little ones a chance to discover stage fright and over come it too – and so many self-confident kids one has rarely seen. Each looked the part too in their numerous wonderful costumes.

Rehearsing and working together they also discovered the importance of being a team and later, sharing the names of their favourite fairy tales with each other to write their own short stories, they further added grist to their creative mill.

OP JINDAL ADMISSIONS HEAD: THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS, By Rishina Tyagi and Shubhi Raghav Gr 11

Our Director, Dr. Advani described him as a foodie, a cricket enthusiast and an Arsenal lover in her introduction. Arjun Puri has certainly travelled the world, explored his own capabilities, and inspired us to do the same.

During his childhood, his dislike for math led him to realise that everybody is good at something and for him that thing just wasn't math. He gradually came to the conclusion that he liked humanities. Unfortunately, at that time his all-boys school did not have the option of humanities, as it was considered a girl’s subject. This came as a shock to us, though we were aware of gender bias in education. He of course strongly disapproves of such categorisation in education and this had all of us nodding in agreement.

Mr Puri went on to attend 4 different colleges until he found the right one – St Andrews; the one which allowed him to truly pursue his passion and he, in this discussion, encouraged us to do the same. He has gone through 6 different careers in his life, starting with being a successful investment banker with Merril Lynch. Then, one day, he left his $250,000 job to go to a small village in Bihar to teach for Rs 4000, which shocked everyone in our classroom. The time he spent there changed him as a person, made him aware of the difficulties endured by so many people, and helped him burst the bubble of so-called happiness. He told us how creating opportunities for other people by letting them be extraordinary in their own way is one of the greatest joys he has ever experienced.

We ourselves have made small contributions to help society, and thus related to what he said. His views on education being the true privilege and not material wealth also left a deep impact on us.

Lastly, we asked him questions like what was the reaction of his parents for his unconventional way of living. He described them as supportive throughout his journey, no matter what decision he made. In the end, he left us with an inspirational message - you may be uncertain but if you do not take risks then you will never know.

'HOW WE ORGANIZE OURSELVES' - The PYP Grade 5 Exhibition by Ms. Kriti Nigam Form Tutor Gr 5

The children of Form 5 showcased the culmination of their journey throughout the Primary Year Program (PYP) through an exhibition focused on “systems” under the inter-disciplinary theme of “how we organise ourselves”. The central idea here was “manmade systems impact the way communities organize and functions”.

The children brainstormed on the different systems around them and shortlisted nine systems they wanted to inquire into - technology, waste management, wildlife protection, education, healthcare, NGOs, transportation, religion and E- commerce. They explored these various systems by visiting the relevant organisations, interviewing people, research etc, and understood the numerous problems afflicting these systems as well as the consequences of their inefficiencies. Children gathered real time data to make inferences and come up with solutions.

This inquiry process resulted in ‘action” by children, ranging from sensitization to cyber-safety and digital citizenship, collecting money for SPCA through sales from a website created by children, to a food sale and children collecting papers to recycling. Children also manufactured recycled paper and gave paper to each group to create their own banner. They also sensitized people about carbon footprints and the process and advantages of composting.

Not only did students spread awareness on NGOs supporting animals but also the various organisations working with the under-privileged and providing free education. The initiative to sensitize children about having nutritious food emerged beautifully through Drama for different audiences. The performances this year emphasized the cause each group supported and emerged through different medium of expression. The group performance was a percussion piece with a difference. The performance was special because children used discarded and waste materials and organized the sounds and notes to create a beautiful melody.

The children worked hard and their work was appreciated by one and all. The children later reflected that they themselves needed to be organized in their habits and be on model behavior to help maintain these systems, which are the key to a smoothly functioning society.

Career Day at Pathways School Noida, By Ms. Deblina Chakraborty, College Advisor

It is a beautiful thing when Passion and Career meet in our lives but it doesn’t happen by chance or even by a stroke of luck. They meet at the end of many intersections – of awareness, curiosity, reflection and introspection.

The Career and College Guidance Department at Pathways School Noida organized Career Day on February 2, 2017 to understand and reflect on the different career journeys of four eminent professionals from the Pathways Noida parent community.

Mr. Varun Tuli, a leader in managing financial and legal functions of entities in many parts of the world, shared his unique journey of how he handled multiple responsibilities of a family business as well as a career in Banking and Business Analysis and spoke about the way he identified his passion in financial and management accounting and delved to acquire a deeper understanding of this, eventually extending his expertise to work with global entities. 

Dr. Ashutosh Sinha has specialized in Paediatric Critical Care and shared his story of developing his interest and passion. He worked with immense rigor during his years at school and pursuing his interest propelled him in the direction of his specialization. He spoke about the expanding opportunities in the field of Medicine, life beyond the glamour of his profession and shared anecdotal experiences from his career.

Twenty-two years ago, it was a dream to follow one’s passion to make a career in Graphic and Creative Designing. Mr. Vikas Tomar, who focusses on immersive infotainment, brought out the future of the IoT (Internet of Things) domain and showed how this will affect every aspect of life. He shared the story of his journey from working on special effects with an Apple authorized digital studio, through various prominent milestones, to reach his position of Entrepreneurship in the Infotainment Industry.

Mr. Praveen Swami brought out some scenes from the newsroom and questioned myths that we may have about journalists. Students were thinking about the hard work and the intrinsic qualities needed for one to become a journalist. The fact that the media is meritocratic and one cannot survive on a brilliant piece of work for long, that it is not all fun that makes for success here and that the traditional distinctions between print, video and online journalism are fast collapsing raised many questions in the minds of students and they asked questions on what they should expect and how they can explore this path through Internships and Observations in this field.

The students spent two hours trying to understand the lives of these professionals. Through their stories they learnt that one has to go through rejections and failures before they succeed, that there can be no short cuts to success – the secret is to do what one enjoys most and that will make the long road seem shorter and that there is a world of new opportunities that awaits them.