SAP - Social Action Project
The number of SAP projects in the last few years have been over 3500, impacting over 40000 lives so far… Students have been chosen to speak in TEDX, as ASHOKA young entrepreneurs and as representatives of the Global young entrepreneur program at Boston University and All India forums.
When the students come to the 10th grade, the sessions are conducted in a workshop model. They are designed to evolve and scale up with the class dynamics with a practical module called SAP (Social Action Project) that helps internalize the learning and provide a healthy cross-linkage among various institutions like the family, school, and community. This Social Action Project (SAP) is a possibility for each of the students of class 10 to know that he/she can make a difference to place or someone in their life, and when given the opportunity of exploring this possibility, what is it that they would do? Each student had to spend a minimum of 40 hours and a maximum of whatever they need to put in to complete the project.
The students are educated and encouraged to think out of the box. They connect the SAP projects to their life vision and the concepts and learning they have got in the several years of EQUBE life education classes. The students take guidance and suggestions from their parents for whatever project they take up and do their best. They are supported by EQUBE facilitators throughout the 9th and 10th grade in this process. At the end of the project, they submit a written report and present their project. A set of panelists evaluate the project on different parameters: the written document, authenticity, uniqueness, innovativeness, clarity and depth, passion and courage while doing and presenting, and the overall flow of the project.
They are also evaluated on how they could connect the project's whole experience to self and the learning they got out of it. The panelists include persons who have been very high achievers in their respective fields and are people with a vision to see a better, evolved and compassionate society. It also includes a teacher from their school and a senior member from the EFIL team. Year after year, the SAP presentations have seen a wide range of projects. For example, the plethora has included something as varied as creating an application for doctors to spend quality time supporting their grandfather in a difficult time! To list a few more: •Coping up with pandemic in present situation •Awareness about mental health •Atmanirbhar me •Waste management (Swachh Bharat) •Fuel conservation through spreading awareness at traffic signals •Water conservation •Teaching blind students subjects like art, music, dance, editing textbooks for the blind and voice recording, playing games •Teaching in government schools, interacting and teaching students in orphanages, donating clothes and books to the same through newspaper drive •Creating cycling trails to cleaning up lakes •Selling cloth bags, making paper bags •Teaching dance to the differently-abled •Helping the underprivileged people by creating bank accounts and guiding them to manage their finances •Giving free tuition to their maid's children, teaching spoken English to their maids…the list is endless. The Trash Mob, an SAP project by a student in 2013-14, has really fired the imagination of the youngsters and elders alike has and now taken on the proportions of a movement, a primary clean-up drive in various parts of Bengaluru, this year also many students have carried it forward. Other schools and colleges also take it up, and tying it up to the 'Swatch Bharath Abiyaan'. The students present their projects with a lot of style and panache. Their confidence levels are high; as a tech-savvy generation, they have beautiful PPT's which includes photographs, videos and interviews. But more than all this, what comes through is the genuine efforts they put in, the honest sharing of their triumphs and failures, and the most important life lessons learnt during the process. The key learning includes •Sharing and caring as a beautiful experience; •Empathy coupled with efforts can bring about change; •Becoming aware of the opportunities given to them; •Being thankful for all the gifts they have been bestowed with in terms of loving, supportive family, good health and limitless possibilities; •Getting out of their cocooned comfort zone and seeing and facing the real world; These opened many students' eyes, making them more determined to have a vision, work towards it, and making a difference in whatever way they can to the society around them. This whole experience also gave them a different perspective of their parents and teachers. They could come out of 'I, Me, Myself' micro mode and look at the macro view
EQUBE in sync with SEWA as a part of the CBSE curriculum and SUPW for ICSE
The CBSE board has given senior students the mandate to do Seva and learn to connect to society. EQUBE program is in sync with the aspects of the SEVA program. It aims to build thinking, social and emotional skills through exploring Self Awareness, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Interpersonal Relationships, Effective Communication, Empathy, Managing Emotions and Dealing with Stress Based on the reference given and aligning the same to the classroom discussions in the EQUBE program, the evaluation is conducted. The assessment is based on: •Written examination •Assignment submission and classroom participation •Completion and responses in the EQUBE Life book •Additionally, for X grade, a social action project and its presentation