By Fr Richard DSouza
May 1 : The last part of CAP-YET Basic Package for the academic year took place at CODP from 23rd to 26th April 2019. The programme which aims at motivating High School students to go for higher education and take up Civil Services as career was started in 2013. In all, 96 students from 8th, 9th and 10th standards attended the YET classes.
On the first day of the camp the students had the privilege of interacting with Ms Amline DSouza, who had joined the services of Govt of Karnataka after clearing her KPSC exams. She is in Commercial Tax department. While welcoming her Fr Oswald Monteiro, the director of CODP said that our community feels proud of Amline for her success. He called upon the students to emulate her and reach the top posts in the government. Ms Amline spoke about the preparations that are needed to clear civil service exams. Even though she has achieved success by being a multi talented person she acknowledged that she had met with failures several times, yet they didn’t deter her from her goals. Mr Alwyn DSouza, her father, explained how he had been encouraging his daughter to achieve her goal.
The four-day camp had input sessions like GMAT, English, Geography, Current Affairs, Personality Development, Soft Skills, Physics, Chemistry, Preparation for competitive exams, Right way of reading the newspaper, etc. It was given class-wise by various resource persons.
On the last day there was exposure visit to Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayath Office at Urwa where the students had interaction with Mr Selvamany, IAS, the CEO of DKZP. The students asked several intelligent questions regarding civil services and the officer satisfied their curiosity.
On Thursday, 24th April, there was a motivation session for parents of YET students. Rev. Fr Antony Serrao, the Secretary of Catholic Board of Education, addressed the parents and called upon them to build a conducive atmosphere at home for the students to take up civil services.
Rev. Fr Francis Xavier Gomes, the former Principal of Sacred Heart College, Madanthyar, had planned the camp. Sofia and Leoni, the two German volunteers, took care of the students who stayed back and occupied them with various activities. CODP-ISD staff too contributed to the success of the camp through their services.
