The #WhatIf workshop is an invitation to take a pause, stay in the moment for a while, and use this opportunity to reimagine ourselves, our education system and our world post-covid.
This session will take a process oriented and facilitative approach with activities that deepen self reflection. We invite you to go pause for a moment, take a step back, and listen to what you are feeling. From this deep state of mindfulness and compassion, let us together think about how we as educators and leaders can help our children and ourselves to make meaning and heal out of the trauma we have just experienced- to reconnect with ourselves, our families, communities and with the new world.
Let us not allow ourselves or the school systems to go back to ‘business as usual’ at the end of this crisis. Schools will need to slow down, create sustained and consistent efforts to help children reconnect with themselves, with each other and with the world. There is a definite need to re-imagine the role that we as schools and teachers play in the life of children with the entire ecosystem becoming trauma responsive. Only then can we hope to overcome the impact of this crisis in a sustained manner.
Let us ask ourselves what is the most compassionate offer we can make to our children under these circumstances. What is the #WhatIf you wish to invite into your imagination? When we know this, we can then respond and make a compassionate call to action. This is an invitation to transform and reimagine education through the lens of possibilities, empathy and kindness.
#WhatIf we reimagine education together?
#WhatIf Kindness is the New Normal?
Suchetha Bhat, CEO of Dream a Dream
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Suchetha has over 19 years of work experience having worked both in the corporate and social sector. As an Electronics and Communication engineer, she started her career with Larsen and Toubro and then worked with multinationals such as Telelogic and IBM during her successful 9 year corporate stint. However, volunteering for Dream a Dream helped her realize her true passion and she went on to get a Post Graduate degree in Psychological Counselling. Since joining Dream a Dream full-time in 2010 she has been instrumental in scaling the impact of the organization, from 3000 children to over 3 million children today.
She is the co-author of the scientific journal ‘The Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS): New Norms to include 17-19 and 20-22 years’. She is also a facilitator and has trained over 500 youth and adults on the creative life-skills approach. Her strengths include understanding child-adversity, organization culture building, and impact assessment of life-skills programs. Her passion is to advocate for the urgency and criticality of preparing young people from adversity, for the new world.
Vishal Talreja, Co-founder of Dream a Dream
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Vishal co-founded Dream a Dream along with 11 others. Dream a Dream is a registered, charitable trust empowering children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in the 21st century using a creative life skills approach. Currently, Dream a Dream works with 10,000 young people a year through two innovation labs – After School Life Skills Programme and Career Connect Programme; have trained over 8000 teachers/educators impacting over 200,000 children and young people and impact over 1 Million children through the Happiness Curriculum in partnership with the Delhi Government.
Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow, a Salzburg Global Fellow and a Board Member at PYE Global. He has previously been a Founder Director of Unltd India and Board Member of India Cares Foundation. Vishal has been recognized as an “Architect of the Future” by the Waldzell Institut in Austria. More recently, he has been recognized as Innovator of the Year (2019) by HundrED.org which looks to identify and recognize 100 Global Innovations on K12 Education from across the world.