Media Release
Davanagere, Sep 13: St Aloysius College, Harihar organised a talk for IT students on Emotional Integration on September 9 at the college auditorium.
The speaker for the day was Dr Shalini Aiyappa, Psychologist and head of the department of Psychology, St Aloysius College Mangaluru accompanied by Sharon D'Souza, counsellor, St Aloysius College, Mangaluru.
The formal programme began by invoking God's blessings. Fr Pradeep Sequiera, acting superior delivered his message on how the college focuses on intellectual formation, emotional and behavioural growth by all opportunities that it give its students. The college also promotes a holistic growth which involves the active participation of the head, heart and mind. He mentioned how each student in this college can make use of the ample number of opportunities for their holistic growth. He gave a brief introduction about Dr Shalini, saying that with his interaction with her she is a pleasant and good human being and how she has been associated with the Jesuits for a long time.
The other guests on stage were Fr Cyril Raj, vice principal, Degree, Pusphalatha Urs, acting principal, Degree, Sunny Gudinho, acting principal, PUC and staff coordinator Shobha Monis.
Sessions were divided into two halves, first for the Science students and the next half for the Arts and Commerce students.
In both these sessions, Dr Shalini spoke about how an individual needs to make choices in his life and prioritize these choices accordingly. Every choice follows a consequence as choices they make now will impact their future. She stressed on staying focused in life and when it seems difficult, each person has to put in necessary effort for whatever is right.
At the adolescent age, the mind behaves like a monkey as everything it sees looks interesting and in everything the individual seeks curiosity. This curiosity can be good or bad depending on the choices the person has made. Before entering the adolescent age, the brain was trained to listen to whatever the parents say, but at this stage, the brain gives a chance to re-programme it and this re-programmed brain activity will last for a lifetime. There are a lot of choices to make at this stage regarding sports, academics, friendship, entertainment and other things that follow.
There is always a connection between choice and consequence, as each choice that the individual makes surely has a consequence to follow. So the choices have to be made right and training one's brain to accept only that which is good for the future is necessary as something that is going to last long is to be thought of very early in life. "Train your brain now for what you want to be in future."
The speaker divided the students into groups of ten, to discuss the choices that they make and what can be their consequence. Questions such as what is the purpose of you being here at St Aloysius College? What are the choices that are difficult to make?
She told the students how the brain works at this stage, where it is curious about everything that it sees because the philosophy of life at this adolescent stage is different and it does not think for the future.
Students discussed topics like studying is important at this stage, the balance of academics and sports is needed, value of friendship- Both bad and good, how to ignore the ones who cause harm and how to keep the ones that do good to us, how to balance parental expectations and the way the individual thinks.
The session concluded on discussions made in the groups and Dr Shalini gave her insights into what the students had pointed out. She emphasized on making oneself aware of the choices and thinking over it, forcing the brain to think about all the choices and choose the right one. If in case the individual is not in a position to take any decision, to seek help from parents, teachers and older members in society. She asked the students to keep in mind certain things while making a choice such as- If I make a choice will it be against my parental values/teachers/my values /against law, is it safe for me and others? Will I get into trouble? Will it disappoint my parents and teachers?
The day concluded with vote of thanks by Elvina Nazreth, I PCMB.