Sankara Student Leadership Summit, 2014, a alumni initiative of Sri Sankara Senior Sec. School Adyar, was conducted for classes IX to XII on July 12, 2014, Saturday, between 1.30 pm and 6.00 pm at the Chettinad Vidyashram auditorium.
The theme for the summit was ‘Discover our values,’ and it was conducted ‘by the students for the students.’
This is the fourth year in succession the summit is being held and was sponsored by Cognizant Technology Solutions and SANMAR group. It is aimed at nurturing leadership qualities in the students.
The meeting started with a warm prayer by the alumni of the school. The school principal, Mrs. Subala Anathanarayanan, presented the inaugural address.
Eminent personalities in various fields, alumni of the school and student representatives spoke on the occasion. Each speaker spoke about a ‘value’ that had impacted his/her life.
The alumni of the school are involved in Alumni Initiatives, which focuses on Learning Beyond Classrooms and Gavel club that trains students in public speaking. The club had recently conducted a competition for the students called ‘Time Travel’. The school principal gave away the prizes for the winners.
Some of the ‘values’ that the speakers chose were friendship, hard work, empathy, compassion, trust, team work, heritage among many values.
The first speaker was Ms. Gayathri, an alumnus, who talked about the incidents during her schooldays, which changed her life. Mr. Raj Ganpath, who is the founder of the boot camp Quad, gave the next speech. He strongly believes that hardwork never fails.
The next speaker was Mr. Sukumar Rajagopal, an alumni, who talked about his Math sir and related more incidents from the school. Mr. Sanjay Radhakrishnan spoke about empathy using an old game called Simon Says.
Another alumnus Mr. Parameswaran spoke about friendship and described how friends changed his life. Mrs. Padma talked about her Sanskrit teacher and how Sanskrit helped her in life. Mr. Hari taked about determination.
Mr. Muralidharan, the founder of Sevalaya trust talked about having concern for everybody, be it family, friends or strangers. Mr. Raghav Srinivasan who insisted on developing a having scientific temperament, which helps the ability to ask curious questions.
Mr. K.C. Ganesh gave the next speech about teamwork. Dr. Satyamurthy spoke about heritage sites and centers. Mr. Sastharam Ravindram, who talked about trust completed the session. The meeting was interesting for the students who found many ‘values’ to learn and practise in their lives.