Jain College Belgaum

International Women's Day 2016: Recognizing the Unrecognized

Women work without a break for their families, society, and friends all through the year. So, on IWD 2016, LEAD conducted their 3rd annual "Recognizing the Unrecognized", where women in our society who are rarely recognized but are responsible for important work were recognized for their contributions, such as cleaning railway stations, bus stands, picking household trash, selling vegetables etc. LEAD and LEADers believe that, without these women, our communities would come to a standstill.

About LEAD

The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. To that purpose, the LEaders Accelerating Development (LEAD) Program of the Deshpande Foundation was born. LEAD develops innovative and entrepreneurial thinking within college students by exposing them to social issues, encouraging them to volunteer their time and effort into the community, and igniting their latent talent to come up with creative solutions. Through this unique platform provided by LEAD, students are gaining the skills and confidence needed to transform their visions into realities. Armed with guidance, exposure, networking opportunities, financial assistance, and encouragement from LEAD, students from throughout 75 colleges and 14 districts are unleashing their leadership potential to go on inspiring and improving those around them.

Inspire, Innovate, Engage: Yuva Summit 2016

The 6th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program, began in Hubballi on 6th February with Mr. Ravindranath Gumaste, Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd., cutting the ceremonial ribbon that let the hundreds of attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honoured guests, into the event grounds.

LEAD Prayana 2016

On 24th January, 107 promising students from across Karnataka and neighbouring states descended upon the VTU campus in Belagavi to mark the kick-off of the 5th annual LEAD Prayana. These students, along with 32 beginning their journey on the same day in Nizamabad, were selected from a pool of almost 500 applicants. LEAD Prayana, which began in 2012 with just 63 students, is an annual leadership journey that takes almost 150 passionate students between the ages of 18-26 throughout India on a 14-day tour across Karnataka...

My Story: Prajwal M

I am passionate about science, especially physics. My affair with Science started during my childhood and it deepened in my high school when I started participating in Science exhibitions with my models. During Pre University Education, I built the Levitation Train with few of my friends and grabbed prizes at several competitions. “Physics of the Impossible” by Michio Kaku was a book that exposed me further to the vastness of the science and motivated me to start a science group called “Blackbody Science Group (Which Absorbs All Wavelength of Intuitive Minds)”. This group engages in creating interest about science among government and physically disabled school children.

My Story: Santosh Patil (Jain College, Belgaum)

I come from a village background. My father is illiterate, but was determined for his four sons to have a different life, one with more possibilities. He worked hard for my brothers and I to come to Belgaum and attend Jain college, which we all did.

I first learned about LEAD when I attended a LEAD orientation at my college. I was attracted to the support the program provides, and so I decided to join the community. Amrut guided me through small projects, and then Abhi, another mentor, affirmed that he was ready to move on to the next level shortly after. His first project was turning plant waste from the field into usable fuel. Along with this, I educated farmers on the negative effects of pesticides, and the importance of organic farming. To date, I have promoted organic, sustainable farming to 100+ farmers. In addition to this noble feat, he has completed 26 other projects, which have all had a positive effect in my community. For my leadership I was nominated for the LEAD Ambassador position, which I accepted and guided over 100 students through their leadership development.

Throughout this journey, I have never forgotten my roots in my village. At the government school there, there is no toilet, and the kitchen is very dirty. On October 3rd, 2014, my team and I turned the old kitchen into a proper bathroom, and arranged for sanitary food preparation. This effort even got media attention and we were featured by city news.

My father has always been my role model in life, and now Abhi is a mentor for me also.

Because others have helped me so much, I want to pay it forward and help people also. Another dream of mine is to be a social entrepreneur - I want to be the job provider, not the job seeker.