Sustainable Leaders Program for students for Waste Management Set on Pace

About 1150 Students Enrolled themselves with the awareness campaign

Nodal Officers from Govt Schools Briefed about the participation of students

College Students Engaged as Mentors to facilitate and support Students virtually and  during field visits

Individuals as well as School/Community Participation to be ensured for fostering behavioural change

SAS Nagar, August 30, 2023:

In continuation of the Sustainable Leaders Program for Students, chalked out to make aware them handling the issue of waste management, webinars for students and workshops for Nodal Officers (Teachers) from Government Schools and College Students to enroll them as mentors, have been conducted during the ongoing week, said DC Aashika Jain.

The program proposed by a Class 10+1, Student Suhani Sharma from Delhi Public School, has been set on pace with these activities to inculcate behavioural change among the students of class 8 to 12 by fostering knowledge of solid waste, the significance of source segregation, waste reduction strategies, and various waste management practices.

“We had expected enrollment of 1000 students initially but our website https://sustainableleaders1.wixsite.com/sustainabilityleader has a registration of 1150 students so far”, said Suhani who was overzealous at the overwhelming response. Today, we conducted a live seminar in DPS Mohali attended by some 100 students and earlier this week, we have held sessions for the 20 government schools, she further added

The deputy commissioner said that the 20 Nodal Officers were briefed that the SLP is an immersive 4-8 week internship program focused on sustainable waste management practices.The program involves live webinars, field visits, and project creation, fostering a profound understanding of sustainable waste management among students. The enthusiastic response from nodal officers underscored their appreciation and willingness to integrate their students into this transformative initiative.

Similarly, launching the Mentorship Program, two workshops were successfully conducted at Panjab University to introduce both the Sustainability Leaders Program (SLP) and its complementary Mentorship Program. The Mentorship Program is designed to support the SLP by providing college students with the opportunity to mentor SLP students nurturing a mentor-mentee relationship for shared learning. Mentors, who will commit 2-4 hours weekly, to support SLP students through virtual connections and field visits, offering subject-specific guidance and overall program assistance. Dr Bhavneet Bhatti from the Centre of Mass Communications have also commended the endeavor and recognised it as a valuable contribution. So far, the program has attracted around 100 registered mentors, reflecting the enthusiasm among college students to engage in this mentorship role.

The program to impart actionable steps for students and communities to become leaders in waste management sustainability said the deputy commissioner by adding that this would help to develop an understanding of waste management principles, initiate waste segregation at home, adopt eco-friendly alternatives, minimizing single-use plastics,

foster responsible waste disposal and avoidance of littering, implement home composting and reusing practices besides elevating awareness among peers and family members.