Saturday, August 25, 2012

Peer Mentorship Formally Launched


The Peer Mentoring Programme was launched in the Learning Centre at Paro College of Education on 14th August, 2012 by Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean of Research and Industrial Linkage, Officiating Dean of Student Affairs and the four Heads of School as an important learning activity in the College.
For active functioning, the centre adopted the peer mentoring programme to help create a stronger learning community on campus. This establishes more avenues for students to interact academically with their peers, gives senior students an opportunity to apply their knowledge in academic skills, creates more resources in the centre, and allows the centre to be open and lively. It will also engage peer mentors in directing and guiding the needy students.
     The Dean of Academic Affairs, Mr. Som Gurung said,“It is like dream come true, where the initiative began as a small bit and now grown.”
     The peer mentoring is a form of mentorship that takes place in the learning ambience like learning centre, usually between an older, more experienced students and a new student as a way of learning through interaction, discussion and sharing the academic skills.
     The program came into existence after training seven students by Dr. Gretchen and Mrs. Lhazom Dema during the spring semester 2012.
     More than 18 members including two coordinators of the centre, the trained mentors and the mentees took part in the launching ceremony.
    The program was organized by Mr. Karma Dorji, Mrs. Lhazom Dema and the mentors.

Citizenship Journalism Workshop

Citizenship journalism workshop was conducted at Paro college of Education on 8th of August, 2012 by Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy for Media Club Members in the College.
The day long workshop was aimed at “deepening students’ understanding of journalism and its role in democracy, to guide students in the principle of newspaper design, and to train students in the basics of news writing” said Manny Fassi, the representative of BCMD.
There was also the presence of Professor Cherian George, Mr. Samuel, and Mr. Kayting from Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. Cherian said that journalism is about “telling stories on current events, using investigation, observation, and analysis, and to help the people make sense of changes and take part in the public life”. He added that “journalism is not about writing propaganda for government, business and other powerful institution but serving public without being slaves”.
The participants also learned on journalist ethics, basic rules on writing news and designing newspapers. Later in the evening, the participants met with the journalism students from Singapore where they shared their ideas on journalism, issues, and cultures. 
The workshop was attended by more than 40 students from Paro College of Education, Taktse College and Youth Go Youth.