Hi everyone,
Welcome to Avinya Scoop! This week Isuru will be your guide as he takes you through the buzz of our upcoming community project and all the other events taking place at Avinya.
Greetings from Avinya Academy! As the journey continues, I, Isuru, am excited to share with you the latest happenings from our vibrant community. Building upon the enriching experiences shared by Roshani in our previous update, let me take you through the inspiring events of the past two weeks.
As the educator in charge of the Customer Services class, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing remarkable transformations firsthand. From students who once hesitated to speak a word of English to now confident communicators, the progress is truly awe-inspiring. Beyond language proficiency, we’ve seen improvements in habits, discipline and overall confidence across all our classes, including IT and others.
Over breakfast and during breaks, we celebrate the milestones and achievements of our students. It fills our hearts with joy to hear that past graduates are now gainfully employed, supporting their families and continuing to learn and grow. At Avinya, we’re not just empowering individuals; we’re uplifting entire communities.
One exciting project underway is the organization of a Dansala by our Customer Services class. Despite busy schedules and diverse ideas, the students have shown remarkable group dynamics, agreeing on practical and beneficial plans. With guidance from our Executive Director Anju, Head of Vocational Courses Geeth and support from our Finance Manager Nalaka, they’ve meticulously planned every aspect, from budgeting to fundraising, poster-making to task delegation. Their dedication and teamwork assure us that the Dansala will be a memorable success, strengthening our bond with the community.
Amidst Dansala preparations, we recently welcomed undergraduates from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Moratuwa. Led by Ilma, they toured our campus, marveling at its design and purpose. We’re thrilled to inspire future architects and wish them success in their endeavours.
Our community sessions, led by Roshani and Anuki, continue to thrive. With school vacations underway, students eagerly participate, honing their English and soft skills. What sets Avinya apart, in my experience, is our unwavering commitment to efficiency. Educators invest tireless effort, fueled by the success stories of our students. Despite the challenges, our enthusiasm remains undimmed.
As we eagerly anticipate the Dansala on May 22nd, we extend our heartfelt blessings and best wishes to our students. Together, we’re not just shaping futures; we’re building a better tomorrow for all.
Stay tuned for more inspiring updates from Avinya Academy!
– Isuru
This week I’ve stepped into the class to conduct a few sessions of the Pronunciation club. Our students have come a long way with their “s” and other individual sounds they initially found rather difficult to pronounce. They’re now proficient at blending sounds together and sounding (hehe see what I did there!) far more professional when speaking in English. We’ve collectively had immense fun exploring this aspect of English and hope to work our way through as many phonemes as we can!
We learned another interesting term this week; “Brainwriting” when Anju conducted a session for all of us to consolidate our ideas for our upcoming program in September. Brainwriting is similar to Brainstorming but while the latter encourages discussing ideas aloud the former encourages writing down our thoughts first and sharing them later. We centred ourselves with a minute of meditation and then revisited the purpose and vision of Avinya. The Brainwriting session was a huge success as we dove into our thoughts and ideas without the restrictions of any other logistics. For one hour only the clack-clack of the keyboard echoed through the meeting room, that’s how focused everyone was. We have now collected some amazing ideas to discuss and explore during our next meeting.
This week also led up to the graduation of the first ever weekend Techexplorer program we conducted. We were unbelievably proud of all the students of both batches (below 16 and above 16) who successfully completed the course as well as our students from Empower batch 2023a who, after one short year with Avinya, have become teachers themselves, leading this course to its success today. However, I won’t share too many details just yet because Geeth is excitedly waiting to share the full experience with you. However, I want to take a moment to appreciate the commitment and dedication of all our students who showed up for rehearsals with their speeches in hand, nervous but determined to make sure this was yet another remarkable story for the Avinya history books!
On that note, our adventures of this week come to an end. We’ll meet you all again with the next installment of Avinya Scoop!
– Sinalie