An Encouraging Effort to Develop Interpersonal Skills

Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) is an international movement by young and energetic professionals who are willing to contribute and uplift the agricultural field. YPARD– Nepal is the part of the movement. Recently, YPARD- Nepal had conducted the five week long first batch of Edumala Mentoring Program from 3^rd January to 13^th February, 2016.

The program included five mentors- Dinesh Panday, Abhishek Khadka, Ishwora Dhungana, Lok Raj Joshi and Santosh Adhikari. The mentees were selected from the YPARD- Nepal open membership program by representing agriculture, agri-engineering, food tech, developmental sector, economics and many more. Luckily, I also got selected as a member.

The time duration of the program was approximately 30 minutes per day during session period. The mentees had to be available during the allotted time and if anyone could not be available at that particular time, then they were allowed to download the content through own profile.

Every day, a new topic was introduced and discussed. We could easily share our ideas and knowledge. I found the program very effective because it covered topics that we need in our work life from communication skills, proposal writing to the policies of our country. All the mentees were seen eagerly participating, sharing the ideas and regularly following the program.

Overall, the program was quite effective. However, to make future sessions much better, I think mentors should include the current global issues like, climate change, sustainable agriculture and with respect to Nepal current scenarios. I also think students’ involvement should be more encouraging and their active participation is a must. I really look forward to have the conference call among the mentors and mentees in the further model once a week.

In addition, the next EduMala model should also include junior level students. This will help more people to engage in the developmental field to widen our YPARD family. I also think these sorts of program are quite effective to agri-entreprenuers. They will feel connected to the agriculture students, farming communities and societies which will be beneficial to them.

In conclusion, I am very happy to be a part of the program. The program initiative is a step to encourage students like us to learn something new and to improvise what we already know. YPARD is a way for the people like us to show a path to develop and encourage contributions in the agriculture field. In short, I hope such programs to continue in the near future. And special thanks to the entire respected mentors who contributed in this program.