The Voluntary Agency Placement Programme

The Voluntary Agency Placement Programme of Lady Shri Ram College provides opportunities for students to make a positive contribution to community development and social welfare and to explore alternative career possibilities. In the last 5 years, it has helped 500+ organizations recruit the best talent from the college including J-PAL, Carnegie, Start-Up India, Ministry of Health and PWD. It also helped prestigious fellowships like the Gandhi Fellowship and Teach for India Fellowship recruit from our college. well as livelihood generation of Refugee Afghan Women. On 17th, December 2022, a session on The Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellowship was conducted. LAMP provides an opportunity for young Indians to learn law-making and public policy. The session was hosted by current LAMP fellows Kashvi Verma and Ameesha Pareek, which focused on the need for the fellowship and the personal experiences of the fellows working with a Parliamentarian, what parliamentary research entails, as well as the workload that comes with it. VAPP started its new year with a session on the prestigious American India Foundation Banyan Impact Fellowship hosted by Ankit Pareek, Program Officer for AIF’s Banyan Impact Fellowship Program on 12th January 2023. On 19th January, VAPP conducted an online session with Teach for India hosted by Riya Sapra, a former Teach for India fellow and current Recruitment Manager. The session focused on the fellowship, its application process and the impact created by former fellows. On 2nd February, a session on how to build 21st century skills was conducted in collaboration with the Gandhi Fellowship. The speaker for the session was Sangeeta Mamgain, Core Team Member and Director, Piramal Foundation. She is also an alumni of the Indian School of Business (ISB) -Goldman Sachs 10000 women, a Global Program for Women Entrepreneurs. The session focused on developing critical soft skills that are indispensable in the professional world. On 9th February, VAPP conducted a session on Gandhi Fellowship with Meheli Basu, a former Gandhi fellow from 2018 to 2020, who is currently the program leader for Kaivalya Education Foundation. This year VAPP Opportunities reached a record membership of 500 students.

With opportunities from reputed think tanks like Centre for Public Policy Research, Centre for Policy Research, SPRF India, govt. organizations like NMDFC (National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation), in collaboration with Citizens for Public Leadership on 27th November. The speaker for the session was Mr. Prateek Kanwal, World Bank Scholar, who focused on the new and upcoming field of public policy and the way one can make a mark and chart an unconventional career path in it. On 2nd December, VAPP successfully concluded a clothes collection drive. of internships with opportunities from some of the biggest NGOs of India like WOTR, Hemkunt Foundation, Platform Commons, Child Rights and You, Dharma Life, The 1947 Partition Archive and Girl Up India Foundation with many internships offering from INR 7,000 – 10,000 as stipends, a rarity in the social space. VAPP pioneered a new project for social entrepreneurship with Hamari Pahchan NGO.

The social entrepreneurship project focused on giving students more autonomy and ownership to solve complex business issues and create impact in the NGO’s projects.

The Voluntary Agency Placement Programme (VAPP) provides a safe space for students to engage with various socio-economic issues and thought-provoking discussions, opportunities to volunteer and intern with NGOs to explore the possibilities of alternate careers in the development sector. VAPP began its activities in 2021-22 with a session on ‘Emotional Freedom Technique’ in collaboration with the Offbeat Support Foundation on 30^th September 2021, where trainer, Ms. Preeta Pradhan demonstrated the use fingertips to stimulate energy points in the body. VAPP organized a virtual field trip on 23^rd November 2021 to Udayan Care NGO which aimed at taking a glimpse into the lives of girls who have been enabled to achieve success through Udayan Care’s flagship programme – Udayan Shalini Fellowship. The second event on 15^th of January, 2022 was a session on ‘Women in Civil Services Then v/s Now’ with Ms. Garima Panwar, I.A.S, Assistant Commissioner Office, Bidar and Ms. Ira Singhal, I.A.S, Deputy Commissioner, Revenue Department . The session started with the journeys of the speakers, the challenges women faced earlier and how these challenges have changed over the time considering the pandemic.

VAPP also conducted an informative session on ‘Gandhi Fellowship” in collaboration with the Gandhi Fellowship Program. Gandhi Fellowship is a 2-year full time transformational youth leadership program offered by Piramal Foundation. It was held on 20^th January 2022 On 15^th February 2022 there was a session on ‘Special Education in India’ with Ms Riya Rastogi, a special educator. VAPP released various editions of monthly magazine “PULSE” and the newsletter “INSIGHT” on the social development sector covering a variety of issues. VAPP has also circulated 25 internship and volunteering opportunities with the student body in the development and social sector providing them a chance to explore alternate careers. In Environment week, VAPP decorated its soft-board on the topic “Eco-Warriors of India ”.

VAPP took an initiative of thanking the gardeners of LSR for their immense hard work and contribution, collecting thank you messages for gardeners from the student body to hang  on trees. In Umang 2022, VAPP had put up HASTHKALA the embroidery workshop stall wherein coordinators taught basic embroidery designs to participants. This was aimed at revival of the lost art of embroidery.The session ended with a mellifluous evening, in collaboration with Dhwani, the Indian Music Society of LSR. The rejuvenating musical session “RAAG” was held on 14^th April 2022 in collaboration with Rhythm of Life, an NGO working with underprivileged children with the aim of nurturing them into confident independent adults through a specially designed curriculum ABC (Activities Based Curriculum).