Articles
An Initiative to empower Needy Christian youths
Opinion | Articles | Isaac Harold Gomes | 18-Sep-2025
Participants in the Programme
On Sunday 14th September 2025, St Lawrence Old Boarders’ Association (SLOBAN) organized a Career Guidance Programme (for classes 8-12) at St Teresa’s Parish, Kolkata. Several college-going students from Morapai (Baruipur Diocese, South 24 Parganas) also attended the Programme.
BACKGROUND OF SLOBAN
St Lawrence Old Boarders’ Association (SLOBAN) - a body of past boarders of St Lawrence High School, Kolkata, was formed in February 1998 primarily to cater to the boarders (present and past who mainly hailed from the rural belt) of St Lawrence High School for their holistic development, welfare and rejuvenation.
When the boarding was wound up in 2014, SLOBAN realigned its objective from being St Lawrence Boarding-specific to catering to needy Christian students at large, in the following areas:
- Career Counselling/Guidance
- Mentorship including subject-specific coaching assistance
- Online/Digital Education including Language Skills
- Linkage to various Educational Scholarships (both government and private).
- Merit Scholarship to encourage academic excellence.
The 14th September programme (11 am- 1.45 pm) was held with this view in end, with full encouragement of Fr Basil Mandi - Parish Priest and Fr Naveen Tauro-Youth Director.
The panellists were:
(1) Fr Basil Mandi, Parish Priest (Law), (2) Luke John Gomes (Former Managing Director, Nestlé Southern Africa), (3) Allen Lawrence (Partner & Director – JPNR Corporate Consultants Group), (4) John Gomes (Educationist), (5) Jacob Bhanu Murmu (Banking), (6) Diana Rodriquez (Fashion Design) and (7) Tania Bhora (Graphics & Animation).
Fr Naveen Tauro (see photo) inaugurated the programme with a fervent prayer.
Luke John began the programme with the theme ‘Ordinary people do extraordinary things. Live your dream.’ To highlight this, he played a video on the world-famous Scottish singer Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) who rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the third series of Britain's Got Talent, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. This song sold over 10 million copies and is one of the best-selling international albums of 21st century. She tested instant success only at the age of 48 years. Before that her life was mundane and people considered her worthless. In 2011, Boyle made UK music history by becoming the first female artist to achieve three successive albums debut at No.1 in less than two years. As of May 2025, her estimated net worth was £22 million ($29.5 million). Luke exhorted the students to always have a dream to come up in life and never to give up on it.
The key takeaways of the programme were:
- We must all dream for greater achievement (Fr Basil Mandi) and pursue it.
- We must always ask WHY, live our Dream and unearth our talents (Luke John)
- We must dream with our eyes wide open. There is a huge difference between a job and a career (John Gomes).
- Success in Chartered Accountancy is not about intelligence alone – it’s about consistency, patience and daily discipline. Many of India’s respected CAs cleared the CA final after multiple attempts (Allen Lawrence).
- There is no specific/beaten/conventional career path. A professional career is always better than a job, but it all depends on one’s aptitude. They also said that students must choose a job/career which appeals to them and not go by herd mentality (Diana Rodriquez and Tania Bhora).
Ronald Jigar Osta, a new law graduate from St Xavier’s University, Kolkata, shared his insights on a lawyer’s ethics and a successful legal career very lucidly with the audience. Fr Timir Singha SJ (former Lawrencian) and Fr Joseph C. Desouza also graced the occasion.
The participants were quite forthcoming with their career aspirations varying from Artist, Army, Automobile, Airhostess and Pilot, to Chef, Police, Banking, Chief Financial Officer, Railways, Engineering and Research Scholars. A few wanted to be teachers.
The Programme ended with a brief PowerPoint presentation on Minority Scholarship Schemes granted by West Bengal government. The relevant portals https://wbmdfcscholarship.in/ and Dedicated WhatsApp no: 8017071714 (West Bengal Minorities Development & Finance Corporation - WBMDFC) were shared with the students. They were urged to apply in huge numbers for all government scholarships to part-finance their education/professional courses. The Deadline for Fresh and Renewal Applications has been extended to 30th November 2025 by WBMDFC. QR links on some private scholarships (Infosys Foundation, Reliance Foundation, Azim Premji Foundation, etc) were also shared.
It is suggested that students applying for Scholarship for the first time on the National Scholarship Portal (under the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs), refer to the link: https://scholarships.gov.in/public/FAQ/NSP_SOP.pdf
After going through the above link, they need to "Register" as fresh applicant, using the icon “New Registration” at NSP Portal URL - https://scholarships.gov.in/
Before applying, they may go through FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) for students. The link is: https://scholarships.gov.in/public/FAQ/NSP_FAQsORApplicationUsermanul.pdf
It is suggested that our Christian students must fully avail of Minority Scholarship Schemes (both State and Central), for the unclaimed funds will be transferred to other minority communities. As a result of this, subsequent years’ fund allocation for Christian students will be reduced on the assumption they are not interested or don’t need scholarship assistance.
In this connection, it’s worth mentioning that Technical Courses (by Don Bosco Technical institutes in Kolkata and suburbs) can fetch excellent pay, including overseas placements with Permanent Residency. On 9th August 2025 during a Career Counselling Programme at Don Bosco Park Circus Kolkata Fr. Joseph Podimattathil, Principal – Don Bosco Technical Park Circus said there is an excellent scope in Technical hands-on education vis-à-vis conventional education. He said all the Technical Course students get excellent job offers from big corporates in the campus itself, including very satisfying and high-paying job opportunities and Permanent Residency for Christian technical students in Germany.
SLOBAN plans to give 10 scholarships to meritorious students each year (it has already given three). It will now reach out to needy students in the suburbs.
Ignatius Prodip Gomes (second generation entrepreneur in air-conditioners and hospitality sector) gave the vote of thanks. Joachim Campoo (former Program Manager World Vision India) deserves kudos for conducting the entire event with great professionalism.
We express our profound gratitude to our sponsors Utpal Choudhury (Aparna Group of Companies) and Ms Payel Bose (Kimli Restaurant). We are really touched by their unwavering support.
(The contributor is a member of the Indian Catholic Press Association, a social activist, and a freelance journalist. He writes for different publications on various issues. He can be reached @ isaac25gomes@gmail.com)
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