In 1996, a 14 year old boy called Kalpanath was enrolled in the school. At that point he had no self confidence – could barely talk above a whisper. He began to gain confidence as his abilities and potential were identified and strengthened. He did pick up literacy, Math and began to excel in sports and vocational activities. Today, after having won a medal representing India at the Special Olympics in Alaska, he is working as an instructor in vocational training at a centre for people with special needs.
Self confidence is an important area for development of our students. They are encouraged to participate in Special Olympics – at the National and International level.
6 students won medals in the Special Olympics held at State and National level.
Ponnanna: Won gold medal in National Level football master’s championship.
Pearly: Won silver medal in National Level badminton match at Chhattisgarh.
Ruksana: Won silver medal in National basketball match at Bareilly, U.P.
Nandakumar: Won bronze medals and a silver medal for shotput, 100 mts. running race and relay race at state level athletics meet
Michael: Won bronze medal in National basketball match at Jabalpur Rajesh HR: Won silver medal in National volleyball match at Bareilly, U.P.
Srinath: Won silver medal in shotput, 100 mts. running race in State athletic meet.
Many of the hearing impaired children from our institution have passed the 10th Standard examination.
Shabari, Rini, Bindya, Srividya, Avinash, Murali and Sachin came to us when they were six to eight years old. They had speech and hearing problems and some of them were emotionally disturbed. All these children were taught the regular SSLC curriculum and they passed their 10th standard board examination. They were all given speech therapy and spoken English classes regularly which helped them to articulate better and gave them confidence to enter the mainstream. All these children are presently employed in various firms in the field of computers, electronics and jewellery design.
Two other students from our institution namely Bhanumathi who was physically disabled and Rajesh a slow learner passed the open school 10th standard exams. Today, Bhanumathi is happily married and blessed with a son. Rajesh is successfully employed in a private hospital.
The students have proved their capabilities by successfully getting placed in various organisations, with a few of them recently being employed by Amazon.
This is the journey of Rini, one among the many success stories of the Kodagu Vidyalaya Opportunity School. She is currently employed as a Project Engineer at Wipro, Bengaluru.