When we first told MAD children that as part of Placement Activity, we are going to visit offices of Google, almost all faces in the classroom drew a blank. They had seen Goggles, on their favourate hero/heroine's eyes, but never heard anything about a company called Google. So we had to explain a bit.
- Google is like a book available to everyone for free, which can be used for searching anything and everything. The number of pages in Google "book" is way more than anybody's imaginations, we could see some confused faces, as if to suggest it would definitely take some effort to carry the Google "book" :-)
- Google can tell you how far your father's office or your home is from your school. Now, we could see some interest building up.
- Sitting right inside your room, you can take a tour of entire world, including places you have never been to, places you always want to see. We could see some excitement in the class.
- Google is a dream company for most of the people, working in IT firms.
Now we could gauge the mood in the class, almost everybody was ready, all they wanted to know were the dates of Google campus visit !! And when we told them about the SECRET SANTA gifts for the kids during the visit, their excitement just increased many-fold. Only later, we came to know that as many as 75 kids had written letters to Santa, some of them as many as 10 days prior to the visit.
So, here we go to Google campus with a batch of MAD students,with their eyes filled with dreams ,faces lit with smiles & hearts full of happiness & Joy. When we stepped in Google's awesome campus, kids were amazed that people work here (They thought, why would someone waste his or her time working, this was a campus tailor made for playing !!). Once we completed the tour of Google campus, we had an awesome lunch inside Google Cafeteria. This was followed by some very good career oriented sessions from heads of different departments at Google, like Facilities , Security , Catering and House-Keeping. The educational session was closed by a 1 hour session by one of the Senior Manager (Director) at Google, which really motivated our kids a lot. They also got a chance to know more about Google's products like Google Maps, Google Earth, which truly amazed them a great deal.
Once the "classes" were over, it was time for fun and play !! They walked into Google Theater room and started watching lot of videos, cartoons on a Big Screen. It was also an occasion to put theory learned during prior sessions into practice. They started taking a tour around Bangalore using Google map. They started exploring the world using Google Earth. Starting with the great Taj Mahal, they saw all wonders of the World and many other places, they get to hear about/see only in books and stories. Their adventure was complete with a great homecoming with their Hostel's building (including its lush green playground) in a Big Screen :)
The jaw dropping silence, the Oohs, the Aahs, the Wows were a treat to watch for all the fellow MAD volunteers.
But picture abhee baki thee, The Google story was far from over, there was more to come in form of a secret Christmas gift for all the kids. Any guesses, who was going to give them these gifts ?? Santa, ofcourse !! So on the D-day, when they finally got a chance to meet their Santas, the joy in their eyes was absolutely priceless.
We were somewhat skeptical of how the children would feel at the end of the day. Will they be in awe of this great company called Google and amazing environment inside Google campus ?? But at the end, it turned out to be one of the most exciting and awesome Placement Activities at MAD. Thanks to Google for giving us an opportunity to MAD children, Thanks to MAD for being a facilitator for these under-privileged kids’ and last but not the least Thanks to all MAD volunteers for putting up a wonderful show and instilling the belief in all MAD students that "Don't Stop Believing" !!
This blog post was submitted as part of my application for "Blog Admin" for an awesome organization called MAD (Make A Difference). The task was to clean up the following sample post, make it presentable, and ready for the internet audience and this was to be done without changing the original intent of the author.
Sample Write Up
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"Eyes filled with dreams , Faces lit with smiles & Hearts full of happiness & Joy :)" all of this happened in during one of the most exciting and awesome Placement Activity at Google.
People working in the top IT firms dream of working for THE GOOGLE. When the kids were told where they were going, their excitement was inexplicable.
When we stepped in Google's awesome campus kids were amazed that people work here . We had awesome lunch with our kids in Google and then very good career oriented sessions from Heads of different departments of Google like Facilities , Security , Catering and the 1 hour session by one of the Senior Manager (Director) which really motivated our kids a lot.
Then kids watched lot of videos , cartoons in Google's Theater and got a chance to know more about Google's products like Google Earth which was really amazing , they saw all Wonders of the World and many other places and also their Hostel's building via Google Earth in a Big Screen :)
The Oohs and Aahs and the wonder in their eyes were a treat to the eyes of all the volunteers.
The Google story dosent end there... it had a Christmas gift for all the kids. And who was gonna give them those gifts? Santa, ofcourse !!
Kids were all excited when we told them about the SECRET SANTA theme for the kids. So 75 kids wrote letters to Santa some 10 days back . And today they got a chance to meet their Santas.
It was a just awesome to see the happiness in their eyes whole day
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