Navelim-based teenager Dwinnie Fernandes recently represented India as a speaker at the Global Education Leaders Organisation’s Global Teenage Talk programme. NT KURIOCITY gets more details
NT KURIOCITY
Thirteen-year old, Dwinnie Fernandes was recently selected to represent India as a speaker at the Global Education Leaders Organisation’s Global Teenage Talk programme wherein she spoke about the pandemic and its effect on teenagers.
The Global Teenage Talk programme was organised between India and Brazil with program director, Beatriz Lucia Bizzotto from Brazil, and founder and chairman, GEL (Global Education Leaders) SK Singh–India. Luzia Colombo Feijo was the speaker selected from Brazil while Fernandes was chosen as the speaker from India. The programme was conducted on Zoom online between representatives of India and Brazil.
Talking about how she got this opportunity, Fernandes says: “My mother is a member of the GEL forum team and she mentioned the Global Teenage Talk programme to me. She suggested that I send in my entry where I had to write about my success story, which impressed the founder and chairman of the GEL forum, following which I was selected as a speaker for India.”
The topic chosen by SK Singh was ‘Adolescent experience in the pandemic’. And Fernandes had to speak on both the positive and negative points of the pandemic from the point of view of a teenager. And she chose to speak more about her experience of not having classes in-person and for being without contact with colleagues and social life.
“Closures of schools; separation from friends; missing birthday parties, school plays, dance competition, sports activities with other team members, etc, have caused a lot of stress and anxiety. I just wanted to share my experience about how frustrating, bored, and disconnected we felt because of social distancing during the pandemic,” says Fernandes, adding that while prepping for the talk, she also read about other teen stories on social media which gave her a broader perspective to speak for the programme.
And while she was nervous initially about being selected to represent India at the programme, she was also excited and proud. “It was nice to share my experiences and hear other experiences too. Overall it was a very enriching learning experience which showcased how the teens all over the globe felt about the pandemic.”
More about Dwinnie
Dwinnie is currently studying in class 8, Vidya Vikas Academy. She is a national level chess player and has represented Goa for U-14 national school chess games at Gujarat in 2019. She has also been selected to be part of the Goa team for the U-15 chess national this year. Besides this, she enjoys writing and painting. In fact, Fernandes began her own blog during the ongoing pandemic, wherein she writes about ordinary people doing extraordinary things apart from penning articles which give informative knowledge for others. She is a huge fan of Norwegian chess grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen and hopes to one day play chess professionally and also be an influencer through her blog. (RK)