Thoughts to Action is a youth-led social development organization that focuses on the importance of social-emotional learning in the early developmental stages of children, with a vision to create an inclusive and safe environment for young children from government schools in and around Jorhat, Assam, where everyone is encouraged and empowered to engage in critical thinking and creative expression.
I chose this NGO for my internship as it aligned perfectly with what I wanted to engage myself in under the criteria of my college’s developmental internship program. I wanted to experience what it is like to work with children and how the documentation of something of this scale works from an audio-visual perspective. All in all, I had a very enriching experience working under the direct guidance of the Founder and Director, Rahul Bora, as well as the Program Manager and facilitator, Purbali Tunghungia, who allotted me plenty of time and resources to conduct and execute my internship.
My primary tasks during this internship can be summed up as follows:
To document and capture the organization's impact and the work that goes on working under it in a promotional micro-documentary (including all aspects of pre-production, production, and post-production).
To make a video vlog of what it is like to work as an intern under this organisation.
To teach children from lower-primary government schools academics and conduct activities facilitating social-emotional learning and creativity thrice a week (Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday) for the duration of my internship.
During this internship, my assigned partner and I visited around a dozen schools affiliated with the NGO allotted to us by the organization heads I previously mentioned. We interacted directly with the school children and school faculty by conducting various activities that facilitated social-emotional such as storytelling, creative art expression, collaborative games, etc., alongside teaching the children their basic academic curriculum. I was simultaneously storyboarding, scripting, conducting interviews, and documenting the same to utilize in the documentary video.
Interacting with the children and the people involved in the mission of Thoughts to Action was an immensely rewarding experience; it changed my perspective on countless things, especially how important social-emotional learning is. Engaging in such SEL activities not only enhances academic performance but also helps build young children’s confidence, self-esteem, and emotional intelligence, demonstrating how important holistic education is in nurturing well-rounded, capable individuals and preparing them for complex changes and challenges in life.
This experience helped me learn compassion and patience on a higher level and how to multitask and manage my time better. Another thing it rewarded me with was the opportunity to come back and do all this again, to be able to come back to my hometown and join as a volunteer whenever I want and teach these children again, something I would encourage anyone and everyone to do so, to take out time, be it 2-3 hours a day to come volunteer for the vision and mission of Thoughts to Action. It’s fascinating how you would feel attached to and grow fond of children while interacting with them within moments.
Mannat Matharu,
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