ALAPPUZHA: One probably can’t get more enterprising than this, if the remarkable feat of Sona Belson, 20, during the nation-wide Covid-induced lockdown is anything to go by.
A BCom second-year student of Mar Ivanios College of Arts and Science, Kallumala in Mavelikkara, the young woman from Puthiyakavu in the region, completed around 500 foundation courses offered free by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the wake of the pandemic.
Sona attributes the success to the unstinted support given by Deepa Jayanandan, her teacher.
“After the lockdown kicked in, the UGC introduced free online courses for students and youngsters in the country. Deepa ma’am sent a message to our WhatsApp group and urging us to enrol for courses which will benefit them during future studies. I registered under the ‘Paramarsh’ scheme of the UGC, and pursued studies through the ‘Coursera’ website. First up, I enrolled for ‘Introduction to Data Analytics for Business’ course offered by the University of Colorado, ” says the daughter of Belson, a tailor, and Vimala, a homemaker, originally belonging to Thiruvananthapuram.
Anishkumar A S, course coordinator and assistant professor of economics at Mar Ivanios College of Arts and Science, Kallumala, said, “Coursera is an international platform consisting of 124 universities from across the world which offer several courses through the platform. The course fee of one foundation course is around Rs 10,000. However, the UGC sponsored the scheme enabling students to pursue the course free of cost during the lockdown. Students can study the foundation course of any subject by enrolling themselves on the site,” he said.
Persistence pays off
While some students from Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, completed around 50 courses, Sona managed to finish around 500 courses. We feel extremely proud of Sona’s achievement, says Anishkumar AS, course coordinator