Shillong 11 June 2024: As part of the academic activity of the school, a two day Orientation Programme for students of Class IX-XII were held at St. Xavier’s Higher Secondary School Pathaliaghat on 3rd and 4th June 2024. Fr. Cleatus SDB and Ms. Pinky from DBI Guwahati animated the sessions. A total of 680 students took part in it with full gusto and enthusiasm. The resource persons were accorded a warm by the school with Tripuri traditional Risa and the school scarf. The programme kicked off officially by lighting the lamp by Fr. Blasius Kujur, the Rector of the School, Fr. Cleatus, Ms. Pinky and one of the students, Ritika. Fr. Babu Stephen, the principal gave the welcome address. In his address to the students, he motivated all students and exhorted them to pursue their dreams and use the enormous facilities provided by the school in the field of education and overall development. He called upon the students to make maximum use of such privileges offered by the school for their enrichment and growth. He also thanked Fr. Cleatus and his team for making themselves available for this programme. It was then taken over by Fr. Blasius Kujur, who gave an insight on the importance of having such orientation programmes for students in the school from time to time. It was indeed a well prepared programme executed with professionalism by Fr. Cleatus and Ms. Pinky. They, with all expertise and experiential knowledge, took the sessions in a very dynamic and creative way which helped the students to remain attentive and alert throughout the sessions. The sessions consisted of Group discussions, party games, composing of songs, creating slogans, acting out tableaus, spontaneous performance on the stage, dancing and singing and so on... They also dealt with a number of important and relevant topics during the course of the sessions. The importance of Mass Media, Social Media, pros and cons of the use of drugs and alcohol which were also shown through PowerPoint presentations and through video clippings which helped the students to grasp and understand the concepts very clearly. Many educational and motivational videos were shown which helped the students to build their self-confidence and self esteem. The resource persons exhorted the students to be more responsible towards to society, to family and to oneself. On the second day, that is 4th June, Fr. John Zosiama SDB, the Salesian Provincial of Shillong who made his maiden visit to the school as provincial addressed the students prior to the programme in the assembly hall and he exhorted to everyone to have a dream like Don Bosco. He spoke to them on the importance of having dreams which can help one to achieve many things in life. Immediately after his message, an ice-breaking and group works and games were organized to help students get to know each other which was well-facilitated by Ms. Pinky. She made the students bond very quickly so as to work towards a common goal of developing themselves both academically and non-academically. Further, Fr. Cleatus briefed the students about the things apart from academic which will help them in their daily lives like curiosity to learn, developing positive attitude in life and how one can use it by giving us examples of few legendary persons. He mentioned different examples like how one should deal with difficulties in life. The students really enjoyed these two days of orientation programme which helped them to know more about themselves and to give their best in all their endeavours. The programme ended with a small presentation on the activities and life in DBI, Guwahati. Fr. Babu Stephen thanked everyone for the active participation and also the resources persons for their beautiful sessions.