Symantec strongly encourages employees to volunteer in their local communities, providing volunteer resources and opportunities. We believe that involved, engaged employees are happier and more satisfied, and that communities in which Symantec is located will be healthier and more vibrant because of our presence.
At Symantec, interns are not only encouraged to succeed and add value in their respective departments, but also share their knowledge and skills through volunteer programs that promote learning and education.
Today we hear from Samridh Saluja,Summer 2015 intern at Symantec - Trust Services.
I have spent a lot of time helping those around me by empowering them though education, vocational training, safety workshops and facilitating growth.
In India, I joined forces with the teens in my community and created an Interact Club, a subdivision of the world renowned Rotary Club where we raised awareness and funds for issues that matter. Together, we organized a walkathon that spread awareness about environmental conservation while also raising funds for heart surgeries for the underprivileged. We also conducted resource collection drives where we went door to door and collected donated items from people in the neighborhood, resulting in enough stationary and infrastructure to set up a school for the kids of migrant laborers. We volunteered our time in setting up this school and we also taught classes. This experience of founding and working for the Interact Club was in freshman and sophomore year of high school.
More recently, I took it upon myself to work towards the protection of teenagers in the online sphere seeing that the government was increasing internet penetration in the rural parts of India. I conducted research which culminated in a report stating the need for cybersecurity awareness among kids. I presented this paper at an international conference and received an award. I continued my research to define a curriculum that would address these very gaps in the system and also worked with an author to produce a book to support this mission of increasing awareness. Both the curriculum and the book were endorsed by the Indian government and I went to four states, fifteen schools and spoke to over 6000 students about their online practices and how to stay safe while making the most of the internet.
Both these experiences taught me about the state of the education system in India and also about the nature of relationships between students, parents and teachers. As a student, the students I taught could relate with me and as a teacher, they felt safe sharing issues that were on their mind, issues that they felt they couldn't share with others due to a lack of understanding. My greatest sense of fulfillment came when parents would thank me because their twelve year old children were learning about sharing and empathy while out at a campaign to end polio and when parents who work in manual labour sites would spend more than half their income to buy me flowers and chocolate for allowing their child to enter school and learn English for the first time.
These are some of the experiences I have felt, shared and facilitated which I think would be a great source of ideas and inspiration to some people while also throwing light on a different part of the world for others.