“Everyone can be great because everybody can serve.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
At Symantec, we believe that together, we have the power to change the world and make it a better, safer place. And every day, our own heroes are making significant impacts in their communities. The spirited activism, advocacy, and passion of employees on the ground is what transforms our corporate responsibility strategy into tangible, real-world results.
Today we’re celebrating two Symantec employees that exemplify a dedication to service for others, and who have taken a personal passion and turned it into a local movement.
A local cyber security hero
As a Symantec professional, Radio RJ, freelance technology and online safety journalist, and father, Sangam Manikkayamiyer, Principal Security Specialist, Symantec Canada, has now added community ambassador to the list.
While visiting Symantec customers on the East and West Coasts of the United States and educating them on enterprise and personal cyber security, he reflected on how impactful some of these lessons could be for children.
While children are spending a significant portion of their day online, they often do not realize the risks they face and how to mitigate them. For example, the power of a long-term and often permanent online footprint, the importance of a strong passcode and the ability of a perpetrator to track a location based on your social media account.
Sangam reached out to a few schools in his local area of Ontario, Canada and pitched the idea of an online safety course for the students (grades 5-8), incorporating curriculum provided by Symantec and customized for this age range.
The initial session was a hit, the local newspaper wrote a story on his efforts, and news spread quickly to other schools who contacted Sangam and requested he visit. Over the course of his efforts he’s had the chance to interact with over 1,000 students.
It wasn’t only the schools recognizing Sangam. Most recently, he was awarded for his standout efforts in leading the Cyber Security Awareness & Digital Privacy Campaign for kids by Mrs. Sonia Sidhu - M.P., Government of Canada – Canada House of Commons and Mrs. Harinder K Malhi - M.P.P., Ontario Provincial Parliament.
Sangam’s efforts are ongoing and the requests from schools continue to come in. He also continues to learn more with each session he teaches
Sangam originally saw this as a one-time effort and never expected this momentum and recognition, or what a refreshing and rewarding experience it would be. Additionally, he recognizes the benefit to his role at Symantec; through his online safety efforts he is applying his expertise, while also engaging with education and government stakeholders, his key customers, in a way that demonstrates his and Symantec’s broader commitment to their communities.
For Sangam, this is only the starting point. He has the vision and passion to continue to grow his efforts in the years ahead. The Canada House of Commons has asked that he be a monthly spokesperson for their community education efforts with the potential of turning this into a community wide public awareness campaign.
Symantec Canada’s Sangam Manikkayamiyer, Principal Security Specialist, is providing online safety sessions to schools in Ontario and was recently acknowledged by the Canada House of Commons for his exemplary service in the community.
Mrs. Sonia Sidhu, M.P., Canada House of Commons recognizes Sangam Manikkayamiyer for his ongoing efforts to educate students in online safety.
Supporting India’s children in need
Symantec employee Nilesh Shinge, principal software engineer, is actively involved with the NGO Akshar Bharati (an initiative of Sewa International) on a variety of initiatives to support children in underprivileged and remote regions of India.
With the help of Symantec, his colleagues and friends, he has taken part in numerous activities to strengthen education and literacy, ensure children have the supplies they need for schooling, and contribute to STEM education through fun and engaging science-based activities:
- Visiting local orphanages and schools, applying a concept based on Arvind Gupta that uses everyday items or trash, such as paper, cardboard, wood sticks, and more, to create educational toys such as Amazing Astronomy, Beginner’s Biology, and Force Fun
- Supporting literacy through a weekly reading activity in two schools
- Distributing school kits and story books to the underprivileged children of rural and tribal area schools. A school kit contains a school bag with notebooks, pencils, eraser, sharpener, crayon box, coloring books etc. To date over 360 school kits have been compiled and distributed (65 in 2015 and 300 in 2016)
- Distributing Diwali gifts consisting of a story and drawing books for the children
- Organizing clothing and blanket donation drives for children in the slums of the region
- Driving financial support for a local NGO working on initiatives for draught affected farmers
Commemorating his hard work, Nilesh recently received the 'Volunteer of the Year' award from Akshar Bharati for his 'Activities and Scientific toys' work, as well as the Global Karamveer Chakra and Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship instituted by iCoNGO in association with the United Nations.
The Rex Fellowship encourages proactive citizenship and voluntary action. It helps champions of change and people striving to fulfill their passions and dreams, to network and collaborate with like-minded, ethically and socially conscious global citizens from around the world.
The chosen fellows share their impactful ideas for action and transforming lives at an annual event, the REX Conclave, held in New Delhi. The ideas discussed at the REX forum have led to action for educational reform, climate change, accessibility, humane capitalism, dignity for people living with HIV, and much more.
Symantec’s Nilesh Shinge receives the Global Karamveer Chakra and Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship instituted by iCoNGO in association with United Nations. The award recognizes his efforts to support children throughout the region.
Nilesh Shinge and Symantec employees volunteer to fill and provide school kits for underprivileged children in the Pune region of India.
Congratulations to these Symantec community heroes! As Martin Luther King Jr. once said “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, "What will you do for others?” Imagine the impact of everyone dedicating a minute, an hour, a day or more to the service of others. If there is one lesson we can all take from Sangam and Nilesh's stories, it's the power of the individual to make a positive impact.