Meghalaya CM felicitates young talents at ASPIRE district talent events 2022

Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma felicitated three young talents at the recently held Aspire Meghalaya’s District Talent Events 2022 that commences on October 6. 

Speaking at the event, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, said, “When the Union Minister of Education visited our state a few months ago, he asked for a presentation of Aspire to be displayed at the All Education Ministers’ Conference that was held in Gujarat, as a model programme for the entire country. That is the scale of attention that is being given to the Aspire Meghalaya programme and goes to show the kind of impact it is having”.

The East Khasi Hills chapter was held today at U Soso Tham Auditorium, Shillong with 26 talents from 5 campuses performing, out of which the Top 3 were recognised. The one-day event also witnessed the felicitation of 103 campuses from the District by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for their participation in the Meghalaya Youth Survey 2022 and Soft Skills Training interventions under Aspire Meghalaya.

The CM further added, “Aspire was meant to unlock the talents within you, make you accept, first of all, what you are good at. You may not see the results of the programme today, but ten years from now, these same youths who are here today, the kind of confidence they will have in moving forward in life, the kind of positivity, the kind of acceptability they have for others, the kind of respect they will have for themselves, is the kind of impact and transformation we will see.”

“We will see a different sense of purpose, passion, confidence and positivity like never before. This is the difference, and it is going to happen. But we need to be persistent and work together. Every single person has a role to play to make sure that we are able to invest properly in the human capital we have,” he added. 

He further said that the world today is about competition – positive competition and not negative competition, positive criticism and not negative criticism. “We have to remember that we need to compete with the best. The reservation policy is there for us but that does not mean that our mindset has to be a ‘reservation policy mindset’. Our mindset needs to be a competitive mindset. Fight as if you need to survive. Fight as if there is no reservation for you. Fight as if you are going to compete with the best from the world. It is that competitive mindset that I want in every single youth,” he continued.

Aspire Meghalaya is an initiative of the Directorate of Sports & Youth Affairs, Government of Meghalaya, and supported by the State Education Mission Authority of Meghalaya (SEMAM-SSA) under the State’s Education Department. The programme is implemented by AVENUES, Shillong. Over the course of the year, over 64,000 youths from 332 campuses have been engaged in the Meghalaya Youth Survey and more than 13,000 students across 62 campuses have been trained in soft skills and career exploration programmes under the initiative.

Till date, 24 talents have been recognised from the 8 districts of Eastern West Khasi Hills, North Garo Hills, West Khasi Hills, West Jaintia Hills, South West Garo Hills, East Garo Hills, South Garo Hills and East Khasi Hills. 178 talent performances from 41 campuses across the 8 districts resulted in the recognition and felicitation of the Top 3 talents from each district.