Testimonials from students at
Srishti School of Design
*No names and particulars have been shared to protect client privacy and confidentiality.
I have noticed that there has been a drastic change in my writings from the starting of the class to my journey so far. Initially I feel that my blogs lacked my own thinking and had no emotional value to it. Most of my responses were very mainstream and lacked any view. I noticed that as every class passed by my blogs started to seem more personal and somewhat started showing my viewpoint. I feel that even in the classroom I have become more vocal that what I was and have now started to take part in class group discussions. I am a very private person in general, therefore opening about my personal feelings and specific view has always been a hard thing for me. I generally like to keep things to myself and not really talk to people about how and what I feel towards a particular subject. As we progressed towards the class, we could also see how the topics started becoming more personal and more intimate. We started with basic topics such as changes between school and college life and then gradually moving towards more personal topics such as things we are scared to talk to our parents about. The class has now become like a safe environment to me, and now I feel like talking about my personal life and experiences. I feel that this class has helped me build a lot on my self-confidence. I used to always feel and worry about what people will think about me, if I start sharing my personal stories, the idea of them judging me maybe scared me the most. Now this concept of people judging me has slowly started to fade, and I am very happy about it. This class has made me overcome my fears has made me overcome one of my biggest fears.
I have always been afraid of gossip. Hence, I don’t trust people. I have also observed how I end up judging a person on what I have heard about him or her. I know it’s a very bad thing but I am trying to overcome it. For this class we have a rule that just our experiences go out not the names. I myself follow it and I have a feeling others do too. This is what made me open up to the class and start writing my thoughts and feelings at a place which is accessible to all others.
As a person, I have overcome my fear, opened up and gained much more confidence about myself.
This class made me open up and told me it is okay to have deep feelings, emotions. I have always felt that things like feelings and emotions make you vulnerable but then this class showed me how it is normal to be vulnerable at times and all things just make you stronger. Before this class I used to give my problems a lot of importance but then when I realised what others were or are going through, trust me, my problems were non-existent.
Every week, through the assignments I got to critically reflect on what happened in class and contribute different points that might have not been discussed in class. It further expanded my ability to think. I never knew I would critically reflect and actually express myself the way I blogged because I felt mine bigger than the rest of the class blogs. I feel like, it was a compensation of what I was not able to share with people in the class, because of my introverted nature.
Regarding relationships and teamwork, I was actually able to vividly see through what was happening in real life, so it helped me build on my personal and professional development.
I got comfortable to speak about few dark topics which I’ve never got a chance to open up before. This was because of the safe environment of the class which got built up. My thought process has completely changed on a lot of things through the course till now. Getting an insight about few “hesitated’” topics, can help me approach situations in a matured way. The transformation of the understanding on team and relationship was quite fascinating. I started to use to these terms in their basic form of meaning but realised that there was a lot more to it. Through an exercise, I was actually able to realise as to why my parents hesitated on sharing few very important things. Through the discussions in the class, I got a lot more topics to cover in the writings. Also by not restricting us to what we have to discuss, the discussion always goes wider and out of the boundary. This was something which amazed me. I got a lot of insights and perspectives of different people to agree or disagree to. This discussion goes to far sometimes which makes me think about it. But I strongly feel that these things are common and can happen any time in my life too. I can see myself learn the tactics to deal with a few.
After going through and reading all the assignments and the first thing I felt was how fast time flew by and how much work and how many things we covered in that time. To be honest there a lot a thing I learnt from this class apart from relationship and teamwork. Before the first class of this course I genuinely did not like the course mainly because of the name and because of the type of person I am and I had to choose the course because I was late for the applying process, however by the end of the course I am frankly happy that I got this course, because this has been the most informative and fun course by far for me, because psychology is one thing that really interests me. So, one small thing that I have consciously decided to change in me is that I should keep trying to do more things that I feel that won't interest me or that the one I think I won't like.
I observed that I am more confident now to talk about sensitive topics and discuss about any topic freely. I am open to the suggestions or points given by the members in my group. I look at my relationships and teams from a different perspective now, having more emotional connect as well which was absent/low earlier. I understand the roles and power in teams and relationship which help me reduce disputes with others. Overall this class helped me improve my team skills and relationship skills.
Before this class, I always used to believe that if I am given with any task that I can do that task perfectly on my own with no one’s help. I believed that if knew a lot of things that would be enough to do something perfectly. However, after this course, one thing I realized was that I need to put myself down from that pedestal and that if I look around and listen to people most of them are so interesting with varying opinions which (to me at least) helps you widen your mind. When I used think about something I used to usually think about it from a surface level, thinking that this is the truth and this is how it is, during the process of this class I later realized that what I believe as the truth and reality will most often be different for another person because reality is always different for different people and what you think might is right, might not be for the person next to you. This one of the main things I learnt. Last but not the least, I learnt how to communicate and listen to people in a group better. I have always been a very reserved type of person and always avoided talking to people or even rather talking in a group. This course pushed me to this exact thing and helped me almost come out of my bubble. I am still not very comfortable.
I have realised how much I was missing out on by not having these discussions. Leaving so many topics in the dark was not empowering. Having discussed more ‘prohibitory’ topics, I can approach situations with a wider perspective and more empathy. Through some of the assignments I was able to connect closer to my parents, seeing how many vital personal questions we had unconsciously never got around to answering to each other. I also see how many of our critical decisions are in the grey. The entire concept of what right and wrong in something I been able to shatter in these eight weeks. Previously I told myself I would never face such instances in my own life. Thus, having to know how to navigate through them would be unnecessary. Now I see, there is no way to run from these situations. No matter what they will incur in my life and if not already in play they will arrive soon enough. Learning how to deal with them is what I am absorbing through this class. Most of the exercises had at least one fun element in them which made the write-up interesting to read.
This class has taught me a lot about life and the skills I’d need to live it. The main thing I took away from this was that sometimes working in a team can be very beneficial to one's goals. I started off as a bit if lone wolf and wasn’t too open to others and their opinions but through this class and working with others I learned that they too have a lot to offer to a project. The importance of teamwork taught me the different kinds of relationships one develops through working with others. This also taught me about the workings of social structures and how people fit into the social hierarchy. I learned ways to better process and understand the things I've learned. I learned ways to analyse the lessons taught to me. I learned the values and virtues of working in a team. The most important lesson I learned was perseverance and to not give up on things, that once you commit you should see it through.
One of the most important things I have learnt and realised in this class was about handling team members when they fall sick and workload comes on you. With the help of classroom’s discussion, I was able to handle the situation in my personal life in an easier way. I can now observe how power and roles are fluid. This has helped me take a stand for myself and be responsible and also to not stress about things and actions that I have no power in, anymore. I have also learnt how to put my point in a group discussion and to be a good listener. Group discussions helped me develop quick thinking and also made me more confident while putting my points and views. I can now participate more freely without the fear of ‘being come out as dumb’. Another interesting thing I got know was the difference professional conversations and personal ones. And mainly, how to talk to a professionally related person.
I've never been a person who has been afraid to talk about things that are taboo. I speak to my parents about everything, be it sex, alcohol, partying, my relationships, etc. So when we had a chance to write about things we are afraid to bring up in front of our parents, it gave me a platform and a chance to delve deep into my relationship with them. There were many assignments in which I would focus on minute details that I tend to forget the main points glaring at me. For instance, when talking about the independence and changes faced from school to college, I forgot about the money aspect. So as the classes have progressed and we’ve been having our discussions, I’ve been getting a well-rounded picture of topics. My writing has also become more free and unapologetic. With the first few assignments, I felt stuck and enclosed when writing them but now I feel more free which allows the pen to flow smoothly. I’m able to pick up on different aspects than I was before, and I’ve become more open. It's as if a mental block has been lifted which has allowed me to see things that didn’t appear to me before.
We tend to only confine ourselves our thoughts, opinions and perspectives but there is so much more than that. This class has made me realise that.