JAMMU: Phase-II of the International Collaborative Project on “Leadership through Sports Program for Jammu and Kashmir” under U.S. Mission India Public Diplomacy Grants Program organised by Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA in collaboration with School of Business Studies, Central University of Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir, India concluded today with the conduct of Virtual Meeting at Lemon Tree Hotel, Jammu.
Upon the successful completion of Phase-II of the project which lasted for more than six months all the participant coaches were given completion certificate. During the project the Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana initiated a six-month virtual mentoring program between the American sports mentors/coaches and participants Coaches from three regions of the state. In this program trainers from USA shared their best practices on how to build sports and leadership programs in underserved communities. This program was coordinated by Prof Jaya Bhasin and Dr. Shahid Mushtaq, Principal Investigators under overall mentorship of Prof Ashok Aima, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Jammu.
The program included series of activities including sharing of action plan by Dr. Lindsey C. Blom from Ball State University and her team members from other institutions based in USA including Dr. Meredith, Anna, Prof. Lawrance Gerstein, Prof. Larry Judge. The team reviewed the progress and updated coaches by presentations on different aspects and virtual mentoring. At the end of today’s meeting an electronic survey was also conducted by project team virtually.
Prof. Ashok Aima, Vice Chancellor, CUJ in his message to participants hoped that this platform had given them an opportunity to enrich their knowledge and skills of coaching through sharing of their own knowledge and experience with internationally renowned experts from USA. He impressed upon the participants that Games and Sports activities provide a strategic advantage to productively engage and channelize energies of youth and it is their responsibility to broad base the same and create an additional pool of Coaches that would facilitate in creating a new generation of successful sports-persons thereby improving the overall development of Sports activities in the state.
He assured the participants of their continuous support for desired outcome. Prof. Aima congratulated the entire team on successful completion of the project. He further suggested faculty members to explore such options for collaboration with international agencies for academic, research and out-reaching activities. It is pertinent to mention here that in last few years Central University of Jammu has made tremendous progress in mobilizing resources from National and international agencies for strengthening academic activities.
Earlier, message by Bryce Isham, first Secretary of US Embassy in Delhi was read by Prof. Jaya. In her remarks she appreciated the Indian coaches for their wonderful enthusiasm and participation in this sports program. She pointed out that sports plays such a key role in the lives of youth in India and around the world and hopefully this program has expanded their knowledge and skills through engagement with U.S. and their fellow Indian coaches. She informed the coaches to stay in touch and collaborate in the weeks and months to come, and update them about the same.
Dr. Bhasin & Dr. Mushtaq shared the vision of Prof. Ashok Aima and explained his keenness about the success of the program. The virtual meeting was conducted under the overall supervision of J. P. Das, Senior Adviser, Exchange Program, US Embassy Delhi, Dr. Shahid Mushtaq, Dr. Jaya Bhasin, Prof. Lawrence and Dr. L. Blom. Dr. Jaya Bhasin and Dr. Shahid Mushtaq distributed the certificates among the participants. Rabinder Singh and Minakshi Rana, Interpreters for the event conducted the activities during the day. Dr. Sanjay Sharma, Project Assistant and Vikram from Vensa Travels facilitated the event by providing logistic support for smooth conduct of today’s program.