After the crucial board exams, it is a common scene among parents and students to opt for either science, computer science or commerce fields for higher education. The streams other than these, such as humanities and subjects coming under vocational higher secondary school (VHSE) are often sidelined. But 18--year-old Sonima Theresa, a VHSE Travel and Tourism student through sheer hardwork and dedication has won this year’s ‘Best Student Coordinator Award’ from the Kerala Tourism Department. Ask Sonima whether the award was expected, and she says it was a complete surprise. “We had been informed that the award has been cancelled. But only last month, my travel and tourism teacher Siji Mol Jacob called up and informed that I had been given this prestigious award.”
Sonima who was selected as the tourism coordinator for both Plus one and Plus two in the Darul Uloom Vocational Higher Secondary School, Pullepady, Ernakulam, feels that having taken up such a subject has made her self-reliant.
“When other students spend their time in classrooms, we get the chance to meet people and visit places. As part of our projects we have visited Wayanad, Ponmudi, Thenmala and Mangalavanam. We also had to prepare projects and do comparative studies of these places and its ecology,” says Sonima. As part of the travel and tourism club Sonima has coordinated programmes like tableau, rallies and exhibitions.
“For last year’s tourism day we presented a tableau at TDM Hall. The theme was on the strike, the condition of our roads and other social issues faced by the tourists,” says Sonima, who was presented the award by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on 9 August.
Sonima feels that the biggest problem that tourists face in the state is them being exploited by the local crowds. “Often the tourists get cheated by the autorickshaw drivers and shopkeepers,” she says. Though Kerala has been stamped as God’s Own Country, Sonima feels that it has nothing much to boast about. “Our cities are crowded with traffic. Roads are not maintained properly and our people also do not keep tourist spots clean, which is a turn off for foreigners,” says Sonima who is currently pursuing a degree in Tourism Studies from IGNOU.
Sonima and her friends have also made a detailed project report on clubbing Marine Drive, Mangalavanam and the old ERG station near the High Court. “Just like we have the Indian Golden Triangle comprising of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, our aim is to have a Golden Triangle in Kochi too. We had submitted the report and its tourism possibility to the District Tourism Promotion Councils (DTPC) but nothing has come out of it so far,” says Sonima who has also talked to the Tourism Minister about this project.
“Minister has asked us to re-submit the report directly to him. So we are working on that,” she says.
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