OSTD honours Impunenla Pongen with Academic Excellence Award

Morung Express NewsDimapur | October 24The Ongpangkong Senso Telongjem Dimapur (OSTD) Academic Trust organised an Academic Excellence Award cum Mental Health and Emotional Well-being Awareness Programme at the auditorium of Dimapur Government College on October 24. The event honoured a top-ranking student of the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) HSLC examination. The award was presented to Impunenla Pongen, who secured the 17th position in the NBSE HSLC examination 2026. She studied at Unity Christian Higher Secondary School and is currently a student of Little Star Higher Secondary School.In her acceptance speech, Impunenla said the achievement belonged not to her alone but to the Ao community, whose prayers had sustained her. She said she had always aspired and prayed to be among the top 20 and worked towards that goal. During the examination, she said, the word of God and hymnals gave her encouragement. She recalled hearing an assuring voice during a Wednesday church service saying, “Your prayers will be answered.” She added that God’s grace and His presence is always there.Ao community called to reclaim Christian heritageDelivering the words of exhortation, Limatoshi Jamir, Additional Controller and HoD, Department of Legal Metrology and Consumer Protection, Government of Nagaland addressed both the parents and students.Speaking to parents, he said the Ao Nagas had received three great blessings from God, “the heritage of Christianity, a commitment to education, and a love for people and a compassionate nature.” He noted that the community had embraced Christianity and education with great zeal and had shared both with neighbouring and fellow Naga communities.Recounting his own introspection on where the community went wrong, he asked whether the heritage of Christianity was truly present within each individual. He urged parents to ask whether they had misused that heritage and whether they were good parents, terming the lapse as a great failure on the part of parents. However, he offered hope saying “the blessings would return to the Ao community only if it reclaimed its Christian heritage,” and added that by focusing on becoming good Christians, goodness would follow on its own.Addressing young people, Jamir expressed concern over mental health and emotional well-being. He outlined two philosophical views – ‘moral relativism,’ which holds that right and wrong depend on cultural, social, historical or individual perspectives, and ‘moral universalism,’ which holds that a single, universal system of ethics applies to all people equally.He said excessive internet use exposes young minds to multiple cultural and lifestyle perspectives, often leading to comparisons between their lived reality and what they see online, and ultimately to confusion.While encouraging youth to expand their learning horizons, he cautioned that learning should not become a source of frustration. He advised them to “learn both the strengths and weaknesses of others, to know their ancestral history and where they come from, and to be contextual.”He stressed the importance of critical thinking and developing a critical mindset, saying, “Be adaptable but do not forget your roots,” and called on youth to become “stable, happy and God-fearing persons.”Earlier, the invocation was offered by Rev Dr Lima Jamir, Associate Pastor, DABA. Mefutiba, Convener of OSTD Academic Trust, delivered the welcome address, and Benjongtoshi, President of OSTD, gave a short speech. Moajungla Jamir presented a song, and Dr Martemjen, member of OSTD Academic Trust, offered the closing prayer. The first session was chaired by Akangjungla, Editor of The Morung Express.‘Every life has value’The second session, on the theme “Understanding your emotions,” was led by resource person Ketuno Sophie Imchen, Counsellor at Roots & Wings, Dimapur.She said mental health is about how people think, feel and behave, and that everyone has mental health just as everyone has physical health. Feeling sadness, anger or stress is normal, she said, but prolonged distress needs attention. Some of the common mental health challenges, the Counsellor identified were, stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, bullying and cyber-bullying, low self-esteem and peer-pressure. She encouraged the students to develop coping skills such as limit excessive social media, journaling thought and activities, practice gratitude and built healthy relationship.   She told participants that a person’s worth is not determined by marks, appearance, popularity or failure, and that “every life has value.”The session was chaired by Dr Sentisangla Imsong.Volunteers for both sessions were from Chuchuyimpang Kaketshir Telongjem Dimapur.The OSTD Academic Excellence was constituted in 2022 and since then five students have been conferred the recognition with cash and certificate.