Saturday, September 26, 2015

Inauguration of the new batch of MBA....my welcome speech.

Good morning Ms.Asma Sulthana, Smt.Archana Surana ji, Dr Appaniah, my colleagues, new students, and their parents, welcome. On behalf of the faculty and staff, and your senior students, I warmly welcome the new students to Surana College. To Asma I must say welcome back, since she is an alumna.

As many of you are aware Surana College is a twenty year old college, with this centre being established 15 years ago. We were established and are managed by GDA foundation which was started by visionary businessman Sri G.C.Surana.

I want to reassure all the new students and their parents, that you have made the right choice of college for your post graduate studies. I am confident you will learn a lot here and enjoy your stay here.

There are two aspects that I want to share with all of you. First some orientation to post graduate studies and second a few important rules.
Doing a post graduate program is different from doing an undergraduate program in many ways. The two most important things are, it is mostly about your learning by yourself and secondly, the final examination has two parts one your university examination and the more important one of securing a future in the real world. The world of careers and independent thinking is quite different from the academic world you have lived in all these years. A PG course is a gateway to a career and it is important to understand the other side well.

The main purpose in attending a college is to develop to the maximum in two or three years. For the next two or three years, you will hone your skills and gain knowledge. College will be different, will create uncertainties, and offer new ways of relating to one another and offer opportunities to make your choices. No one will say write this down or wake up on time, you will be on your own and there are many opportunities to learn, it is up to you how you use it.

There are many other differences in a post graduate program and we hope you will learn about them quickly. For example how time is spent in the classroom. Greater involvement of the learner is required, greater preparation before the class is needed if it has to be meaningful class, more discussion and participation is required, there is generally more group work and it is all about independent learning without anyone telling you to learn.

Another example is the workload. Workload might not increase compared to school, however it will be different. Greater depth will be needed, more analysis and critical thinking is expected, and your original thinking and way of looking at an issue will be valuable to everyone. There are differences in group work, study habits required and even family expectations. I am not trying to scare you, all I am saying is you will need to adapt to learning on your own.

I am sure you all know that much more than knowledge attitude is what makes successful people succeed. Research indicates that people can have either a fixed mindset or a growth mind set. Those with fixed mindset believe that you are what you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you have to do something different. On the other hand those with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. Those with growth mindset love challenges and see them as opportunities to learn something new. They will put in the effort and expect to succeed. We should all have a growth mindset and work with passion. We must do something rather than complaining all the time. We need to be flexible and trust in our selves.
We must have a growth mindset of believing that we can improve with effort.

Please come to college not only to listen to some lectures, but to meet and understand new friends, discuss and work in teams, make decisions, create and take part in events, and think about the various things you are exposed to and learn on your own.

Now very quickly, important rules and suggestions, In some ways we are a conservative college, while we encourage our students in a variety of curricular, co-curricular and extra- curricular activities, discipline is important here. Attendance is expected and essential. Dress code is important.
We are in a multi-storied building and one thousand of us use this building everyday. We need to be concerned about others. Less noise, quick use of limited canteen space, being in class on time, small things will make life comfortable for everyone. At Surana College we have strict policies about ragging and sexual harassment of any kind. If at any time you feel the slightest discomfort, please contact your faculty or me immediately. We have never had any issue till date and this is a really peaceful college. You should be relaxed and comfortable to learn and we want to give you that environment. Finally if you have any doubts about rules and regulations please ask and don’t assume.

My request to the parents; Please drop in regularly and help the student by giving them enough time and space to study.
To the students I will say, be happy, have fun and learn as much as possible from everyone.


Welcome once again.

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