A while ago, I was sitting at the popular peace point/suicide point of my college (IIMK) and was contemplating the future. I was imagining what it would be like, ten years from now in terms of my career, my personal life and then, I looked around myself and started imagining what the institute would become in another ten years. Will it reach altogether a new pinnacle and achieve a glory un-paralleled in its history or will it just fade away as one of the many IIMs in the country? Taking my thoughts further in this direction, I began my quest on a journey to quench myself with an answer for this puzzle eluding me.
What or rather, who play an instrumental role in helping any institute reach its zenith? Maybe, it is a bunch of Mathews, Aranhas, Deys, Adikaris and many other professors who flock the campus and inspire, motivate and mainly facilitate the learning at the great temples of wisdom. Or maybe, it would be a phenomenal leader at the upper echelons of the management of the institutes, inspiring an unrequited devotion among the staff and the students who literally and figuratively would globalise the Indian thoughts with our institutions as a medium. Or maybe, some new world class, un-paralleled and un-matched infrastructure will attract the best minds in the country and will help in elevating the existing high standards to a new level perhaps. While my mind was whizzing away to find a solution to the above mystery, I stumbled upon a very simple, truthful and striking answer which was, me. I realised that it would be the students of any institution – including a current one like me, or the unnamed, no faced pupils who will be taking an admission to the college with a bucket load of hopes and a penchant for learning and most importantly the distinguished alumni of the institute who have achieved various levels of success in various domains of life.
I still remember, one of the profs of my institute once commenting in the class that-the past, present and future students are the ones who will always be the permanent stakeholders of an institute. In that case, it is our contribution to the college, the things that we can do for the institute which will be monumental in shaping its future. The alumni must pitch in and take an active role in the happenings of the college. In fact, I personally feel that they must be strongly connected to the college and have a say in running the institute. IIM A has set an example by successfully utilising its alumni base to achieve the pinnacle that it has reached today.
If the institute soars to great heights it will be we - the students who will be reaping the benefits of it and vice-versa. So, I urge my fellow students and the distinguished alumni of all the institutes to come forward and do our own little something for the institutes that we have studied in and help it in becoming an ultimate temple of learning such that any student graduating out of the institute could puff out their chest and feel ultimately proud to call that beautiful place as their alma-mater.
Finally, to all the MBA aspirants out there, do think about the value that you can provide to an institute rather than thinking about the value additions that the institute can provide to your CV.
Krutika A Chinde