Have you even been to a college just before a big event? Thestudents running around with decorations, the hustle and bustle of volunteerstrying to keep up with the schedule, and something going wrong the last minute,is all part of putting a show together.
The ‘Odyssey’ event of Sridora Caculo College of Commerceand Management Studies is much like that except for the fact that they wereorganised to almost military perfection. Having departments akin to a corporateorganisation such as Creative, Marketing, Human resources, and Logistics hasmade it easier for the students to put this national level event together,where colleges were invited to have debates, quizzes and presentations.
So what went into this event and how did they manage? VolunteerSara Sequiera says, “This event showed us what it was like to work as a team. Thisis a national event organised solely by students and it was easy as we wereinexperienced. Whatever we learnt in theory was put in practice here, andworking together made organising this event possible.” Students in thesemanagement colleges are given a taste of the real world as they are givencomplete freedom to go get sponsors and funding for the event. And that’s notall. They are also graded on their performance as this event is treated as athird year project for the graduating batch.
Another volunteer, Anushka Braganza, recounts, “Working togetherwith so many students from such different backgrounds is a task in itself, gettingsponsors these days is not easy as big companies get no publicity out of it.Our college doesn’t have enough funds to make this event possible and going outthere was an experience. A lot of people said no, and that took some gettingused to as it was easy to get disheartened”.
This event has 13 colleges participatingand the various themes such as ‘Speed’ to make quick decisions, ‘SelfDiscipline’ to accomplish without being told, ‘Focus’ to obstruct distractions,‘Power’ to achieve your goal, ‘Intensity’ to give it all you’ve got and‘Perseverance’ to be determined and never give up. The Creative department alsohandles cultural events held on last day which includes a performance by a bandand a dance presented by Saraswat BBA students.
