This weekend I had the honor of being one of the dignitaries at the launch function of the Alumni club of a young university. The alumni club of the Dr MGR University met for the first time on the 26th of January 2014 and set into motion a formal alumni club. Apart from the various guests the committee that convened the event provided me the great opportunity to share the stage as one of the guests and share my thoughts on the occasion. Being one amongst them I felt it was a great chance to speak on behalf of my fellow alumni. When we were students it was an engineering college affiliated to the University of Madras and the same has now grown on to become a Deemed University.
After listening to a host of talks from various guests and taking away a lot of useful inputs for how alumni can associate with the alma mater, I spoke on the importance of living up to the mission of the institution through which we all passed out – ‘To encourage our students to be Job Creators rather than Job Seekers” To my surprise a lot of us had turned entrepreneurial. It was inspiring to see classmates, seniors and juniors gather in large numbers and acknowledge the happiness of being part of the same community. I enjoyed sharing my ideas and opinions on how the alumni club itself can act entrepreneurially and create a network that will not only enhance the value of the University but also provide a strong leverage to all the alumni.
We all went around the campus that had changed over the last decade. It was great meeting our faculty members who sacrificed their weekend to be with us on a Sunday evening. One more round of inspiration from the community (teachers) who are why we are where we are. Every successful person always quotes a teacher in his / her life who had shaped their careers. This shaping also seems to have happened in subtle ways.
An interesting part of the event was to recognize successful endeavors of alumni in a variety of domains including academic excellence, research excellence as well as business excellence apart from corporate excellence.
I enjoyed the event and came back with a lot of thoughts and questions on how entrepreneurship can be applied to areas beyond business enterprise creation. I hope to reflect and write on them in the coming days.
Thanks to the Dr MGR University Management and the MGR Alumni Association (MAA) for giving me this wonderful opportunity. It was truly an honor and experience that I will remember for a long time.
Look forward to meeting more friends and alumni in the next meet up on 26th of January 2015. Hope more people can make it!
Raj's Lab 