Rousing welcome for first year students

“It’s heartening to see more and more students joining the arts stream as an informed career option, than as a last resort. Today, arts graduates also have an equal opportunity like the science and commerce students in the corporate world,” said Sunayani Parchure, vice-principal, Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce. Parchure was speaking on the occasion of the Fresh-ers’ Day organised for the first year BA students of the college recently.
“The transition from junior to senior college is not an easy one. The idea of the Freshers’ Day was to make this transition easy and introduce the new-comers to the faculty in an informal get-together,” said Parchure. “These stu-dent are going to stay with us for the next three years. So, it’s fitting that they get a rousing welcome to be part of the Symbiosis family.”
For once, studies took a backseat, and the students had a field day with fun and games. That’s not all. The newcomers also had the chance to display their talents, in singing and cracking jokes, among other things.
“It’s very important to find a common platform for student-teacher interaction. Events like this help build such a platform,” said Parchure.
During the event, most students said they chose to join the arts stream be-cause they wanted to do arts, not because they did not get admissions in ei-ther science and commerce. “There was a time when arts was the last choice for a students. But, this attitude is changing, thanks to the numerous job op-portunities opening up for arts graduates. Nowadays, you can even do an MBA after doing arts,” Parchure said.
Ranked thirteen among all arts colleges in India and ranked second in the city, according to a survey by a national magazine, the college, which offers specialisation in economics, English and psychology, has a reputation to live up to. “And, it’s not an easy task,” said Parchure. “Apart from the regular academic activities, we have a whole lot of co- and extra-curricular events lined up for the year ahead.”
On the cards are numerous guest lectures and workshops, on subjects rang-ing from training on developing soft skills to imparting career guidance. Apart from these the college also runs an autonomous diploma/ certificate course in Liberal Arts.
“Humanities, which is the focus of the arts stream, is a vast area of studies. A defined university syllabus cannot contain everything. Therefore, the Liberal Arts programme offers students an opportunity to pursue an in-depth study on the subject of their choice,” Parchure said. She added that the college also offers students to hone their skills in extra-curricular activities, be it seminars, paper reading competitions, cultural competitions in English, Hindi and French, staging skits and participating in theatre, debates, elocution, creative writing competitions, not to mention a placement cell to guide the students for their future.