Clubs @ Great Lakes 2010-11

Amidst the flurry of tests, quizzes, assignments and presentations that we reel under, who wouldn’t want some fun thrown in occasionally, especially when it appeals to people’s passions?

When some of the gladiators, with earnest verve, started different clubs, the others might have thought, it is all part of the initial enthusiasm that would eventually die down. After all, all the students are part of at least one committee or the other in the college, to name a few: the branding and public relations committee, the admissions committee, the placement committee etc with each having their own respective faculty mentors.  But, it was not to be, because, despite the rigorous schedule of classes, the founders of these clubs have ambitious plans – plans, they hope to execute with utmost sincerity and commitment! Some of the clubs like the Operations club for example, are about getting people to share their expertise and learn from each other with an eye on the careers ahead. We decided to catch up with some of these founders to get to know, what made them start the clubs in the first place and what plans they have, going forward.

The clubs and the founders are –

(L to R): Aadarsh, Anand, Divyangana, Kunal, Priyambad and Atul

Speech Club – Anand Narayanan

Quiz Club – Priyambad Pattanayak

Advertising club – Aadarsh Srinivas

Drama club – Atul Shivnani

Operations club – Kunal Prasad

Photography club – Divyangana

Here we go –

What made you start this club @ Great Lakes?

Anand: “I am part of the Wordsmiths Toastmasters club in Annanagar, Chennai. Toastmasters’ helps a person hone his/her communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Stage fear halts people’s thought process. I saw a drastic positive change in me after joining Toastmasters due to the positive vibes there. The mantra behind my success was the EMI (Encouraging, motivating and Inspiring) attitude of people around. To overcome stage fear and to communicate effectively, one needs a platform to experiment with one’s skills and to learn from others. This was the motivation behind starting the speech club here.

This speech club would provide each and every member, an opportunity to try out his verbal and non verbal skills and experiment with it. With this, everybody tends to learn as they get to know which experiments work and which ones grab the audience’s attention.”

Priyambad: “Being a passionate quizzer it was just a matter of time. We quizzers have what we call as, “The seven day itch”! A week without quizzing and we become restless! Once I found there were people like me interested in a club of sorts we got cracking and decided to start this club and meet regularly. Three meetings down, we are really enjoying ourselves. It’s great to find people from diverse backgrounds coming with some stunning cracks. It’s a great way to socialize as well for a packed schedule like ours keeps us busy and engaged throughout.”

Aadarsh: “Will an MBA degree help me in changing tracks? Can I switch trains to reach a destination that is called advertising industry? Will Great lakes help me in doing that? These were some of the questions that were rattling my mind before I joined the college. However, after I joined, I realized that I may not be the only one with such questions. I met a few individuals who were really passionate about advertising. That is when I decided that, a club is the best possible course. “

Atul: “The center of the stage is where I am.”- Martha Graham. Dramatics is nothing but a reflection of life. I have never felt better in my life than when I am on stage, becoming the character that I am playing. But it had been almost 3 years since the last time I took part in a play, and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to find like-minded people and start a theater club. I was the President of the Dramatics club called ‘Aaina’ in my engineering college, and in 4 years we produced some fantastic Hindi plays. The other major reason behind starting this club was to fill up the void of not having many student run cultural clubs in the college.

I believe that Dramatics is an art and a means of creative expression. It teaches you the importance of team spirit like only sports can do, minus the sweat. It gives you the confidence in addressing the crowd and contrary to popular opinion, you do learn to think on your feet.”

Kunal: “I started this club to bring together like minded individuals and build a strong network among batch mates, seniors and Alumni from operations background. I wanted to create a mix of enthusiasts from different backgrounds (IT & Non IT) who can learn, contribute and add value to each other by peer learning process. I truly believe that the best learning comes from peers. This club would eventually help individuals choose their industry and organization to suit their interest and career objectives.”

Divyangana: “Having learnt photography and being closely  involved in it for the past three years gave me an insight into how beautiful each object, when seen in its ‘proper light’, either in its individuality or in completeness with others, is. It taught me the importance of ‘perspectives’. Coming to a B-School with students dealing with high levels of stress, I felt it would be nice if the creative aspect of people is satisfied by bringing together like minded Gladiators so that each of us could share  the nuances we  learnt over the years.”

What are your plans for this club? What do you want to be seen as the club’s achievement in the year ahead?

Anand: “A well defined agenda to be followed throughout the year whenever we meet. The agenda would include a maximum of 3 prepared speeches and 12 Impromptu speeches along with evaluations for all the speeches. It would encompass opportunities to all the interested members to speak before an audience, stress on non verbal communication and a simple concept of “Learning by doing”. We also hope to have speech contests once every 2 months. At the end of the year, each member should be confident enough to address an audience, should have improved on non verbal skills to adapt to any speech style and should have learnt the art of captivating the audience which constitute the major aspects of any presentation.”

Priyambad: “We haven’t planned anything. The sole purpose is to have fun. Wind up after a hard day’s work (studies) to shoot questions and answer them. Later as the B-School Festival season begins, we would definitely want to represent Great Lakes and win some contests, but that’s about it. It’s more about the love of the ‘mind sport’”.

Aadarsh: “The main idea is to provide opportunities for the members to learn the nuances of the advertising industry through various activities that makes them industry ready at the end of a year. Having said that, it is not the industry readiness that drives the members. It is the passion for ads that drives us. The club is close to our hearts and we are taking care of each and every minute detail. For example, we are still in the process of christening our club. This has not been achieved even after scanning around 40 names in a span of two weeks. A special club needs a special name. We want this club to remain in this college forever. More importantly, we want to develop this club in such a way that, when we decide to hand over the mantle to our juniors, all they must experience is a nice and comfortable ride and nothing else!”

Atul: “I have big yet realistic plans for the club. I intend to pull off one stage act every term but that number can be reduced in the interest of quality. We’ll start off with a theater workshop for those who are gripped by the initial inertia. I hope that by the end of the year, we should have entertained people with 5-6 different offerings and set a high precedent for the batches to come. If I am able to co-operate with one theater house and stage one of our plays at LTG Chennai, I would consider myself successful.”

Kunal: “We as a group intend to learn from the experiences of every individual and incorporate the best practices of different organizations.We want to study Operations from every angle and seek guidance from Alumni, Faculty and Industry experts to help us have a clear understanding of the different opportunities – Job profile wise, Company wise and Industry wise so that we have a clear vision of what the future holds for us before opting for a career in an organization. We would also like to work together on projects and form teams to represent Great Lakes at different events and competitions. To sum up, we would like  to equip ourselves with all the knowledge and skills to compete with the best- in- class business professionals across organizations and help further strengthen brand Great Lakes.”

Divyangana: “We will have regular trips to scenic places in and around the campus. We will also have contests where themes will be decided and the wining pictures will be displayed on the notice boards. If I am able to arouse interest and maintain it in gladiators so that we go out and do take up photography as a hobby, I would consider it an achievement.”

Now, the gladiators can definitely look forward to a fun filled and happening year ahead…

– Sivaraman Natarajan