Summer Program for Alumni Children

IIMB alumni office organized a 4.5 days residential summer program for teenagers(14-17 years old) between 21-24 May 2019. The program was open to the children of alumni who completed a degree or diploma program at IIMB. This was aligned to our efforts to strengthen engagement between IIMB and alums of the degree/diploma granting programs (PGP, PGP(S)EM, EPGP, FPM, PGPPM). The program met expectations of all stakeholders and was a huge success.

We had 23 participants with an average age of 14.80 years (9-12 std). 13 girls and 10 boys from seven different cities – Dubai, Delhi, Mumbai, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. All the kids were hosted in “D” block and we had at least 2-3 adult volunteers who stayed the night in the hostels for general oversight. This was being done for the first time and we had butterflies in our stomach! IIMB faculty did not have the experience of working with teenagers and it quickly dawned upon us that this would require us to reach out to facilitators who worked with children. Since this was a residential program, it was important to ensure the safety and well being of the kids. After much deliberation, we decided to allow single occupancy instead of the earlier planned double occupancy in the rooms.

Program Design: We wanted the participants to have a great time, get exposure to student life at a “B”school and take back some wonderful memories. We  iterated through some ideas before coming up with a design that provided an opportunity for the kids to learn something new, apply the learnings to their circumstances and have fun. The content had to be activity oriented and experiential. Finally, we decided upon a design that focused on five different aspects of learning – problem solving and growth mindset; effective communication and public speaking; theatre; environment and science; and career advice. That apart, we had yoga sessions every day in the morning, a case study by Prof. Sourav Mukherjee and interaction with a NSRCEL startup (theverbstudio – learning dance through online lessons). 

Around 6 kids arrived a day earlier – on 19 May. On 20 May, the first day of the program, we had an interaction with the parents and the children at 8:30am over coffee. The parents were excited about the program and they wanted their children to have a wonderful time – presumably away from gadgets, TV, computer, social media, etc! Since the hostel mess was closed for summer holidays, the kids had their breakfast and lunch at the staff canteen and dinner at the MDC. The mornings began with yoga and stretches at 6:30am. Some of the children got to play badminton at the sports centre. 

The first day was important. The kids were in a new environment with strangers and had to get comfortable with one another.

Day 1: The first day was taken by Subha Parthasarathy, founder of Magichive, an experienced counsellor and trainer, who focused on problem solving, growth mind set and team work through activities and games. It was held at the Sports Centre. URL – www.magichive.in

Day 2: This was taken by Rakesh Godhwani, Adjunct Professor at IIMB and founder of the School Of Meaningful Experiences. The children thoroughly enjoyed the nuances of effective communication, debating and public speaking. URL – https://some.education

We had a one hour case study session in the evening by Prof. Sourav Mukherjee and the children got a jhalak of what their parents went through on campus :))

Day 3: This was taken by Gayathri, founder of Science Hopper and her team. The participants enjoyed learning many concepts through experiments and visits to facilities such as the bio-gas plant. They got to know about renewable energy and sustainability. URL – www.sciencehopper.com

They had a session in the evening with the founders of TheVerbStudio, a startup incubated in NSRCEL. They had so many questions for the founder and we were pleasantly surprised with the range of questions that were asked!  And they got to learn the nuances of different types of dance and learnt a few steps!

Day 4: Children learnt about symbolism, space and other nuances of theatre from the founders of You and Me Theatre, Dr. Rajshri and Sharath. They learnt to write their own script and enact a story using all kinds of props. URL – www.youandmetheatre.com

The kids were treated to pizzas in the evening and watched a movie in the classroom. It rained heavily in the evening!

Day 5: A two hour session on careers and advice for teenagers and the parents was taken by Rahul Reddy from Career Launcher. Logins were created by CL on their platform aspiration.ai. The portal helps students and parents get more information, understand their strengths and track progress. URL – http://aspiration.ai

Prof. Raghuram G, Director IIMB and Prof. K Kumar, Dean – Alumni Relations & Development and S Parthasarathy, Head – Alumni Relations and the parents attended the Valedictory function where Certificates of Participation  were given away by the Director. 

The alumni office team of Rohini, Sushma and Ankita ensured that everything went off smoothly. All of them took turns to stay for the night in the hostels despite having their own little kids at home! They took the kids for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day apart from organising fresh juices and biscuits in the morning and afternoon. They thoroughly enjoyed the company of the noisy and boisterous teenagers and it was a nice change for them. Padma, from the PGP office, volunteered to stay in the hostels for four nights and Anamika, PGP 92, stayed for two nights at the hostel for general oversight. Thanks to all of them for their contributions in ensuring everything went off smoothly!

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