Orientation 2015-16
07-July-2015
XIC ORIENTATION FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-16
XIC’s 46th Academic year 2015-16 began with Orientation for students on July 1st & 2nd, 2015 at the St. Xavier’s College Hall. The Orientation was also attended by parents and guardians of our students. This year the theme is "Communication Skills and the Preferential Option for the Poor”.
The Orientation programme began with a prayer followed by a welcome address and an AV presentation by Fr. Lawrence Ferrao SJ, Director-XIC. Dr. Jehangir. B. Mistry, Dean & Board Member then gave a brief report informing the students of academic challenges at XIC. Dr. Fr. Anthony Dias, Board Member, XIC spoke about social outreach.
The Key Note speaker was Dr. Agnelo Menezes, Principal St. Xavier’s College. Dr. Menezes holds a Ph.D. in "Social and Economic Geography of Urban Poor”. He stressed on the 3 Q’s – Quest, Question & Quiz. He also emphasised on the larger picture involving the human race and the planet Earth as an environment to take care and preserve.
Fr. Errol Fernandes SJ, Vice Principal, Commerce Section, St. Xavier’s College, gave passionate presentation and an overview of ‘Jesuit Ethos’.
Each Course Head and the course coordinator introduced themselves. At the end of the introductory talks, the students gathered in their respective lecture rooms for further briefing by the Course Heads.
Day Two had interesting ‘Classroom Survival’ sessions conducted by Fr. Terence Quadros SJ, Student Counselor, St. Xavier’s College. Special Ice Breaking sessions were introduced by Fr. Gordon Daniells SJ, Head Corporate Extension Services, XIC.
This was followed by two presentations on Social Involvement Programmes.
1. XIC students are very closely involved in the social cause, and each year a rural group is adopted. The students visit these areas, conduct workshops for them while learning their ways and studying their culture.
This year Bethany Society, running the Bethany Convent in Raigad district will again be the beneficiaries of the social outreach programme. Sr. Violet of the Bethany Society made a presentation on the works carried out by them.
2. GIZ, a German govt. organisation working on the subject of marine bio-diversity continues their partnership with XIC on the project. Their division CMPA – Coastal and Marine Protected Areas conduct workshops on sustainable development of bio-diversity. Dr. Neeraj Khera, Biodiversity Programme, Senior Advisor, Management of Coastal and Marine Protected Areas made a presentation on the successful pilot study conducted by last year’s C4D students of XIC.
Later in the evening the students had special interactive sessions with some of our XIC Alumni. Priya Chaphekar & Saurabh Gupta for JR, Mitalee Karmarkar & Arnold Wilson of PR, Ahil Amar & Tanvi Soni of AM, Brendon Benjamin, Sucharita Tyagi & Ramesh Tekwani of FT, Suvarna Dusane, Shachi Marathe & Mayuresh Ganapatye of MCM and Ashvin Mishra, Astrid Pereira & Taarika Chandy of C4D shared their own expertise and experiences.
Library orientation for each course was conducted in the following days.