As a prelude to the
Graduation Day Ceremony, an award function was organised
on April 6, 2007, at the ISB, to acknowledge students,
who during their one year, made a notable impact in
enhancing the image of the ISB. Professor N Viswanadham,
Executive Director, Centre for Global Logistics and
Manufacturing Strategies (GLAMS), also Chair Person of
the selection board for these awards, gave away mementos
and certificates to the deserving candidates.
The
ISB Young Leaders Award and the
ISB
Torchbearers Award was conferred to students, who
stood apart in their leadership qualities, commitment,
and quality of participation in student activities.
These awards were instituted to felicitate students, who
consciously contributed to Brand ISB by organising
events, initiatives, or extra curricular activities.
The awardees this year were carefully handpicked on the
basis of the innumerable volunteer hours they had put in
and helped with various activities such as placements,
admissions, clubs, ISB blogs, summits, conferences,
events, communications, winning B-school competitions,
special initiatives and a host of other activities.
Sindhu Shanmugam is one among the six recipients of the
Young Leaders Award. The others being Prabkirat Sanghera,
Sachin Vij, Mala Paropkari, Ali M Potia and Ruchi Kalra.
”It is extremely gratifying to be honoured with this
award especially since it comes from the people I have
so respected and admired all through my days here at
the ISB. I am truly humbled by this honour, and I hope to
prove myself worthy of it in the days and years to
come,” said Sindhu.
Sindhu has been a part of various activities at the Net
Impact like Blood Donation, Fund Collection Drives, etc.
She pioneered the ISB Radio and has brought laurels to
the institution at various B-school competitions, and
was part of the Prime Minister’s Office Plan. After Grad
Day Sindhu will be pursuing an entrepreneurial
opportunity for an Indian firm and her team is looking
forward to launching a new business initiative.
Prabkirat Sanghera is another Young Leader of 2007. He
also ran as the President of the Graduate Students
Board, “I feel greatly honoured at being selected for
this prestigious award,” he said. Prabkirat will be soon
joining the Tishman Speyer Leadership Development
Program in New York.
“The ISB Young Leader Award, as recognition of voluntary
contribution to ISB events, is no doubt one of my
biggest achievements in life. This honour will always
motivate me to learn and out perform in future
endeavours,” said Ruchi Kalra, dynamic Young Leader 2007
Sachin
Vij added to the victory mood, “I am privileged to have
been chosen as an ISB Young Leader of the batch. It
gives me a feeling of accomplishment and an assurance,
that the path I took as President of the Marketing Club was
the right one.” Sachin felt that this award was a true
recognition of the energy and commitment which his core
team displayed, throughout the year, towards raising the
performance bar of the Club. “I believe it is our
initiative of designing a unique format for Ikshaa – The
Marketing Summit, and its successful execution at a huge
scale, which probably commanded merit from the judges. I
would dedicate this award to the spirit of the Marketing
Club,” he said. Sachin will be taking a break for two
months and “re energizing” himself before joining GE
Money in an Experienced Commercial Leadership Program.
Mala too conveyed her delight at being the chosen one.
“I am definitely pleased! It is a prestigious award. It
could be my role as Placement Director for the batch,
which entails a high degree of commitment,
responsibility, people skills and ‘strategizing’ for
quality placements, that determined my chances for this
award. I am now looking forward to serving the Government
of India better with renewed vigour, now that I have
honed my skills, am armed with a fresh perspective, a
fantastic learning experience and a great network of
friends in the Batch of 2007– all enabled by ISB,” she
said.
Winner among the 44 Torch Bearers of the year, Shreyansh
Daga also President of the Finance Club said, “I was
expecting this award because of the effort and time I
have put for the Club and ISB. I spearheaded the finance
recruitment and the number of finance offers this year
has doubled as compared to last year. It has been the
best ever placement for finance jobs this year. I have
also helped build the ISB brand through 11 workshops and
one mega event – the Capital Market Conference.
Additionally, I have been instrumental in helping ISB
students in interview preparation and have helped over
50 students on a one to one basis.”
Shreyansh is joining Goldman Sachs in their Investment
Banking division in London and plans to make a long term
career with Goldman Sachs. “I am also looking forward to
helping the next batch in cracking Goldman interviews,”
he said, promising never to break ties with his alma
mater.
Shivanand Sinha, another enterprising Torch Bearer
added, “This is not the end but the beginning of my
lifelong association with the School. I aim to carry
forward the good work I have done here and hope to take
many more initiatives in the future which will help the
School attain unprecedented glory”.
The
Experiential Learning Programme (ELP) Peak Impact Award
was conferred to the team comprising of Ajay Aravind,
Alok Bhagwat, Nandan Savkur, Sharath Menon and Varun
Gupta. Their innovative ELP plan recommended a market
entry strategy and formulated a sustainable growth plan
for an upcoming B-school.
Says Ajay, "Executing this project has been, by far, the
best experience I have had at the ISB. It gave me a
platform to not only apply the skills learnt during the
core terms, but also to understand my aptitude for a
consulting career. I am elated to be recognized by the
School for the efforts that we put in. I am glad that we
could help another new school to build a place of
learning for MBA aspirants"
Teammate Alok adds, “I think the best part of the
project is that, being B-School students ourselves, we
helped develop a blue print for more B-schools to be
set up in the Indian market. If we add up the numbers, we
see there is a huge scope and need for competent
B-schools in days to come. So the "impact" that our
project would have on the student community as a whole in
the future, would be far more enduring than the impact
on our 3-month project or even the client for that
matter. This feeling makes the Peak Impact Award even
more special to me."
Varun responds, “I would say I am not completely
surprised with the news, given the effort we had put in
and the fruits it bore for our client. Nonetheless, it
is an honour to receive this award, especially when you
are pitted against other excellent endeavours of your
competent batch mates.” Team member Nandan shares, “The
project was an excellent team effort, leveraging the
strengths of individual team members. Managing the
project along with the rigorous ISB schedule was tough,
but highly enjoyable because of the excellent
professionalism, camaraderie and collaborative efforts
displayed by each one of us.” Another team member
Sharath puts in his bit, “This project was an effective
platform to draw upon our curriculum and to test our
nascent consulting skills. It gave the team the
opportunity to delve deep into the complexities of a
real time start-up and also to understand and respect
the achievements of our own School, the ISB. The support
and appreciation from the client and the ISB has been a
constant source of inspiration and played a major role
in helping us to push this engagement to a fruitful
completion despite the rigorous schedule.”
