News from BGR Campus | July 2021
Monthly Newsletter

CHRIST BGR campus saddled up to gallop through a series of events in July 2021. The showers of appreciation for our achievements outpoured the showers of the monsoons.

Well! Why wait? Let's find out what happened this month….

Director, BGR Campus

Congratulations !!! Shreya Pant, NCC 2/9 Coy

It was a proud moment for the entire CHRIST fraternity when four of our NCC student cadets studying in various disciplines of our University secured top ranks to serve the Indian Army.

Shreya Pant who pursues her Psychology degree from the BGR campus beams with pride and says

"I secured an All India Rank 1 in the NCC Special Entry 49th Course merit list. I will be joining the esteemed Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai shortly and will soon be commissioned into the Indian Army as an officer".

As she recollects her journey which was initially tough, she owes her achievement to her ANOs, teachers, seniors and friends.

"This success would not have been possible without the lifetime experiences I gained at Christ. The memories and learnings at my alma mater will always be fondly remembered and cherished."

Investment Planning for Beginners

In the webinar held on 16th July for the students of Business Managaement, Mr Pravin Budhauliya gave insights about how to be a smart investor.

Brief ideas and nuances of investing in various types of asset classes, stocks, mutual funds, financial markets and money markets etc., were discussed. There was an exchange of views between the guest speaker and students about the importance of fundamental and technical analysis in the market. Live examples like the IPO of Zomato, Performance and outlook of Pharmaceutical and Information technology industries were taken up. This seminar proved fruitful to students who gained knowledge about various investment options available in the market and clarified their queries regarding “Futures and Options”, “Derivatives” and financial markets in general.

How Effective Communication can help you get Results

On 23rd July, guest speaker Mr Shivraj Parsha gave an insight on effective communication, how it can be improved, the ways to build effective communication, how active listening plays a role in communication and various email etiquettes which were elaborately discussed. This proactive session was held for the students of the Department of Business Studies.

Theatre Wellness Program

The Theatre Wellness Program aims to address common challenging situations and distressing emotions faced by students during the Pandemic. Through a series of interviews and focussed group discussions, the primary areas of concern faced by students were identified. These situations are acted out by groups of students where one individual plays the role of the oppressed and the audience gets the opportunity to replace the oppressed actor and share his/her perspective on dealing with that particular situation.

The program, which is still in a very nascent stage, involves very active audience participation with the intention of helping the audience elicit multiple perspectives of dealing with adversity. The objective is to build greater shared empathy among the student community and broaden their solution bucket for challenging situations.

Peer Mentoring Session - Entrepreneurship Cell.

This session consisted of an audience from IIIC, Kengeri Campus and the lead coordinator Ms Lisha Mathew of IIIC. The aim was to educate the audience about what E-Cell is and what does it stand for. The audience was briefed about the MO of the club and the different types of events that are organized within.

Health and Built Environment

On 24th July 2021, an online session was conducted to understand the role of health and the built environment for creating psychologically informed environments for safety and resilience. Members of CWE (Citizens With Experience) who were part of the panel included Aaron Filler (Social and Cultural Lead), Daniel Akinola-Odusola (Cognitive Science and Data Lead), Rob Hayles (Health and Built Environment Lead), Sean P (Operation and Service Lead), and Naomi Glover (Applied Neuroscience Lead). CWE enables a series of networks from all stakeholders and experience to create a design, decision and creation ecosystem of multidisciplinary expertise and knowledge to resolve issues and create innovations

e-Adhyay: Online Socratic Readings

e-Adhyay was the online version of CCS’s “Adhyay: Socratic Reading” sessions aimed towards serving as a platform for young students and professionals to engage in themes and discussions around public policy. It was held on 23rd July 2021 and was based on the principles of the Socratic seminar. There was a discussion in which all participants read a common text and examined its meaning and implications together, following a delineated set of principles. To maintain the flow of the discussion, One participant acted as the moderator. The role of the Socratic moderator was to ask questions, raise objections, and help people to understand the author, the issues, and themselves.

The Socratic reading used in the event was -

The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits by Milton Friedman. The event had the participants voicing their opinions and suggestions on Friedman's views.

Career Guidance for International Business

On 22nd July 2021, a career guidance session was held with guest Speaker Prof. H. P. Singh, Founder, Director, Export Management and Service Institute, who introduced the challenges of the Export Industry and the demands of Industry. INCOTERMS were introduced along with the Export Documentation and Government of India agencies to facilitate the Exporters.

The Career Opportunities in Export Management and

Documentation Requirements in International Business were discussed in the session.

Guest Lecture by Col. Prasanna Kumar

The guest lecture titled 'Mega Trends for the Next Decade ' held on 29th July 2021, had Col Prasanna Kumar, an Indian Army Veteran with 22 years of experience in Special Forces and Logistics Services, also Professor of Strategic Management, Dayanand Sagar University, give insights on Change in job markets, how to prepare for future and Energy-efficient usage

It is estimated that as many as half of the world’s CEOs now view uncertainty as the single biggest external threat to their business.

The only way to find answers to the uncertainty we anticipate and the change that we fear is to ask the right questions. In the current zeitgeist, it can sometimes feel as if the march of progress is a speeding train, erratically driven by technology, in which we – the passengers – have no control over the outcome or destination. However, in truth, humans remain the real drivers of this change, and the digital acceleration we currently experience has not removed the human element from the equation – it has arguably made it more central. Essentially, humans are the change, and as the change is shifting, so are we.

Family and Marital Counselling

On 20th July 2021, Ms Sananda Paul, Counselling Psychologist and founder of the organization Mindful Life was the resource person of the webinar conducted to have a detailed understanding about family and marital counselling, for all the second and third-year students of the BSc Psychology Honours course.

Ms Paul also emphasised the importance of taking into account the unit of family in delivering an effective therapeutic experience. She explained how one’s family can be a source of support in helping people get better. Family therapy is a branch of psychology that is meant to help initiate change and nurture intimate relationships

The speaker gave case examples to illustrate the difference in effectiveness between individual and group therapies and also mentioned the different types of family therapies used.

Career Orientation - Day 1

A fascinating interaction with an industry professional Ms Apporrva Bellubi was held on 22nd July 2021. She is a senior sales manager at JTB India for over six years. The students were enlightened with the aspects of the travel Industry, The future of the industry after the pandemic. She also discussed revenge tourism and what damages it does to the sustainability of a destination.Topics such as broad division of the industry, Challenges in the industry and opportunities for freshers were also discussed.

Career Orientation- Day 2

The Students of 2-MTTM had a great opportunity to interact with Mr. Anoop Joseph, Director of Sales & Marketing at Marriott International on 29th July 2021.

The Guest discussed the future of the hotel industry after the pandemic is over and what improvisations the industry has undergone to survive the pandemic. The emerging trend in homestays at various tourist destinations was also discussed thoroughly. The speaker also guided the students about the sales process in the hotel industry and what are the different challenges in attracting customers. The influence of digital marketing in the hospitality industry was also discussed.

First-Aid session for Security personnel

The Security personnel of CHRIST BGR campus were given a Basic First-Aid session by Ms. Sonia Joseph, CCHS, on 31st July 2021. The management deems it necessary to keep all the employees educated on First-Aid, health and well-being and conducts sessions every year to refresh their knowledge.

Seminar on Academic Integrity

on 27th July, Dr. Vijayalaya Srinivas, Head of Department for Psychology, CHRIST (Deemed to be) University, Bannerghatta Road Campus was the speaker for a session on ‘Academic Integrity’. The session dealt with ‘Academic Integrity’. which according to UGC Regulations(2018), ' is the intellectual honesty in proposing, performing and reporting any activity, which leads to the creation of intellectual property". Students were then made aware of the various survey results based on ‘Academic Dishonesty’, and how it is a growing concern considering the recent scenario. They were also informed about the International Centre for Academic Integrity (ICAI).

The speaker spoke about the reasons for academic dishonesty such as time constraint factors, social ethics, pressure to succeed, and personal factors. and also discussed the pillars of academic integrity such as honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Finally, the measures to maintain academic integrity through mission statements, policies and procedures and making this topic a part of the curriculum was suggested. The importance of avoiding plagiarism not only as a student but also as a future academician was discussed citing the speaker's own past experiences as a scholar, co-relating it with the importance of maintaining academic integrity.

On the 22nd of July 2021, Christ (Deemed to be) University, Department of Masters in English and Cultural Studies, invited Dr Salome Divya Joseph to conduct a session circling stress management and its causes. The intricacies of psychological disbalance threw light on the importance of effective management of stress. She underlined the significance of a productive routine to manage stress on a day-to-day basis. With that, she also articulated how stress is inevitable. Dr Joseph explained homeostasis, a state of mind where the blood pressure and temperature are ideal, which when disrupted is what we’d call the state of stress.

Moving ahead, she elucidated the benefits of early stress management. This included curbing more profound long-term psychological disorders, preventing chronic major depression (PTSD), and preventing hippocampal atrophy and memory decay. While she broke down several pros and cons, the consequences of stress were put across to understand the audience entirely.

Wellness and Wellbeing – Coping with Stress and Time Management

She bifurcated these consequences into three categories: direct psychological effects, harmful behaviour, and indirect health-related issues. At the same time, direct psychological disorders were covered at the beginning of the session itself due to increased blood pressure. Destructive behaviour engulfed self-harming behaviours such as increased drug use, increased smoking, and alcohol while also losing sleep. On the other hand, Indirect health-related issues enveloped decreased compliance with medical advice and ignorance or lack of likelihood in seeking help.

With her years of experience, she took through a mindfulness session to learn and practice this every day

Coping with Stress

Dr. Salome Divya Joseph, Assistant Professor and Faculty Coordinator of the Department of Psychology, School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at SRM University, Amaravati, on 19th and 23rd July 2021, was the speaker of the workshop which focused on Wellness and Time Management. The speaker began by saying that stress is not something we need to eliminate but it is something that we must manage, given the current situation. The goal is to live with it and modulate it so that it enables us to.

Following this, Dr. Salome explained that the human body is usually in a state called ‘homeostasis’ where there is an equilibrium and calm in both, our body and mind. When this balance is disturbed, stress is felt. Thus, stress is a response to a particular situation or stimulus. She then proceeded to tell us that we have within us the ability to choose how we react to this absence of equilibrium by using the methods which she outlined for us later in the session. Before moving onto certain techniques which she had for us, she highlighted the harmful side effects of stress. Stress can cause major Depression and PTSD, as well as a condition called Hippocampal Atrophy which reduces our cognitive skills and memory retention. It can also impact immune systems; increase the amount of harmful behaviour a person exhibits and increase their dependence on substances like drugs and alcohol.

Dr. Joseph then gave us a brief introduction to two calming practices, 4-7-8 breathing technique and mindfulness meditation. She then asked all who were present to share how we felt after having followed her through the guided sessions. Students reported that they brought in a sense of calm and peace. This was followed by some practical advice on time management to modulate stress better

Guest Lecture - Suku Thomas

On 29th July 2021, Suku Thomas Samuel Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Kristu Jayanti College Autonomous, was the guest speaker for the lecture titled Skill Development on Data Analysis Using Spreadsheet. Data is the most dominant factor of this era and it influences all of ours’ professional and personal life. Hence, there is an urgency to learn how to handle data. This guest lecture addressed that the emerging demand of the decade. The focus was on data analysing using spreadsheets.

Building Blocks of Excel Data and DIKW Pyramid were the main topics of discussion.

.The event received two submissions. One submission was a passage by Olivia Maitra from 2PSYCH-B, based on ‘Geyser’ by Mitsky.

The other was a poem by Aashi Singh, based on ‘The Lakes’ by Taylor Swift.

Rhythmique Creations

‘Rhythmique Creations’ was an online event conducted in the month of June. The Forum called for submissions between June 05 and June 15 where participants were asked to talk about the journey of their gender and/or sexuality. They were encouraged to use their favorite song as a prompt to express what your journey had been like. Participants were given the creative freedom to opt to paint, write, draw, doodle or use any medium of communication of their choice

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News from BGR Campus | July 2021Monthly Newsletter