Achievements
Student Achievements
Aaron Mistry
Aaron Mistry, under the Community College Initiative, was in Northern Virginia Community College, where he studied for two certificates - one in promotions and public relations, and the other in marketing management.
Alumni Achievements
Chaitanya Marpakwar
BMM Alumnus Chaitanya Marpakwar receives the prestigious Prakash Kardaley Award for Civic Journalism
Eminent journalist Chaitanya Marpakwar from Mumbai Mirror has won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Foundation- Prakash Kardaley award for civic journalism. The accolade is for his in-depth reportage on the citizen-led Save Aarey Movement, an initiative against the hacking of 3000 trees to construct the Metro car shed in Aarey forest, Mumbai.
The award, instituted in the memory of The Indian Express’s former Resident Editor in Pune, Prakash Kardaley, honours work in print journalism that highlights civic issues. The investigative reportage began in 2019 when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation gave clearance to tree felling just before the assembly elections. The follow-up further revealed that the EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) report was given to the tree felling authority just two days before the meeting, leaving hardly any time to study the impact on the proposed shed. The reportage featured how the government overlooked the EIA report that had warned that converting the forestland could lead to floods at the Chattrapati International Airport, Mumbai.
Chaitanya Marpakwar has been Principal Correspondent with Mumbai Mirror, the largest circulating tabloid of the Times of India group, since September 2012. He specifically works in the beat of civics and politics. He specialises in local campaign journalism, transparency and public policy reporting. Chaitanya holds a Master’s degree in Political Communication from Cardiff University. He is a recipient of the Asia Journalism Fellowship in Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. He is the alumnus of the Mass Media department at St. Xavier’s College, Batch of 2009.
Shrishti Khemka
Shristi Khemka in 2018-19 went to SOAS University of London for a semester, where she opted for a course on Cinema in South-East Asia as one of her credit choices.
Gehna Kapany
Gehna Kapany went to SOAS University of London for a semester where she studied Mind Culture & Psychiatry, New Media and Society.
Mayuresh Hendre
My Experience as a Nature and Wildlife PhotographerAs a child, I was always fascinated by nature. I still nostalgically remember my childhood days of climbing the roof of our ancestral home, trying to look for colourful birds, little insects and butterflies. This has always been the secret to my happiness.
The beginning of a new universe for me was when I got my first camera. It opened my eyes to a whole new world which looked more picturesque and engaging. My love for nature coupled with my camera ignited my passion for nature and wildlife photography.
I always wanted to tell stories through my photographs. This led me to pursue Bachelor’s in Mass Media (BMM) in St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. I still vividly remember one particular confidence building workshop. The workshop host asked everyone in the room to raise their hand and make a promise to themselves – A promise of what they will become in the next 10 years. I was the only one in the class who raised my hand and promised myself to become a Wildlife Photographer.
I believe BMM was instrumental in shaping my career and guiding me on the right path. I have always been proud to showcase my Xavierite tag, wherever I go. Since the past two years I have been working as a Destination Manager, Wildlife Photographer and a Naturalist in Assam, on the MV Mahabaahu – A luxury Cruise ship. As a part of this job, I have been lucky enough to explore the mighty Brahmaputra River and Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
During one of these cruises, I saw one of the most unique natural phenomenon – A Golden Royal Bengal Tiger. This Golden Tiger is a rare colour morph of the Royal Bengal Tiger with very few black stripes on the coat and a paler golden-yellow fur. The sighting went viral on Twitter and was picked up by many news and social media channels. People, joyful and excited, called it the find of the century. Intrigued by this sighting, I decided to find the real story behind the unique appearance of the Golden Tiger.
Unfortunately, I found after much research that this sighting was not a sign of joy, but a sign of concern. Golden Tigers are found in Zoos and breeding centres all across the world. But seeing them in the wild is very rare. This occurrence is believed to be caused due to recessive genes in individuals, as a result of inbreeding.
This is caused by habitat destruction and loss of connectivity. This means the Tigers in Assam are inbreeding due to loss of connectivity of Kaziranga with other Tiger areas. This is where the importance of Tiger Corridors comes in.
A tiger corridor or a wildlife corridor is a stretch of land which links two forests or protected areas to ensure movement of Tigers and other wildlife. These tiger corridors allow movement for tigers to find mates and breed beyond their home range, as they are already known to do.
I hope my photographs of the Golden Tiger help in starting a conversation about the conservation of wildlife in our country. Conservation Photography is the need of the hour as we head towards the 6th mass extinction on this living planet. I believe in educating people by using photography as a tool for conservation. Because in the end “We will only conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we understand only what we are taught.”
A Feather In Our Cap
We are proud to say that two of our Mass Media students have been selected into the prestigious institutions that are IIM Calcutta and IIM Ahmedabad for the MBA PGP courses:
Czaee Kolekar
BMM (Advertising) graduate 2019, scored a 99.09 percentile and has got in for the MBA PGP course in IIM Calcutta. 