Staying In Touch

She discussed her problem with a group of students,a couple of who had just passed out while the others are still studying in the college. From there on,the group of seven students took it upon themselves to provide a solution to the problem. The students came up with a plan to digitize the alumni list and that,too,in a record 20 days.

“The few of us that have now passed out have always wanted to give back to college in some way or the other. We wanted a system that would ensure the connections between the alumni and their alma mater remain intact even in the future. Through our work we wanted to inculcate the habit of building strong alumni relations which is prevalent in institutions abroad for generations to come,” says Hunaid Vahanvaty (20) who is a commerce graduate from HR college.

It was decided in the very beginning to take on the entire alumni list since the inception of college,not a mean task since the records were in 300 record books. “We were pleased to see that all the old records that college provided us were in excellent condition and arranged in a systematic manner,” said Shweta Kapadia (20) now a third year student.

They students knew that on their own they would not be able to complete the task in the given time limit. They needed lots of computers and also lots of manpower to man the machines.

“We got the facilities from our institution as the college computers were at our disposal all the time. Manpower came from the students from various courses who eagerly volunteered for the job and worked tirelessly,” says commerce graduate Viraat Kasliwal (21).

According to graduate Zeres Wadia (21),the task at hand was to digitize about 34,000-odd entries. The project attracted about 100 volunteer students. “In a four to five hour session per day,each student managed to enter about 300 items,” says Wadia.

Everything progressed as planned by the students. “The pace at which the work was getting done was truly hectic but now we can say that all went according to plan,” says Jahan Pestonjamas (19) a second year B Com student.

To the surprise of the students,the project was completed ahead of deadline. “It was estimated that the work would take around 20 days to complete but with the cooperation of the staff and the dedication of volunteers we finished it in 12 days,” said Sonali Naik (20) S.Y. B.Com.

The entire alumni list is now available to the college authorities at the click of a mouse along with a printed hardcopy version.

“We found the names of some distinguished personalities such as Kumarmangalam Birla,Karan Johar,Suniel Shetty,Sagarika Ghatge,Rael Padamsee,Neil Nitin Mukesh,Anshuman Ruia,Prashant Ruia and our very own Dr Mrs Indu Shahani,” says graduate Sarosh Datta (21).

As a natural progression of their work the students are now aiming to verify the alumni addresses with the postal department,an exercise which would be soon undertaken.