Extra- curricular activities are essential for the holistic development of student. These activities are fun-filled with lot of learning and therefore are the main attraction to the students. The extra-curricular activities teach the students organizing skills and develop in them the spirit of team work and leadership. These activities fall outside the realm of normal curriculum of university education, are voluntary and often involve others of the same age. The activities are directed under faculty sponsorship.
Extracurricular activities lead to higher educational retention, success and achievements in college life. The greatest advantage of participating in at least one of these activities is the build-up of social behaviours and students growing up to be more successful in communication and interpersonal relationships.
Crescendo is the largest inter-collegiate youth festival of Central India. It is one the popular youth festivals of the region, which brings a footfall of over 20000 students for various, fun filled, cultural and sports competitions. Tirpude Institute of Management Education (TIME) organizes this festival every year and tries to convey a message of social importance to the student communityby weaving a theme in the festival. The theme chosen, every year, signifies the importance of some current situation which largely affects the society at large – for example, the theme for Crescendo 2017 was ‘Cashendo-ATM’, signifying the current Government’s new policy of cashless economy and the limit on cash withdrawal from ATM machines across the country.
Some themes from the past, for Crescendo,are‘Mafia Masti’, ‘Nasha! Addicted to Life!!’, ‘Mosaic’, ‘Stripe-up’, ‘Entertainment kaGaramJugaad!’, ‘Happiness ka Junction’ and ‘Cashendo-ATM’.
Through these themes TIME is making the student community aware of the various ill effects of different types of addictions like Drugs, Violence, Alcohol& Tobacco. TIME, at the same time also endeavoursto communicate that the youth turn towards life and get addicted to good things in life like relationships, humanity, friendship, brotherhood and love. Hence the posters, designed to promote this festival and its events, boldly proclaim the chosen theme for the festival each year.
Some of the activities that are undertaken to promote this massive youth festival are:Flash Mobs (Street dance performances at Traffic Park, Futala, Poonam Chambers and leading malls), Street Plays (scripted specially for highlighting the dangers of drugs, violence, alcohol, etc.), Bike Rally, Walkathon (with specially made posters highlighting ill effects of drugs, violence, etc.)andExpert Talks (on de-addiction and non-violence).
The entire gamut of Crescendo events are organized under ‘Sports’ and ‘Cultural’ groups and TIME follows a corporate style of organization structure, entirely manned by students, to execute this mega event. At the top is a CEO, who has COO (Sports) and COO (Cultural) as under him/her for their respective functions. Both the COOs, in turn, have Directors and GMs under them who are responsible for individual events. The students thus get to understand the importance of organization, discipline, timeliness, delegation of authority, accountability and such other management functions followed by corporate.
A huge team of studentsworksrelentlessly and enthusiastically for the success of Crescendo. Above 2000 entries are received from different colleges in the region by the organizing team, every year, for competitions under various events. This youth festival kick starts in a unique way by way of ‘Crescendo kaMela’, which is a college fete organized to generate excitement and interest. Students are invited to simply revel in the atmosphere created for this purpose. As far as organizing is concerned, everything is ‘of the students, for the students, by the students’. A work culture of creativity and efficiency is the hallmark of Crescendo and all events & activities, from marketing to hospitality, are managed by the students themselves.
Tirpude’s Premier League (TPL) is a concept by the Tirpude Group of Institutions (TGI) for its undergraduate students. The idea of TPL is to engage students in various sports, cultural, co-curricular as well as extra-curricular activities and thereby inculcating in them a healthy competitive spirit supported by teamwork and motivation for a sense of achievement. Also, by actively participating in the events organized under TPL, the students get a chance to interact with each other, know their strengths and weaknesses and also learn from each other.
The key patrons of TPL are the Director, the Dean, Programme Coordinators, and selected students who form the TPL Governing Council. The TPL governing council formulates rules, regulations and also implements the TPL annual calendar.TPL Governing council has introduced the TPL Organizing Committee into play to design, device and orchestrate the various competitions all along the year, as per the schedules made. TPL Organizing Committee consists of the PEP In-charge and the PEP Coordinators who are assisted by a team of selected students from BBA and BCCA 1st, 2nd and 3rd years. These students are involved only in planning and conduct of the competition and do not compete in the competitions themselves.
The teams formed as a part of TPL are a mix of all the three years of BBA & BCCA courses. The teams formed are named and are also assigned logos to render them identities. The teams are: Super Boulders, Gladiators, Dynamos, Jaguars, Mustangs, Titans, Typhoons, Wizards, Comets, Hawks, Falcons, Mavericks, Thunderbirds, Trojans, Tornadoes and Eagles.
As a part of the Institute’s endeavour to develop its MBA students, it organises this intra-collegiate event for MBA students, every semester. Management Aptitude Development a. k. a MADness in Tirpude’s jargon is a reason for students to learn under the pretext of enjoyment. MADness represents another innovation, by Tirpude Institute of Management Education, in knowledge dispersion.
MADness is a fun filled event through which MBA students get to use managerial skills learnt in the classroom. A specific theme is also floated for conduct of this exercise. The theme last year was ‘Hawaiian’. Students are grouped into 9 different teams to compete with each other for 6-8 different activities that included academic, teambuilding, coordination, communication and creativity related activities. The last MADness activity was held at Pench, a picturesque outdoor locale near Nagpur. At times, even the faculty members were divided into two different teams who also followed the theme and equally participated in all the activities for encouraging the students.
Activity like branding whacky products like black beauty cream, height reducing tonic, lip crack balm, aging cream etc. gave students opportunity to show their marketing skills for branding unusual products.Hurdle relay race which involved very challenging tasks like pulling a person sitting on truck tyre, plank walk, caterpillar race etc. helped students learn and execute teamwork.
Many other games and activities wereare conducted during MADness on these lines. The students not only have fun at the event but also learn the practical aspects of management like Teamwork, Coordination, Organizing, Time Management etc.
Fresher’s party
Tirpude Institute has a tradition of welcoming it’s new batch of students, every year, with fanfare. ‘Freshers party’ is organized by the senior students under supervision of faculty members. The purpose of this is to make the new batch of students comfortable with the institute’s existing students and culture. Enabling them to adjust easily to co-existence is the primary motto, since these students will be participating in myriad activities of curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular nature during the next 2 or 3 years.
Generally, outdoor location is selected as the venue and senior students plan all activities to be included in the fresher’s party. They include, under a chosen theme, fun games, interesting competitions, music, dance, interaction with seniors and also interaction with faculty members under informal settings.
Farewell Party
During their 2 or 3 years of tenure with the institute, students form a strong bond of friendship and cooperation with their batch mates, seniors, juniors, faculty members and also with non-teaching staff. A strong association is formed with the institute by now and moving ahead in life calls for an end of this bond. This is an emotional phase in the students’ lives and in order to make it memorable, the institute organizes a farewell party to commemorate this student-institute association.
Farewell party is also on the lines of fresher’s party, with outdoor locale as the venue. All activities designed for this party are fun-filled, include music, dance and are surcharged with bonhomie and camaraderie. The institute believes that this association is precious and as such needs to be preserved. Hence the students passing out of the institute are made members of its ‘Alumni Association’ –Tirpude’s Reign of Youth (TROY).
Industrial visits form an important part of management students’ curriculum since they get an opportunity to experience the practical business field and environment. Keeping this in mind, Tirpude Institute organizesindustrial trips to relevant manufacturing and service organizations.Students’ regular visit to industries is an important pedagogical practice in Management studies. These visits are aimed at inculcating insights to put theoretical knowledge to practice.
The industrial visitsare planned in such a way that students get to visit all departments of the company/organization being visited. Their interactions with people holding various positions are also facilitated so that doubts/questions the students may have are answered.Thus, students are able togain knowledge on how these departments work and how they are integrated with each other. Students also get to study the management structure existing and also various facets like production process, HR policies and procedures, marketing strategies, financial aspects, use of technology, quality of work life, employee morale, etc.
The institute feels that the students need this type of industrial exposure so that they can be familiar with the policies, procedures and working environment in industries and can easily adapt themselves to the dynamic business world.Their outlook of future assignments in their professional lives,later, is likely to be influenced. This also impresses upon them the importance of being ‘job ready’.
Following are some industrial visits, which the institute arranged in September, 2016:
a. Crystal Furnitures , Nagpur
b. Parle G Biscuit Factory (Shivam Foods), Nagpur
c. Plasto Industries, Nagpur
d. Stewols India Ltd., Nagpur
Around 400 students of BBA, BCCA& MBAparticipated in this visit and were accompanied by faculty members of the institute. Students were shown around the various departments and huge infrastructure built by these companies so meticulously.
Students were quite impressed to learn these facts. The information, guidance and support provided by the industry personnel were of great help to the students to understand the entire process – from manufacturing to markets.