Report on
“Experience New Horizon with a Twist”
New Horizon College of Engineering organized a campus visit program for parents of the students from PU colleges and schools around Bangalore. More than 100 parents registered for the event. The event started with the welcome address by Dr. AnithaRai ,Dean-Library and Alumni Relations at 10.00 AM in video conference hall, NHCE. Later, Dr. R J Anandhi, Dean Academics has explored the benefits of having Autonomous status in curriculum design that will benefit the development of students professionally. A presentation followed by the placement department detailed on placement activities carried out in NHCE campus for achieving student placements. The parents actively interacted with the Placement Department and clarified their doubts.
The second part of the program is scheduled to visit Center of Excellences and Physics, Chemistry, ECE & EEE Core labs. The later part of the program ended by conducting sports and fun activities for the parents. Finally, the program ended by taking the experience of the parents in the form of feedback.
Execution:
The parents had fun learning in classrooms, Center of Excellences, placement departments, and laboratories while lovingly remembering their younger years alongside our kids. A schedule of the scheduled lessons, with intervals for refreshments in between, was supplied to the parents.
The event was professionally planned and executed by the faculty and student volunteers. They were informed about smart technologies used by academics to improve instructional approaches. The parents also received hands-on experience in the laboratory. The fact that NHCE teaches students essential life skills that may be helpful in succeeding in life and at work impressed the parents. The partnership between industry and academia was explained to them during their visit to the center of excellence.
They got refreshed throughout the hour dedicated to fun & sports activities included “Ball in the Bucket, a feedback session and Musical jam session”.
Parents enjoyed travelling back in time and remembering simpler times while visiting colleges with their kids. At the end, the parents shared their valuable experiences through an interactive session hosted by Dr.Sowmya Narayanan, Head-CSLL.
Event Reports
To recreate the college experience for the parents, a unique program titled Experience New Horizon with a twist was planned for all the existing and prospective parents of New Horizon College of engineering. I t was scheduled for the 21st August at NHCE campus.
Preliminary meeting werechaired by Ms SargamManghnani, Director New Horizon Gurukul. The members included Dr Girija, Director QASDC, Dr Anita Rai, Head Library and Information Sciences and Dr Sowmya Narayanan Head Life Skills from NHCE. It was decided to float google forms to gauge the responses from parents. After receiving good response from parents the timetables for the day were prepared. Labs, Placement and Training centre, Centres of Excellence. Social media and Physical Education classes were chosen as centres of experience. The faculty were selected to represent the labs and were adequately prepared to create hands on experiences for the parents. Registration counter was to be handled by the MBA department headed by Dr Sheelan. Ms Aruna was in charge of the goodie bags carrying stationery and coupons for refreshments for the parents. The marketing team were entrusted with the task of preparing the placards to brand the event in the campus and messages for the social media.
The Execution
Close to 50 parents visited the campus on August 21st 2021. From laboratories, industry labs to placement departments and classrooms, they had an enjoyable time learning, reliving their younger days fondly along with our students. The parents were given a timetable of the scheduled classes with refreshment breaks in between.
There were staff and student volunteers who coordinated the event exceptionally well. Parents had a tour of our excellent infrastructure. They were apprised of smart technologies used by the faculty to enhance teaching methods. The parents had a hands-on experience in the laboratory as well. It impressed the parents to learn that NHCE teaches the students valuable life skills that could be of use in achieving success in life and work. The HRD created a one and half hour programme to sensitize the faculty to Life Skills and the robust process in place as far as Placement goes. Industry academia partnership was detailed to them in their visit to the centres of excellence. The social media class and the Sports hour gave them great insights to being social media savvy and to be fit. Visiting college with their children, going back in time, and reminiscing on the good old days was a memorable experience for parents.
At the end the parents shared their valuable experiences through an interactive session hosted by Dr.Sowmya Narayanan who also gave them a 10 minutes presentation on the achievements, accolades, Academics, Research, Placement and Training at NHCE.
Parents play a prominent role in the educational system as they are one of the important stakeholders. In order to interact with them, to take their inputs for giving the best education and also to give them the college experience which they might have enjoyed earlier, an event was planned to create a nostalgia for the parents of students of NHEI (NHCE, NHCM, NHCK, NHPUC, NHG) on 4th December 2021 from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm at the NHCE campus.
To create an awareness about this program, a google form was prepared and floated in various NHEI social platforms for online registrations from the interested parents. A total of 133 parents registered and confirmed for the program by specifying their preferred courses for the experience.
On the day of the event i.e. on 4th December 2021 there were registration desks set up for all the registered parents by the MBA department team which consisted of faculty and students. Registered parents arrived at the venue and collected their kit which had the schedule for the day along with goodies (Tee shirt, a notebook, a pen and food coupon).
There was an introduction given by Ms. Hima Bindu at the reception about the entire day’s itinerary. Participants were guided by the student volunteers at 10:15 am to the chemistry lab where the parents were given a hands-on experience of lab activities by the faculty of BSH department.
After experiencing the experiments for half an hour at the chemistry lab the parents were then guided to civil department lab at the Chhatrapati Shivaji block where they were taught how to do soil testing and how to measure the strength of construction material. Participants were found engrossed in learning the ways to conduct these experiments and were impressed with the infrastructure.
Around 11: 30 am all the parents were taken to Udupi canteen for a quick tea break. Eventually the parents were guided to go to the placement hall to experience the training given by the HRD team for students’ placements. The life skills team headed by Dr. Sowmya Narayanan conducted a mini placement training program for the parents with various activities related to Idea generation, communication skills, self-introduction, creative and critical thinking. Mr. Anees from the team addressed parents about the industry MOU’s signed by NHCE and placement procedures. It was a very interactive session where parents were seen actively participating.
After the placement session at 12:45 parents were led by student volunteer teams to various Center of excellence labs. The faculty of respective labs gave detailed information about the industry related latest engineering curriculum planned for the students to be future ready.
After a day of learning, recognizing and team building the group settled for lunch. The parents were then guided towards the basketball court for games. The participants were sportive and showed interest in playing the games conducted by the sports team of NHCE. The fun games were, lemon and spoon, musical chair, dribble and aim the ball into basket. The winners of each game were treated with chocolates.
Dr. Sowmya Narayanan addressed parents and collected their impressions for the day. Many parents shared their experience and said that they were highly impressed with the physical infrastructure and the way faculty were connecting & interacting with students. Some of them conveyed heartfelt thanks for conducting this event as it helped them believe the decision, they took for their wards in choosing New Horizon.
At the end the parents were thanked for taking the time out and making it for the event.
