MBA Students Showcase Their Social Learning Through Posters

Students of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai displayed their learning and suggested solutions to some of social problems using their managerial skills on Saturday. The event was organised with The CSR Journal as the Media Partners for the event. Based on their 24-days internship across the country in Non Government Organisations (NGOs), public sector units and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments, students had prepared posters depicting their work and recommendations.

These posters were evaluated by judges coming from corporate firms, NGOs and CSR departments of companies. Aiming to sensitise students of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) course towards social issues NMIMS started ‘We Care: Civic Engagement Internship’ for their students. This year 586 students were placed in 248 social sector organisations across 23 states and 2 union territories from February 1 to 24, 2016. The sectors these students worked in were varied from empowerment, disability, environment, health, CSR among many more.

The poster presentation competition reflected the social internship work and also their inputs in the form of suggestions to the respective organisations they worked with. Some students were able to solve some problems using their technical and managerial skills. “We interned with Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Delhi where they needed an efficient data management system for their routine CSR activities. During our tenure, we created a Management Information System (MIS) for IOCL which was also accepted by them,” said Deepanshu Jeswani, student of first year, MBA. Adding to it, Gourab Ray student from the same team said, “Before completing our internship, we also taught them to use the MIS. According to figures provided by them, the system enabled reduction of 26% errors.” Team members Deepak Hada and Shiva Kartik interned with an NGO named Sol’s Arc. The organisation works for people with disabilities.

“We helped the organisation raising funds for their upcoming projects and connecting them to corporate world. We tried to figure out what kind of jobs can be done by intellectually disabled people by talking to various companies,” said Kartik. Explaining his experience that touched his life, Hada said, “I lived there for 24 days and saw them struggling and facing difficulties for their routine activities.

They had mentors but they can’t be expected to behave normally. They are slow learners and need repetitive teaching. I could learn it all only with my stay there.” Judges seemed to have a good time judging the posters. “I have been judging this event since two years and I find it a nice way to make the students of modern age relate ti the rural problems and sensitise them towards the real issues,” said Vinit Parekh.

While solutions provided by them looked good, there could be a room for enhancement further. “Some posters were good made with hard work but I believe there could have been more to it with system approach and more innovative thinking. There needed to be more sustainability oriented approaches,” said Bhawana Solanki, Senior Executive, Crompton Greaves. ‘We Care’ has been incorporated in NMIMS since 2010.

“CSR needs to be enrolled in the academic syllabus more evidently. We have incorporated CSR as a part of our syllabus since 2003 and consider it as a business function and not as an additional function. Our students suggested management driven solutions to the organisations they worked with,” said Dr Meena Galliara, Director, Jasani Center for Social Entrepreneurship & Sustainability Management, NMIMS.

(With inputs from Nilesh Wadhwa)   Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better. Regards, The CSR Journal Team