When it comes to academics, I heard many academicians say “Learning has no age bar” and even “learning is an unending process”. On thinking a little bit more about it, I felt, “Yes, this seems to be exactly the way it is quoted, but in a literal sense”. I say this because most of us have spent years together in this process, but how many of us have reached our destination? Most of us end up our journey before we attain our goal. Learning cannot be considered to be a small eventuality instead it is a mile stone. It has its own angular dimensions. I can define the word ‘learning’ as a well drafted course of action that has its own beginning, fate and end.
On my very first day in the class room of FYBMS, I was in full swing with my friends when suddenly this phrase “A learner can be said to reach his destination, when he leads his wisdom towards the cause of humanity” struck my ears and caught my attention towards the one who quoted this. As I looked up to see who the person was to speak those inspirational words, I acknowledged that it was none other than Prof. Shripad Bapat – a Visiting faculty for the BMS section. He qualified himself in BE- ELECTRONICS, post which he completed doing BBM. Apparently he is completing his Masters in Information management i.e. MIM from the Mumbai University. Prof. Shripad Bapat had worked in the IT sector for more than 12 years. But since 2008 he has engaged himself into the stream of academics. He is a renowned professor who teaches subjects related to MBA, BMS, MMS, BBA, MCA, and BANKING & INSURANCE.
The time when he entered into my class room all I could think of was what new change this man is going to mould in me. As time passed by he developed an interactive session where he asked us to introduce ourselves to him and so did he. In the later half of this period, he put forth the idea of demonstrative session to be conducted. To this all of us including me agreed to do so. Initially he divided us into four groups- Two groups from the boys’ row and two groups from the girls’ row. Out from every individual group he elected a leader where other three friends were the leaders of their own individual group, so was I elected for the very first group. He then handled us a bundle of straws, a few strands of threads, few rubber bands and a blade. Out of these materials he asked us to prepare an innovative model just in a time limit of 10 minutes. What then! Every group started to think about it and tried making the best out of it. As the timer stopped all of us were amazed by looking at the output that concluded by each ones efforts. My heart throbbing fast, I was thinking what next he is going to ask us to do as a leader. Prof. Bapat wanted every leader to one by one come on the dice and give a brief description on the model that we prepared.
When we all were done speaking he gave us an extreme look. “Why was it for?” I asked. A pretty effective response that he gave me was “It’s all about empowering talent to understand, imagine and create because if we are able to do so, we can drive the world”. He fundamentally transformed the way I used to think. He made sure that his message came across our minds. He soughted us into groups in order to develop a model, for the very main purpose that it would help we students to create effective team-building skills and understand the value of these competencies to the goal. I saw not only an increase in motivation and self esteem but also an increased success.
This experience is meaningful to me because it revealed to me my strength in communicating my vision to the team and keeping them focused on our objective. Indeed, a shared vision is essential to motivate a volunteer team to take risk and perform beyond expectations. I, however, recognized that I need to develop a confident and assertive leadership style. This proved to be a huge blow to my self-confidence as it taught me two great lessons: being assertive when required and allocating responsibilities to all. Later, when I faced a similar situation, I did not hesitate to escalate it, and this time overall result was much positive. Thus, this setback taught me valuable team-working skills that I am now practicing successfully. What emerges from these examples is the unmistakable evidence that faculty are the force that fuels transformational change in basic skills instruction. In each of these practices, he propelled every aspect of design, experimentation and revision. His efforts provided me an example of how a meaningful and motivational context can support transformations in learning and promoting measurable gains in basic skills.
My words may fall short to describe him on the contrary. He is the only one who has inspired me in exploring the best out of me. So a humble prayer to God Almighty that he keeps on sending wonderful professors like that of Prof. Bapat in every generation.
Submitted By-
Margaret Bailey
(Bharat College)
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