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New
Delhi:
Harvard alumni in India will join hands with the growing Indian
student community to make India the professional, academic and
cultural focus at America's premier Ivy League university that is
celebrating 375 years of its existence, alumni heads said.
Harvard University, which boasts of high profile names such as
union ministers Kapil Sibal and P. Chidambaram, held a first of
its kind interactive event in the Indian capital where alumni
members rubbed shoulders with current students and newly-admitted
students.
Around 100 people, including undergraduate and graduate students
and alumni from 12 Harvard schools came together over the weekend
for the reunion by the Harvard India Students Group. The US
varsity celebrates 375 years of its existence.
"The Harvard India Students Group is the first ever
university-wise students group for the Harvard students in India
in the long history of the university. This is also the first time
we had a welcome reception in India for newly admitted students to
Harvard where the students were introduced to a host of issues,"
Namita Wahi, president of the Harvard India Students Group, told
IANS.
The event saw participation from around 100 students from various
disciplines yet finding something common among them. The
disciplines were as diverse as law, social entrepreneurship,
business and academics, among others.
Over 100,000 Indian students are currently studying in
universities across the United States. The number is expected to
rise because of considerable increase in student visa applications
from the country.
"The Harvard Club of India seeks to promote national and global
public policy discourse, including proactive dialogue with the
central and state governments. We have never hosted an event of
this kind for the Harvard Students and community before,"
Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, president of the Harvard Club of India,
told IANS.
"Students from the Law School, the Business School, Kennedy
School, the Education School, the School of Public Health, and the
Design School attended the reception," Ghosh said.
Anirudh Burman, a newly admitted law student at Harvard, shared
his experience: "Knowing people from different backgrounds and
being similarly placed was indeed an experience for me. There is a
sense of familiarity I hope to notice when I go to study law at
Harvard."
"The number of students is significant. Since this was the first
time Indian students from Harvard met in India, there was also a
direct engagement between the alumni and the current students,"
said Wahi, who feels the reception brought them at the threshold
of an important moment in the history of Harvard-India relations
with "India increasingly becoming the academic, professional, and
cultural focus at Harvard."
The event was organised by the Harvard India Students Group, the
Harvard Club of India and the South Asia Initiative.
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