First week at YIF was a hectic, breathless immersion into the routine of YIFP. Classes from 9 to 7, introductions to everyone around and settling in with new roommates.
The best thing about these courses is the professors. Sociology is by Padma Bhushan Dr. Andre Beteille from Delhi School of Economics. He started teaching in 1959 and is a spout of information. Leadership is taught by Dr. Dwight Jaggard from University of Pennsylvania. He’s 64 and I’ll be glad if I have his energy when I am that age. He looks like he’s in his early fifties by the way. Shakespeare is brought to life by Dr. Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English at George Washington University. I read Shakespeare in abridged version before and gave up on the original text. Gil’s classes opened up the door to a whole new world. The multiple interpretations and perspectives and the depth in Shakespeare’s Tempest inspire me to read all of his work. But, that would take another year. English writing is conducted by Dr. Eric Saranovitz, Associate Dean at the 9.9 School of Convergence.
Only 5 weeks in a term and so much to cover. The classes are quite long, especially Leadership which is held from 2-6 pm. But Dwight makes them so interesting, there’s no chance of sleeping. We work in groups for his course and he never speaks for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. There are plenty of activities and group discussions. I also like the emphasis on self-exploration – my strengths, weaknesses and my life dreams. None of our professors lecture us, unlike my undergrad experience. There’s a lot of interaction, Q&As. As Dwight specifically said we are required to bring our neurons to class.
Related articles
News: Class only from 10-12 tomorrow. Result: A couple of girls dancing in the class and a few disbelieving faces. Though ultimately, they managed to have another class from 12 to 1. And for half the batch, i.e. Section B of Sociology, video lecture from 5 to 7 too. Did that give you a good picture of our lives?
In this one year, there are 18 courses to be studied in 8 terms of 6 weeks each. Each course gets 20 lecture hours, which is half a course in most universities including US universities and BITS Pilani. In our first term, we are studying Sociological Reasoning (Sociology), Shakespeare and the World (Tempest and Othello) and Foundations of Leadership. So this is MA and MBA combined. We also have non-fiction English writing for the first two terms.
In this one year, there are 18 courses to be studied in 8 terms of 6 weeks each. Each course gets 20 lecture hours, which is half a course in most universities including US universities and BITS Pilani. In our first term, we are studying Sociological Reasoning (Sociology), Shakespeare and the World (Tempest and Othello) and Foundations of Leadership. So this is MA and MBA combined. We also have non-fiction English writing for the first two terms.
Outside of class, there is a lot of reading. In one day, I can be Prospero from the Tempest, agree and disagree with Peter Drucker on his Harvard Business Business Review paper and ponder what kind of leader would I like to be. And then find time to meet all the wonderful people around me, the Young India Fellows batch of 2013. Let's meet them in my next post.
Related articles
Fantastic :)
ReplyDeleteYou're on a roll girl! High on a mouthful of sky :)
ReplyDeleteThanks mam for guiding me to come here.
Delete