5th August | The Bishop Cotton Boys School

Date of Visit: 5th August 2008

Time of Visit: 8:30 AM

Contact Person: Miss Jerome Rachel, School Councillor

Contact Number:

+ 91 99860 37961

Ambassadors Present:
Anirban Datta Gupta
Radhika Kanuga
Shruti Dixit

Summary of Visit:

We visited Bishop Cotton Boys Scool for the second time with this visit in the summer of '08. Miss Jerome, the student councillor is extremely friendly and approachable. The Vice Principal, though, turned out to be quite a different story - and went to the extent of telling us that she personally goes down to all the classrooms and tells the Boys that they shouldn't go abroad to study. So much for that.

We got a really good response from the students, though, and that was very encouraging. Jady started off the presentation with the usual facts and figures, and Anirban talked at length about his experiences at SMU. It helped to have a male student presenting, given that it was a Boy's school - it seemed like the students could really relate to him. We did have a student or two coming around and asking us about NTU and NUS - but we're used to that by now! We really should carry more brocheures with us. Also, it was nice to see that most of them were already familiar with SMU and had just come around to ask some questions.

6th August | Bishop Cotton Girls' School

Date of Visit: 6th August

Time of Visit: 2:15 PM

Contact Person:

Attendees:

Abel Sim

Radhika Kanuga

Deeptarka Hazra

At Bishop Cotton Girls' School, we addressed a crowd of about 40-50 students, all of whom were in their final or penultimate year. This time around, there wasn't the issue of addressing only science students as the audience here had a good mix of science, commerce and arts. The presentation started off how it always did and the students were briefed about Singapore in general and Singapore Management University.

The response, however, was extremely disappointing. The ambassadors shared their experiences in university. They had an opportunity to learn about experiences of a final year student and a second year student, giving them a good variety. However, no one really seemed interested. On being asked what they want to do later on in life, none answered. 

We ended the presentation quickly hoping that the students would have some questions and things they'd want to know. Again, not a single question was asked. We proceeded to the main office to meet the Principal but she wasn't present there either. We met another person instead and mentioned that the group we addressed seemed quite disinterested. However, we told her that we will be coming back the following year to present to the next batch. 

Hopefully, we will have better results next time around.

MAIS

Mallya Aditi International School
6th August 2008
11:30 AM

Attendees:
1. Anirban Datta Gupta
2. Varun Ponnuru


Date of Visit: 6th August 2008

Time of Visit: 11:30 AM

Contact Person: Mr. Sathish Jayarajan, Principal

Contact Number:

+ 91 80 28462506 /7 /8

sjayarajan@aditiblr.org

satsjayarajan@gmail.com

Ambassadors Present:
Anirban Datta Gupta
Varun Ponnuru

This year's visit to MAIS was disappointingly met with less enthusiasm than the last. However, this was understandable given that our audience was quite unchanged. We had spoken to a large number 11th graders the previous year and hence, the turnout was much lesser and comprised a handful of current 11th and 12th graders.

A Recap of Last Year:
MAIS does very much have potential in terms of becoming a stronghold for SMU. A number of students from MAIS did enroll at SMU in the previous years however this number has been declining. Last year saw a turnout of about 30-35 students, all of whom displayed a keen interest in our presentation.

Questions asked:
This year however, the turnout was much lesser with about 15 students at most and not too many of them asked relevant questions. The few questions we received mostly centered around admissions. The students were a mix of 11th and 12th graders as well as science and arts students.

Conclusion:
The visit proved difficult to arrange from the start with the Principal Mr. Jayaram not showing keen interest in us presenting rationing that most students already knew of SMU. This was evident in the low attendance but we nonetheless felt that the presentation was useful to the few people who did come.

Our relationship with Mr. Jayaram is still good however, he seems hesitant of allowing us to present at MAIS every year. Perhaps we could co-ordinate with MAIS to see when visits would be most well-received. Given that the school campus is relatively far and the amount of effort put into travelling and preparation may not at all times translate into a good turnout, the frequency of visits to MAIS may need to be moderated.

4th August | NPS Koramangla

Date of Visit: 4th August

Time of Visit: 2 PM

Contact Person: Ms. Lakshmi Rao, Principal

Attendees:

Abel Sim

Anirban Dattagupta

Deeptarka Hazra

At National Public School, Koramangla (NPS K), we addressed an audience of about 50 people. This was our first visit to the school. However, getting appointments wasn't an issue as four of the Bangalore Ambassadors came from one of its sister-concern schools.

The students were initially addressed by Abel who got to know some of them better through some chit-chat sessions before the presentation. The audience consisted of primarily grade 12 students, all from the science stream. This was because the school hadn't launched its commerce stream at that point of time. Initially, most of them didn't seem too interested as they were all inclined towards engineering or medicine. However, as we went further on, they seemed more and more interested.

The details about SMU were provided by Abel and the ambassadors were there primarily to share their experiences at SMU being students from Bangalore, something the audience could very closely relate to. We spoke about CCAs and the kind of exposure we got from it, activities inside the class room, the way we were taught and also about the daily life of an SMU student. The fact that SMU students had around 3 hours of classes a day got most of them interested in the university. We also mentioned how different this learning experience was from the stereotypical engineering in India and convinced them that courses offered in SMU was definitely a good option to have.

Another thing that worked to our advantage was the facts and figures we had with regards to salaries upon graduation and job offers before graduation. Being in their final year, most of them knew the kind of salaries and job offers engineering or medicine students in India received. So, they had a standard to compare it against. The main reluctance we faced was their apprehension to leave India for future studies and being away from home. A very small percentage of Indian students actually go abroad for under-graduate studies, primarily due to it being very expensive. However, these issues were addressed later on in the Q & A session where we gave them an accurate break down of how affordable and safe Singapore was. 

This was the driving factor in the Q & A session because students are usually apprehensive to ask the first question. The expenses topic sparked off interest in other topics as well and there were various questions about the double degree program, the variety of majors, non-academic matters, etc. Overall, the response was healthy and a good number seemed interested as we ran out of brochures very quickly.

After the presentation, we met the Principal, Ms. Lakshmi Rao. The meeting was more an informal one as she knew both the ambassadors very well, having taught them in high school. We were informed that about 10% of the students from NPS (K) go abroad to pursue their undergraduate education every year. This was a pretty small number compared to some of the international schools we visited. However, looking at the enthusiasm of the students after the presentation, it won't be surprising to see this number go up with Singapore contributing significantly. 

7th August | Vidya Niketan School

Date of Visit: 7th August 2008

Time of Visit: 1:45 PM

Contact Person: Ms. Nalini Ponnappa, Principal

Ambassadors Present:
Anirban Dattagupta
Deeptarka Hazra
Varun Ponnuru

Summary of Visit:

At Vidya Niketan School (VNS), we addressed an audience of about 45 students. Given that we had not addressed the students in the previous year, we did not have an effective benchmark to compare responses. The audience was a mix of Grade 11 students from both the commerce and science sections. The presentation was slightly delayed for two reasons. Firstly, the students were tied up with other engagements, and we had to wait for them to show up. Secondly, the projector had startup problems, but luckily the school’s technician was on standby and he helped us overcome this minor glitch. All three ambassadors who were there presented.

During the presentation we shared our personal experiences and involvement in CCA’s, in order to portray to the audience how life in SMU is for a student from Bangalore, someone very similar to them. After an initial reluctance, the students began asking questions. Surprisingly, most of the students had already decided to stay in India for their undergraduate program. So we got a lot of questions about post graduate opportunities in SMU. This was not what we expected, as previious batches of students from Vidya Niketan School have strongly considered studying outside India as an option. Nonetheless, we were able to convey the benefits of an undergraduate in Singapore and SMU specifically. Questions were posed regarding the student life in SMU, along with general questions on living costs and financial aid. We distributed quite a few brochures to the students, which helped answer a lot of their questions.

After the presentation, we met with the principal, Ms. Nalini Ponnappa, and spoke briefly about our own backgrounds, and the questions posed by her students. She thanked us for coming in and addressing the students, and we discussed that we would keep in touch regarding future visits. There still seems to be a bit of apprehension on the part of the students in applying to colleges outside of India. But given our visit this year, we can leverage on the relationship created with VNS and build a strong name for the SMU brand among its students.

5th August | National Public School, Indiranagar

Date of Visit: 5th August 2008

Time of Visit: 2:00 PM

Contact Person: Ms. Shanta Chandran, Principal

Ambassadors Present:
Anirban Dattagupta
Deeptarka Hazra
Varun Ponnuru

Summary of Visit:

This year’s visit to National Public School Indiranagar (NPSI) was as positive if not better than last year. We addressed a crowd of about 60 students this year. We were given a chance to address the 12th Graders from both the Science and Commerce streams. As has always been the case with NPSI, the interaction and response went very well. All three ambassadors who where there presented. The fact that Varun, Deeptarka and I are all alumni of this institution helped us connect to the audience on a personal level, and this led to a very productive Q&A session. Students were clearly aware of the SMU Brand, and were interested in the law program at SMU as well, which was a positive sign.

There was a bit of a delay in beginning the presentation, as the science section students were finishing up a class test. But once the presentation began, it went smoothly. There were quite a few questions about the MBA program in SMU as well as the day to day costs of living. Since the tuition costs are already included in the brochures, maybe we could include information about day to day costs such as food and rental costs in future presentations. Given that there is a sizeable alumnus from this school in SMU, we could probably show a slide in future presentations with the pictures and a small profile of the students in SMU from NPSI. This will serve as an encouragement to prospective students, as well as increase the pool of contacts for the students to tap on and clear any queries they have during the admissions process.

We met with the principal, Ms. Chandran, after the presentation, and had a nice conversation about education in general, and how changing needs pose a challenge. She conveyed that she was happy to have us, and we ensured her that we would continue to visit NPSI, the next visit being in either December or next year in August. We look forward to hearing from the prospective students and assisting them as they go through the application process.

4 August 2008 | St Joseph's Boys High School

Date of Visit: 4 August 2008

Time of Visit: 2pm

Contact Person: Principal Father Celestine Serra

Contact Number: + 91 80 2221 3835

Ambassadors Preset:

• Anirban Datta Gupta
• Varun Ponnuru
• Deeptarka Hazra
• Radhika Kanuga
• Shruti Dixit

Abel Sim and Jady Koh were present as well

Summary of Visit:

St Joseph's Boys High School offered us an audience of about 120 students cumulatively of classes 11 and 12 from science and commerce backgrounds; all students who were potentially part of the SMU 2009-2010 or 2010-11 batch. The crowd showed a genuine interest in what we had to say.

I observed that several science students who were unsure what to do next- medicine, engineering, law? - in the typical competitive Indian scene considered the option of business or economics for the first time. It was refreshing to see that "keep your options open" truly gained meaning for them.

The entire team of ambassadors was present. Jady and Abel made the main presentation- they covered application and admission procedures and requirements, finances, scholarships, and CCAs. The audience was engaged in the presentation, and despite a moody projector and sound system, the interaction proved to be a successful one.

After the formal presentation by Jady and Abel, the "informal" dialogue with the students was handled by Radhika and myself. We spoke about our experiences as freshmen and living in a hostel away from home- things that can seem rather scary to a youngster who has never really lived away from home. We also spoke about our degrees and the courses we had to cover, ensuring at the same time that we emphasized on the concept of holistic development and not just academics.

In the end, nearly every student picked up a visiting card,
and several students stayed behind to ask questions.

Their questions were not unusual- mostly about the degree programmes and living arrangements in Singapore. I received some e-mails a few days after the presentation asking for more details on the fee structures (the Tuition Grant, Tuition Fee Loan, etc), to which I duly replied.

There was room for improvement in terms of the availability of brochures; they seem to be in high demand, since students (understandably) wish to share information with their parents when they go home. And of course,
brochures are very useful for future reference when the students actually get down to the application process.

I hope that some of them will be joining us next year. In conclusion, the presentation was productive, and it looks like we made an impact on the boys and girls of St Josephs.