In the last few issues Indian Weekender spoke to the students from India on the streets of Auckland, the students shared the stories of their struggles and hardships while looking for work, accommodation, good education, visa etc.
We came across a group of students who unlike the others had altogether a different story to share. Instead of complaining like many they had a completely different perspective on their struggles in this country.
The students from Otago Polytechnic have taken the initiative of forming an association for the business management students and with the support from the institution, the students have been doing well professionally.
The students from different parts of India studying level 7 at Otago Polytechnic have established ‘Business Students Association’ within the college so that they can start designing their own career with the help of the Institute, working together towards building and improving skills required in the job market of New Zealand.
“Here, we give the students the opportunity to come up with ideas and we support them on every step possible. Moreover we like the enthusiasm of the students and the energy they have, we could see the fire in their eyes and the passion of their ideas.” says Professor Nick van der Walt who is the Executive Director of Otago Polytechnic’S Auckland International Campus.
Mihir Patel is the President of the Business Students Association and all the members of the association have their individual business cards and with the help of some counselling and mentoring they have chosen their paths and goals for their future.
“We speak to the students individually, acknowledge their shortcomings, make them comfortable and they open up with the issues they are facing. We counsel them, show them the path they could take and they work on it, every time they need some assistance we provide them” adds Sidra Siddiqui who is the Corporate Relations Manager at the institution.
The association holds team meeting every week discussing individual goals, organising group events, emphasizing on the academic needs of students, brainstorming new ideas and looking out for internships.
The vision behind such an association was to address the academic needs of international students who come here with big dreams and a perspective that is usually very different from reality. The association works with the vision to improve communication and presentation skills, learn how to network, get the knowledge of diverse Kiwi industries, build confidence and help each other accomplishing individual goals.
Siddharth Badam has secured internship with Service Foods, Rahil at Trendz and Rohan Malhotra at Optimiser HQ with the help from the institution. The students took active part in ‘Entourage’ (Unconvention), Australia’s largest educator and community of entrepreneurs with over 60,000 members around the world. Their mantra behind this unconventional move was to 'inspire freedom, enable greatness, and change the world'.
“We are planning to form an alumni of the same association since we are the founding members; make this association a strong independent body managed by students. We want to increase our industrial relations, get more students inducted into the association and make it bigger so that in the coming years, students will not have much trouble looking for internships, exposure or jobs for that matter” says Siddharth Badam, one of the founding members of the association.
All the students from the committee and others from the class have secured internships in NZ based companies, have part time jobs, and are excelling in their academics as well polishing their skills.
The students give credit to the institute and the faculties for the amount of support and mentorship they have received in the last one year. At the same time the management commends the enthusiasm of students on taking such brave steps. “We are really happy by the initiatives students have taken and we look forward to give more exposure to students, improve their skills and help them achieving their Kiwi dreams.” concluded Phil Ker, Chief Executive of Otago Polytechnic.