Graduation Day 2014

Come June and it is time for us to celebrate our academic achievement. 29^th June 2014, was our eighth graduation day.  On this day, we celebrated not just graduation of students of our graduate and post-graduate programs; we also celebrated our key milestones like Class 12, Class 10 and Class 4.

 

T Koshy

Mr T Koshy in his welcome speech congratulated all the students and staff of the stellar performance of our students in School and College. He also gave a brief summary of the achievements of MJC students and staff which in addition to the academic performance included (i) NAAC accreditation by B Ed and M Ed College, Special Training organized for the teachers during summer holidays (iii) installation of solar heating system and automating chapatti making machine for the kitchen (iv) special decoration of nursery classes (v) significant in house production of vegetables and fruits (vi) self-sufficiency in coconut milk and ghee requirement of the hostel and so on.

Dr Mary Job

Dr (Mrs) Mary Job, Chairman of MJC in her introductory speech highlighted importance of learning to ‘think’. She also shared her views on challenges in making choices that we all face and a healthy approach to address this challenge.

Dr John V George IPS (Retd)

Dr John V George IPS (Retd) shared his memories about Dr P P Job the founder of MJC and the vision he had for MJC.

We have been lucky again to be blessed with many luminaries who were kind enough to be with us on this great day.  We had Dr Cyriac Thomas. Member, National Commission for Minority Education as our Chief Guest for the day.

Dr Cyriac Thomas

Arvind Kumar IAS

Mr Arvind Kumar IAS gave a very motivating speech wherein he shared the opportunities for our students in the Government Sector and he exhorted our students to prepare for this. He also promised to support MJC in establishing a training program for this.

Mr Zakir Thomas IRS

Mr Zakir Thomas IRS shared two wonderful real life stories of girls who have managed great achievements in spite of the challenging background they come from

Mr Mohan Menon

Mr Mohan Menon who is a highly respected Industrialist from Coimbatore graciously accepted our invitation and was with us. He gave andeloquent speech andpromised to support MJC to build on the excellent foundation it has built

Mr Mathew Philip

The graduation ceremony was concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Mr Mathew Philip Dy CEO. He specially thanked Mr and Mrs George who have joined our team as volunteers giving significant support for the strengthening infrastructure and academic program. He also recognized Shayam and Venky who have come over to give us a helping hand as volunteers. This was followed by a lunch for all those students, families and visitors who attended the ceremony

100% MJC Girls clear High School Board

Following the the outstanding results in class 12, MJC girls have proved once again their mettle. All the 25 girls who appeared in class 10 board cleared in the examination making all of us proud.

4 students out of 25 scored more than 90%. Good show girls 

The topper Aileen Joseph scored 93% closely followed by Kiron Tamng with 92% Ibsiba Bag 91%. 

The topper Aileen Joseph is the daughter of our senior staff members Joseph Alias and  Mini.

The other toppers include 

MJC Convocation - Chairman's Speech

We celebrated MJC graduation on 29th June 2014. Our beloved Chairperson Dr (Mrs) Mary Job gave a very motivating and thought evoking speech which we are happy to share with our wider Audience 
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Dignitaries on and off the dais, fellow staff of MJC and my dear little children

I am proud to be once again with you to share your happiness about your success and to share our pride about your achievement.

I still remember attending the ceremony at his school when my son Michael cleared his 12^th class as the best outgoing student. But then in a few years his creator called him back.

My Husband then started MJC in memory of Michael. Today I am happy that I get to see graduation of some of my children every year. The celebration never ends.

The primary purpose of MJC’s existence is to empower young girls who come from challenging circumstances. What better way than to give them education and make them fit to stand on their own legs.

Today marks a milestone in this journey. Most of you have successfully crossed one more challenge. We are happy for you.

Let me congratulate the staff and students for your achievement.

We all agree that being in school and college is about getting a certificate of achievement. Graduation day celebrates how each of you performed in the tests and examinations.  But is that all? This is also the time for us to reflect. Reflect on what we have learned beyond what is there in the books. What you have learned that will help you face up the challenges of real life when we our out of this cocoon.

You have been in MJC for a few years. Many of you were away from your family and home. The most exciting opportunity that MJC has given you is the opportunity to be part of a wider family. A family consisting of children from 19 states in the country. It gave you an opportunity to experience the cultural diversity in our country.

What is the learning that you take away from this experience? Has this given a better understanding of what we mean by unity in diversity?

You spent quite a lot of time cramming from your text books, note books and guides. You learned to reproduce quite a lot from all these.  Have you also learned how to think? How to have an opinion that is your  own? Let me quote here from a very learned professor about thinking

Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed”

So let me ask you my children have you learned how to think? Let me ask all of you who have assembled here to think about it. Take every opportunity to enhance your exposure, enlarge your mind and strengthen your ability to think. That is going to be one factor that determines how successful you are going to be.

Today when you stand here ready to take the next step, there a question you need to ask yourself. How are you going to make a difference to the society you belong to?

Will you give a helping hand to reach out to few of those children who were not lucky enough to get this opportunity to go to a school?

Now that many of you are going out into the world, you will face every day the challenge of making a choice. Let me share some of my thoughts on this

There is brilliant one line summary by Jawaharlal Nehru on this. It says

 “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is destiny; the way you play it is freewill.”

We live in a totally inter-connected world. What we do out of our freewill could set off a series of chain reactions like what happens on the carom board. Sometimes we get the shot right and the outcome is as predicted. Very often the chain reactions we trigger bring about a new order on the board which we never imagined.

Think about this situation. Some crazy kid decides to take his car for a spin. It was his free will. I happened to be in his way and got hit; it was my destiny. I survive with two artificial limbs; it is my destiny. I now have two choices. I can try to live on and find happiness in spite of my broken leg or can spent the life cursing the crazy kid and live a life of regret despair. Here I need to exercise my freewill.

This helps me to appreciate the fact that even though I have the freewill to choose, the options available to me are outcomes of a large number of factors on which I have no control and sometime the choice that we take makes it possible to predict how things turnout. It also teaches me that the freewill to choose does not guarantee any outcome; but I am still responsible for the choice.

How I exercise my freewill is also dependent on my mental makeup and strength. If I let myself to grow up without taking responsibility of my action then I may not be able to exercise freewill to the extent that is needed in any occasion. From this point of view freewill needs to be nurtured consciously and worked upon

We can build up this skill as we build on our muscles. There could be limit on our ability to build on various skills; which could be on account of our genes. But as we have to exercise regularly to develop a healthy body, we have to work on to strengthen how we react to what happens around us.

One of the true marks of achievement in life is the way we master this art of exercising our choice. Let me finish my speech with a prayer that the god almighty gives you the wisdom and strength to make the right choice in your life.

Now it is time for you to listen to this wonderful array of dignitaries who are here to share some pearls of wisdom with all of you.