With much enthusiasm and fervor, Punjab Engineering College went on with the second day of orientation.
The day started with Dr. D. R. Prajapati, Dean Student Affairs welcoming the students, congratulating them for getting into one of the most reputed institutions of the country and briefing them about the vibrant and bright campus life of this esteemed institution. He briefed the students about all the technical societies and cultural clubs and all the facilities available for students in the campus.
The session moved forward with Dr. Puneet Chawla, ADSA (Technical societies and Cultural Clubs) addressing the students. She talked about the vision and mission of PEC that is to become a Center of Excellence in technology and research and occupy a place in most eminent institutions of the country. She, then, gave an outlook of the course structure and emphasized on balancing between extracurricular activities and academics. She told the students that our institute recognizes the work done by students for the clubs and societies in the form of proficiency credits.
Afterwards, Dr. C.S. Jawalkar, ADSA (Hostels), addressed the students. He mainly talked about the problems faced by hostel committees and students in maintaining the hostels and suggested how students can make the hostel life a wholesome experience. He informed the students about the anti-ragging policy of the institute and motivated them to be a man of values and excel in their field of choice.
Then the student counselor of the college, Mr. Naveen Kumar interacted with the students. He talked about the taboo around talking about mental health and visiting the mental health professionals. He emphasized on the requirement of sound mental health and talked about major problems faced by the college students such as overthinking, academic pressure and homesickness.
After that, the keynote speaker of the day, Mr. Sofi Zahoor, CEO of Humancap and global leadership award winner with very diverse industry experience in sales, marketing, HR and many more, took over the stage and shared his valuable viewpoints. He emphasized on the philosophy of winning from within. He mainly talked about how the majority of jobs will be taken by robots in future and what skills we can develop to avoid being laid off. He conveyed that robots can work at almost perfection but they cannot have soft skills such as being a good listener, team work etc. He said that skill is trainable but will is not. The speaker gave the students a detailed insight into various life skills and values needed for a successful and happy life. Drawing inspiration from nature, he talked about how we have a lot to learn from aquatic life, using various analogies to highlight the importance of a positive attitude, empathy and a good environment. He also discussed life lessons to be learned from bees, particularly about community and collective intelligence to encourage team work and collaboration among the young minds. The enlightening session left the students feeling inspired and motivated for their journey ahead.
The day concluded with various cultural clubs and technical societies giving their presentations to the students.