A warm and friendly atmosphere

Favourable Impression

A new batch of first-year degree students walked into Garden City College recently, with pride and a sense of confidence.

Among all the colleges in the City, Garden City College boasts of the maximum number of expat students. There are students from 60-odd countries in this college. And in addition to the localites, the college also has a sizable number of students from across the country.

The college management makes it a point to go beyond a mere orientation programme, in order to familiarise the first-year students to the new environment. They had a series of interesting events planned for the fresh batch — all in an effort to help them break ice. 

Metrolife speaks to a few first-year degree students and asks them what their experience was like on the first day.

Most of them say that they were overwhelmed by the warmth of the faculty and their fellow students. Many of the expat students landed in Bangalore a month before the college reopened.

The localites add that the exposure they get in terms of mixing with students from across the globe is unmatched.

The college has a sprawling campus and the canteen, another attraction, dishes out cuisines from across the world. Farheen, a first-year student from Port Blair, confesses that she doesn’t feel like she is in another country. “It’s the open and frank atmosphere about the college that I like. And this is what helped me overcome my fear and mix with people. The campus is beautiful and the facilities are among the best,” she says. Anki from Kolkata, who landed in Bangalore barely a week ago, is thrilled with the new setting. “I’ve already started learning a few new languages like Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and a bit of French as well. The college has students from across the world and that makes all the difference,” she adds.

Aparna is an NRI from Bahrain and she too was impressed with the facilities on campus. She has been told that the campus is secure in every sense of the term. “I am staying away from home for the very first time and I’ve already made a few friends. There’s no ragging whatsoever and the seniors are more than helpful,” observes Aparna.

Kiran, a first-year student from Kerala, hopes to improve his communication skills and says that he was pleased with the placements in this college. “I am given to understand that the college does a good job on the placement front. They take the trouble to find the best companies to come in during recruitment. And I am also looking at widening my circle of friends because making the right friends makes all the difference,” says Kiran.    

After the orientation programme, the students were taken for a tour of the campus. Thomson Thomas, assistant director (placements) at Garden City College, says, “We groom the students so that they are ready for the corporate world as soon as they graduate. In fact, we have a trainee club comprising 60 students, drawn from different disciplines. These students are trained in various areas of the college like administration, transport department and other departments so that when they leave, they know exactly how a college functions.”

The first-year degree batch has close to 1,500 students, in various combinations, this academic year.