Mixed doubles

In the past, the Social Communications Media (SCM) department in Sophia Polytechnic has seen a lot of changes. From the transformation from the manual slides presentation to the hi-tech, smart phone one, the course has often been credited for teaching the different nuances of the media in a very authenticated and integrated manner.

A male student during the personal interview session

This year, however, this one-year course that once only admitted girls, has now opened its doors to boys. Explaining about it further, Dr Sunitha Chitrapu, head, Sophia Institute of Social Communications Media, Sophia Polytechnic, says, "We have been staunch supporters of women empowerment for a very long time. With the ongoing issues that our country faces everyday, gender sensitisation has to be taken more seriously, and this we realised, can only happen if we involve both the strata of the society, with an equal say in the problems and issues."

It is for the first time in 30 years that male students will be able to enroll in the course

Chitrapu also maintains that more than anything else, the coming together of girls and boys in the course will also encourage healthy debates and discussions among them. She adds, "Both men and women are equally important. Communication is the only means through which they can understand each other. Most importantly, it is through discussions that they will respect each other view points better." Until now, the course has received four applications from boys who will eventually be selected after a series of written tests, group discussions and personal interviews.

Chitrapu also plans to introduce a specialisation degree towards the end through a one-month portfolio building exercise that will be taught by the esteemed faculty members such as Jerry Pinto and Smruti Koppikar for Print Journalism, Jeroo Mulla for photography and Chitrapu herself for research. "We had done the pilot testing about this particular specialisation degree last year and got positive results. Therefore, we will introduce them this year and the students will be exposed to various sessions with our faculty experts in the last month of the course (March) that will guide them before they enter the world of the media," she concludes. u00a0