Mrs. J. Vandana has been working as an Assistant Professor at Alwar School of Business, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. She has done B.Com from MVR Degree & PG College and MBA in HR and Marketing from Gayatri Vidya Parishad PG & Degree College as part of her education. Also, she has worked on a project of Performance Management System in Vizag Steel Plant. Before joining Alwar School, she worked as an HR In Charge at Lakshmi Hyundai in Visakhapatnam. 

She has in-depth knowledge of MS Office and Tally and her strengths are her Confidence, Adaptability, Punctuality along with good analytical, communication and interpersonal skills. Apart from this, she is well versed in English, Telugu and Hindi Language and her hobbies are playing chess and listening to music.

Alwar school of business

Being the Assistant Professor of Alwar School of Business, what are your core responsibilities towards the students?

As an Assistant Professor, my key responsibilities are to introduce and promote different kinds of teaching methodologies, prepare the academic calendar in coordination with faculty members of our college before the commencement of a new academic year, review and provide advice to college management about the educational policies we have adopted and need to develop for offering an amazing learning environment to them. 

Other than this, fostering an innovation of creative learning, organizing diverse types of activities to enhance students technical and communication skills, maintaining students personal and academic record to help them in pursuing further studies or choose a suitable career, upgrading teachers skills by conducting professional development activities, enhancing the teaching efficiency of faculty members by evolving the appraisal system, conducting meetings for distributing syllabus to teachers, planning the daily and monthly lectures and making students self-learners and self-responsible persons also comes under the scope of my responsibilities. 

Last but not the least, I am responsible for taking lectures for different subjects as per curriculum, effectively implementing the strategies and classroom management practices, providing meaningful and progressively challenging learning experience and suitable research environment to young and ambitious students so that they can explore things, implement their classroom learning to real-world scenarios, work collaboratively and confidently with their peers, make informed choices, set practically achievable goals and self-evaluate their knowledge and use the latest technologies in the best way possible, customizing my teaching techniques as per needs, strengths and learning styles of students. All in all, I need to play the role of an Instructor, Coach, Facilitator, and Co-Learner etc. 

How do you establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty of your college?

For the purpose of maintaining a good and strong relationship with my teachers and students, I regularly communicate with them through open and trustworthy communication channels and listen to their issues and queries very carefully. Apart from this, I make sure that I remain available for my dear and ambitious students and fellow faculty whenever they need my support and guidance so that their issues can be solved on time and they feel valued while being on campus. 

How do you bring in a practical and industry oriented approach towards subjects?

I firmly believe that the "one size fits all” approach is not a suitable teaching methodology in a dynamic field like education and an amalgamation of different teaching strategies is needed to provide the best classroom experience to students and delve deeper into the content knowledge. 

Hence for the purpose of ensuring a practical and industry oriented approach towards subjects, I closely monitor other faculty members by visiting them during classes and investing their way of educating students and dealing with the challenging ones. Also, while teaching students, I carefully listen to their suggestions with respect to my methodologies, innovative ideas and queries because I believe that we can learn a lot from people we see and interact with everyday. Other than this, I regularly engage with teachers of my institute and other institutions through events and activities like guest lectures, seminars, workshops and faculty development programs. 

I have also incorporated excellent and innovative teaching approaches to make classroom ambiance more enjoyable, collaborative and research oriented, because I always believe that teaching students and not the content should be of more importance. Lastly, I use whiteboard to display images, videos and other illustrations to deliver daily lectures, motivate students to explore opportunities outside classroom and enhance their problem-solving skills to have a deeper understanding of various academic concepts, ask thought-provoking questions and encourage them to think of innovative solutions for the same and also participate in professional development programs to enhance my skills and teaching methodologies. 

Which best practices are offered by your college to the students to help them gain necessary skills?

We firmly believe that a motivated workforce including staff members and students can be a significant success factor for an educational institution, because when they learn-work wholeheartedly up to their potential and unique skills, things happen seamlessly and efficiently. Apart from this, we clearly understand the fact that timely appreciation and rewards are very necessary to influence students and teachers in a positive way, a positive outcome of their hard work and achievements and symbols of an institution's goals. 

Along with this, for the purpose of improving students' understanding of the subjects, they are continuously engaged in activities like group discussion, quizzes, class tests and are also given assignments which they need to complete in the supervision of a faculty member. Events like skills enhancement and personality grooming training programs, placement specific guidance sessions, industrial visits, pre-placement talks, expert lectures in collaboration with corporate professionals, summer training, and seminars are arranged by us to expose students in a challenging environment and educate them about the challenges, developments and trends of both educational and corporate world. Our college also organizes “college to corporate sessions” for final year students to prepare them as per industry standards and corporate culture, group discussion, international and national conferences, sports tournaments and uses technology in education as a passion. 

Last but not the least, a proficiency test along with an online aptitude test is conducted every year to assess and evaluate the literature, logical reasoning, mathematics and communication skills of students and provide them a detailed diagnosis for improvement. Another benefit of this is that students get to know how to crack the non-technical test during the actual interview process. 

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How do you strategize and update the curriculum of your institute to make it befitting for the students?

In my opinion, strategizing and updating the curriculum is a dynamic process that requires careful planning and regular assessment, hence we conduct a thorough research to understand the latest trends, developments and challenges of the corporate world, conduct industry surveys, consult with employers, members of advisory boards, renowned professionals and also take feedback from Alumni to get an in-depth idea of ever changing requirements and technologies. 

Along with this, we have incorporated core concepts in the curriculum to form the foundation of the field and clearly define the end goals and learning objectives in accordance with skills and competencies each student needs to develop, for each course at the beginning of an academic year. Hands-on experiments are conducted and case studies are discussed while delivering lectures by me or other teachers so that students can relate the theoretical concepts with their practical applications and we also assign projects to them from time to time. Additionally we have made software an inseparable part of our curriculum and stay updated with current technologies and tools which are extensively used in the corporate world. And when it comes to being flexible, we always remain ready to adapt new changes of a particular field and include the same in curriculum too and regular reviews with students and faculty members to assess its effectiveness are conducted from time to time. 

Last but not the least, we try to avoid any kind of redundancy in curriculum and encourage teachers to stay informed about the latest teaching pedagogies, curriculum practices, educational research and trends by engaging themselves in professional development programs so that they can make informed decisions and deliver knowledge to students in the best way possible. And before rolling out complete changes, we do pilot testing of new courses and modules to gather suggestions, identify potential issues and make necessary adjustments. 

How does your college prepare students for placement and higher education?

For the purpose of making students placement ready, we have designed a robust curriculum so that they cannot only acquire in-depth knowledge of any particular domain and excel academically but gain necessary practical skills by working on real-time projects and that too in a challenging environment. We also offer suitable and best opportunities to students in collaboration with eminent industries and organizations so that our young and ambitious youths can participate in research projects, experiments, internships, co-op programs and enhance their critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and research skills and be ready to serve to employers by securing a good job or can explore their domain by pursuing a higher education program. 

Apart from this, career counseling services,mentorship and guidance sessions are arranged too where faculty members and professionals share their own experiences and educate students about resume building, interview preparation, job search strategies and available jobs as well. Events like seminars, workshops, conferences and guest lectures are conducted too by us to help students connect with the right professionals, researchers, and scholars and expand their knowledge. Lastly, courses or workshops to enhance soft communication, teamwork and leadership skills of students are organized as and when needed, because these skills are essential not only for success in higher education but also for thriving at the workplace. And students who are interested in pursuing a higher degree course in India or abroad, get all kinds of support ranging from application process to cracking the interview process.

How do you prepare your students to deal with the outside competitive world?

In order to prepare them for a competitive world, we regularly encourage our students to learn from others and stay aware about their strengths and shortcomings so that they can make best use of learning opportunities to face this world with more confidence and courage. 

In addition to this, we ask them to think of innovative solutions for whatever kinds of assignments and projects we assign to them from time to time so that they can brainstorm about a topic and give them best work by doing thorough research. And our main aim behind assigning them difficult tasks is not to demotivate them and make them upset but help them figure out how they can reach a conclusion by working with others. For example, if we take the scenario of competitive sports, then winning is not as important as trying our best. 

Our college faculty members also ensure that students feel comfortable during lectures and participate in discussions. 

Which extracurricular activities are organized by your institute to enhance the skills of students?

Our college does organize an extensive range of co-curricular activities including debates to improve public speaking, negotiation, critical thinking and diplomacy skills of students followed by workshops and startup competitions to enhance Entrepreneurship skills of ambitious youths and future leaders and encourage them to develop unique business ideas by analyzing the market trends. Apart from this, arts, music and drama events followed by community service and volunteering programs to address local issues and make students a responsible individual, science and research competitions along with science fairs to undertake scientific research projects and foster students research skills are organized by us. 

Then we have a Language and Culture Clubs where students learn and practice new languages or explore different cultures, promoting diversity and cross-cultural understanding and we also engage them in projects related to environmental conservation, recycling, and sustainable practices to raise awareness about global challenges. Additionally we have collaborated with local businesses and organizations to offer students the opportunity to shadow professionals or participate in internships to gain practical work experience. Podcasts, newsletters and video content are also created by us on a regular basis to develop students' communication skills and Financial Literacy Workshops are arranged to teach them about personal finance, budgeting, and investments.

And when we are talking about enhancing the skills of students, how can we forget about their health and mental well-being, and keeping that in mind, we motivate them to take part in yoga classes, mindfulness workshops, and fitness programs. 

What challenges have you faced while uplifting the education quality of your college?

As we all know that education is a very dynamic and challenging domain, and as new technologies and industry requirements are rolled out, educational institutions are bound to make necessary changes in their curriculum as well as teaching pedagogies. Therefore, we sometimes face challenges while syncing with guidelines and standards of University and implementing new education policy according to the present scenario and circumstances prevailing in the education world.

When you joined the Alwar School, what was your vision for it and how are you trying to achieve the same? 

My objective when I joined the Alwar School was to utilize my past skills and experiences for the betterment and professional growth of our students. Along with this, I wanted them to learn more and more and I must say they have also taught me many things by asking wonderful questions during lectures and participating enthusiastically in classroom discussions. 

Other than this, I wanted to build their character and help them in becoming a better individual by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and providing them necessary resources and opportunities to make improvements. And day by day I am getting closer to achieving that vision by empowering my students and teaching them what they need to have a stable and better future.