Alankar Mahila P.G. Mahavidyalaya, Jaipur, Head of Chemistry Department: Dr. Shalini Choudhary Interview

Dr. Shalini Choudhary is working as the Head of Chemistry Department at Alankar Mahila P.G. Mahavidyalaya, Jaipur, Rajasthan. She has done B. Sc., B. Ed., M. Sc., MA, M. Phil and PhD as part of her academics. She has published 1 Book and 8 reserved papers in various national and international journals and has also attended a wide variety of workshops, seminars and FDPs. Her areas of interest are Theoretical and computational Chemistry, Quantum Chemistry, Density Functional Theory, Periodicity and periodic descriptors, Green Chemistry, Methods in Analytical Chemistry, Synthesis of General aspect of Chemistry, Laws of Thermodynamics, History of Law of Conservation Energy and Education technology.

Being the Head of Chemistry Department at AMPGM, what are your responsibilities for the students?

"It is to mentor students, resolve their academic queries and give time best ambiance to grow"

As a Department Head, my responsibility is to offer finest quality education to students, mentor them as and when required and address and resolve their queries on time. In addition to this, I need to organize chemistry teaching groups and allocate staff to teach them, review and update the teaching resources regularly as per standards, how to make teaching-learning process more effective in the classroom and lastly I am responsible to inspire colleagues to regularly discuss and develop a common understanding of how to teach certain topics or particular groups of students.

How do you maintain healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty?

"By giving them the required care, support and guidance"

In my opinion making students feel safe, valued, important and educated is mandatory to ensure a cordial relationship with them. And hence I also practice the same thing in my institute. And ensuring a trustworthy and transparent communication environment for them is equally important where they can speak without fear and also give their suggestions for the improvement of various things and also get a forum to utilize their skills. In addition to this, I also conduct team building games to inculcate skills like critical thinking, creativity and innovation. And when it comes to fellow faculty, I always ensure to listen carefully and make them confident that yes they can trust me. Asking questions about each other's skills and providing them a supportive hand whenever they need me are some of the other strategies I use oftenly.

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

"Through workshops, FDPS and other programs to upgrade faculty skills"

I firmly believe that we can teach Chemistry to students in two ways, either by making available all the theoretical and practical backgrounds necessary to internalize subject concepts to faculty or providing them actual tools through which they can rethink and develop their own teaching materials to suit remote teaching. Apart from this, our college has set up an Industry Advisory Board and Placement Cell with an objective to establish strong industry connections, conduct workshops and Faculty Development Programs in collaboration with ICT-Academy, DOT Square and lastly to arrange Government projects like DXC and Marico.

How do you design and update the curriculum to make it befitting for the students?

"By including Academicians and Experts in designing process of curriculum"

While preparing and updating our curriculum we include industry experts, prominent academicians and specialists to give their inputs and suggestions about which programs should be included in it and which should we discard. And we keep the whole process as democratic and flexible as possible so that we can get the right content and teaching methodologies for our students. educational content and preparing it in a simple method 

What are your views on the placements and higher education of the students from your department?

"We are doing good in both the areas and our students achievements says it all"

Our college does provide regular training sessions to students to improve their communication and aptitude skills, personality and prepare them for the actual interview rounds. Beside this, students are encouraged to pursue internships during their vacations to acquire necessary problem solving skills and also to compete in external competitions such as tech fests, paper presentations and idea and innovation contests for which students projects are certified by companies such as Genpact, Cisco, AGS Health, Omega Health, NIIT and SBI etc. The college has also launched an Alumni Portal to connect with the alumni and utilize their services, like guest lectures, internship opportunities and placements related sessions etc. 

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

"By encouraging them to keep enhancing their skills and not to compare themselves with others"

We keep encouraging our students and ask them not to compare their individuality with anyone as each of them are unique and have some built-in skills. Apart from this, we motivate them to set realistic goals for themselves so that they can track their own progress and define the route for them. Lastly, to make them confident enough to face the outside world with more courage, we have created a culture of cheerleading and good sportsmanship in our institute.

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Which extracurricular activities are organized in college to enhance the skills of students?

"Workshops, domestic and foreign workshops along with competitions are carried out on a regular basis"

A diversified range of extracurricular activities such as national and international workshops, seminars, conferences and competitions are carried out in our campus for the betterment of students and to bring out hidden talents of them. We firmly believe that effective communication and team spirit can influence students' mindset, their behaviour and cognitive development in the best possible way. In addition to this, we also encourage our students to find good internship opportunities for them where they can utilize their existing skills and learn new one. 

What challenges are you facing to uplift the education quality of your department?

"Ensuring a smooth relationship between teachers and students is a major issue for us"

Maintaining good relationships and synchronisation and establishing a transparent communication environment between students and faculty members is the major hurdle we are confronting presently. And establishing the latest instrumentation in our laboratories is another challenge we need to address on an early basis.

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What approaches do you bring in apart from the curriculum to teach the students?

"We regularly organize events like guest sessions, training programs and seminars for them"

We offer rigorous training programs to our students to help them upgrade their skills, subject knowledge and make them competent and job ready. Apart from this, we also regularly monitor the academic performance of our students in which areas they need to focus more. Events like seminars, webinars, guest lectures, training sessions are regularly organized in our institute to educate our students about how the corporate world operates and what are their expectations from us.