LIVE YOUR DREAM

LIVE YOUR DREAM

    At a recently held event in Mumbai, eight college students were awarded up to Rs 1,50,000 to fulfill their dreams that ranged from shooting a music video in the laps of the Himalayas to building a fully renewable energy driven school for the girl child in Bundelkhand. The initiative, Godrej LOUD, undertaken by Godrej, was open to first year students from B-schools including IIM-L, IIM-A, SIBM, IIFT, etc.
    In its second year, the initiative required applicants to speak about their dream through a video clip, pictures, poems and short stories and received over 700 entries from across the country. According to Sumit Mitra, head, group human resources and corporate services, Godrej, “The eight winners — Shikhar Mathur, Shreyas Dwivedi, Abhishek Iyer, Gopi Reddy, Kanika Virmani, Praveen Gupta, Shipra Agarwal and Digant Bhatt — were selected because their dreams are distinctly different and backed by immense passion.”
    Shikhar Mathur, a student of IIFT Delhi, whose dream is to establish a fully renewable energy driven school shares, “My dream is to create a renewable energy driven school for the girl child in my hometown in Jhansi, Bundelkhand. This will lead to sensitisation and advocacy of renewable energy. The sponsorship will help me establish the school soon.”
    Kanika Virmani, a student at MDI Gurgaon, received the award to fulfill her desire to scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. She informs, “As a child, when I first saw a scuba diving video, I was scared. Fear soon gave way to curiosity and it was my dream to explore the world that exists beneath the oceans. When I heard of the initiative, I immediately applied for it.”
    Apart from prize sum, students have been given a pre-placement opportunity to participate in Gurukul 2014, a summer internship programme at Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies (GILAC). “We started Godrej LOUD in 2012 to help Indian students realise their dreams, which had been shelved due to their career path or sponsorship constraints. We hope that some of these young people will find the company an inspiring place to work and so, they have the option to spend a summer at Gurukul, our internship programme,” concludes Mitra. During the two-month internship, students will work on live projects across businesses under close mentoring from senior leaders.