Management students on an Accelerated Learning Curve through Dramatics, Dance, Music, Film, Debate and Adventure at WeSchool

Management Education has changed over the years with emerging unarticulated needs, realities, limited resources, globalization, environment issues etc which needs a new approach both in terms of thought as well as action. WeSchool strongly believes in integrating the philosophy of "Leadership" & "Innovation" with a design-thinking approach into management education. It has introduced several pioneering management programs in Business Design & Innovation, E-business, Retail, Legal, Healthcare, introduced new subjects/verticals and constantly experimenting with new pedagogical approaches to enhance student learning. The scope of curriculum has expanded to incorporate other sciences and subjects such as anthropology, sociology as well as tools such as ethnography research with a strong focus on participant centered learning and experiential learning. To enhance the learning in the classroom, a blend of case-studies, scenario planning, role-plays, audio-visual material and experiential learning methods are used in addition to the conventional classroom lecture method. Teaching through theatre, literature, poems, films, and book reviews have been a popular medium to connect with students to teach several management & leadership principles which makes learning more experiential and fun as well. B-schools and companies have realized how theatre-kind of training can develop various attributes among individuals and can determine group dynamics. At WeSchool we are going one step further by integrating theatre and literature (particularly serious fiction) and helping our students to not just learn from the unique pedagogy but by selecting such stories whose characters are often non-conventional leaders that teach many lessons on decision-making. While students engage in story-telling, they also are guided to delve on the dilemmas in the stories that involve ethics, change management, adversity management etc. Apart from the above, yoga sessions, treks, expeditions and outbound programs are regularly organized for students. We regularly invite experts from various walks of life to include several more stakeholders in addition to experts from businesses and corporate world. Students are given exposure to global as well as local & rural markets learn about latest trends in the industry as well as about ancient wisdom, so as to sensitize them to various stakeholders in our society so as to nurture them to be responsible global citizen manager. All of these require a creative mindset with in-depth knowledge of the models in the business/market in which they operate upon. WeSchool has been striving towards creating such simulations and exposure to our students. Our students pursue internships in various industries and services sectors including Film production houses, media houses and celebrity management companies etc. And the mentoring team at WeSchool lends all their support to place them where they can get the most relevant exposure that matches the blue prints of their career best. The event with the team ‘Aarakshan’ , can be aptly termed as a capsule course in management wherein the entire planning, conceptualizing and execution of an event has been by WeSchool management students under the guidance of our alumnus Aditya Bhat & support of our WeSchool team. The ball was set rolling with an interesting interaction with Prakash Jha, Anjum Rajabali and Prasoon Joshi and came to an end with dazzling yet sober convocation ceremony where Megastar Amitabh Bachchan gave away the certificates to the winners of the nationwide ‘Aarakshan ‘Contest. Sessions like learning dance from Deepika Padukone, Dramatics workshop by Manoj Bajpai, Graffiti by Prateik Babbar and a Jam session by Saif Ali Khan with the music Director trio Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy brought the house down. The personalities from Bollywood shared their experiences with the students and faculty; be it Production, Direction, Script writing, Music, Dance, Acting each of these aspects had tremendous learnings for Business Management Students to enhance their professional approach.