Student Dairies 2020

Hi, Past two weeks at Harvard University, Massachusetts, have been amazing and informative. Thanks to Harvard College Project For Asian and International Relations(Hpair) 2020 conference! (14th Feb 2020-17th Feb 2020). The theme of the conference was- Striking a Balance: Vision for a Conflicting World. https://hpair.org/harvard-conference-2020 This opportunity lead to new friendships and enhanced my networking capabilities. My track: Energy and Environmental sustainability helped me form key insights of the problems prevailing from the perspective of policy-makers and practitioners. The keynote speakers: Hari Nair(Visiting Scholar at Harvard School of Public Health), Richard Towle(Deputy Director of the UNHCR), Bill Guttentag(Oscar winning dramatic and documentary film writer-producer-director), Corinne M. Le Goffthe(Senior Vice President, US General Medicine, Amgen) and Usman Ahmed(Head of Global Public Policy at PayPal), set a path for choosing the right career and enlightening their experiences as leaders. My track panel speakers discussed important issues regarding environment and how have countries mitigated the climate change issue. Glad to meet Shanchita Haque Ma'am(Minister with the Government of Bangladesh and a diplomat with the United Nations), Himanshu Dube Sir(Founding Director of Insight Development Consulting Group), Theara Khoun(Future Forum, Phnom Penh) and Brian O'Callaghan(Renewable Energy Finance and Economics, Australia, New Zealand and Europe). Also met Steve Changris(Northwest Region Vice President, NWRA) and attended his seminar on Landfill Leaks and Incinerating Wastes. Sharing my insights and concepts with them set a direction towards critical thinking. Their guidance helped me gauge conceptual understanding of the challenges faced worldwide. On one of the conference nights we had an event: Impact Carnival, where all delegates dressed in their traditional outfits came together to exchange cultural heritage of their respective countries. This was followed by iNight, where we witnessed delegates performing their folk dance forms, singing etc. Finally, had fun while completing the Deloitte Impact Challenge as a group of individuals from various backgrounds. Our task was to develop a prototype of an Application for the given problem statement. Key learning from this challenge was: to have a feedback loop within the group members to ensure clarity of thoughts. This platform allowed me to meet and interact with fellow delegates from many countries and share my insights with them. Kudos to all! Thanks to my #mitindiainitiative mentors for taking out time from their schedules and meeting me! Special thanks to Rajan Hoyle for giving me a tour of MIT. Utilised the opportunity to Explore the Harvard, HBS, MIT MIT Sloan campuses! Thank you Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai for this opportunity and faculty members for their support. Regards, Aditi Bairolu, PGDM Batch 2 (2019-21)