We are proud to announce that St. Mira recently associated itself with a global academic initiative called COIL.
The world we live in is gradually moving towards an extremely exclusive, right-winged way of thinking. In these times one sees a rise in a lot of discrimination and hatred towards people who look different, think differently and act differently.
In a world that’s changing, it’s important to expose youngsters to a thought process and a belief system that endorses goodness, kindness and inclusivity.
Keeping this sentiment in mind, on the 10th of September, 2019, St Mira’s College Pune and LaGuardia Community College New York embarked on a path breaking pedagogical experiment called COIL.
Other institutes such as-
1. The Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2. Institute of Communication and Cultural Studies, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
Also joined St. Mira college and LaGuardia in this unique first of its kind academic initiative helping both educationists and students break barriers and coming together for the sole purpose of bridging the gap via education.
In a world that seems to be building walls these four educational institutions are collaborating on a shared syllabus to understand narratives of partition and explore the process of healing thereafter.
The curriculum will include –
1. Ice-candy Man by Bapsi Sidhwa,
2. Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh and some short stories.
Over a hundred students from Korea, Jamaica, West Africa, New York, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and from diverse religious backgrounds will converse about putting the past behind them and building a new future.
Ummesalama Karu ,a second year student from St Mira’s, says the reason she joined COIL or the collaboration was “Knowing about the diversity and how people in the world are different and similar to Indians.”
To which the students at LaGuardia Community College responded, “We value diversity and look forward to discussing everything.”
COIL is a wonderful way of celebrating differences whilst imparting education to youngsters, setting a platform for responsible inclusiveness through academic exploration.
The COIL program will include writing assignments together on common Google docs, shared videos, WhatsApp and skype interaction.
Students enrolling for COIL will be participating in all the online lectures which are also part of their credit grading for one semester from September 10th till December.
