Class of 2019 Graduation Ceremony: A Special Day

The first batch of GISB graduated on 20^th December, 2019. It was a special moment for everyone who has been associated with this Institute as the graduation ceremony was a sign that we truly turned the concept of an industry designed sports management education institute into a reality – not that we really needed any more proof that we actually accomplished what we set out to do just two years ago. Also, to us, celebrating the first batch of GISB graduates is no different than celebrating the first batch of Harvard or Cambridge or Indian School of Business graduates as we strive to follow these world renown Universities and achieve our vision of being the top sports management education institute in Asia.

The event was organized on a football ground overlooking a beautiful part of Mumbai. The weather was perfect – cool and breezy – and the set up on the Kick venue in Powai looked as classy as the GISB campus in Kurla. It was wonderful seeing our students again, all of whom have been working within the field over the past four months. The maturity that they gained while in the ‘real world’ was palpable as they just somehow walked straighter, spoke better and looked me directly in the eye when speaking. What was more wonderful, though, was meeting their parents and hearing how appreciative they were about GISB’s role in their child’s transformation.

It was an intentionally intimate affair as my strong belief is that at graduation ceremonies the students should always be the ‘Chief Guest.’ This slightly veered of the path of typical Indian ceremonies where there sometimes are more ‘Chief Guests’ and ‘VIPs’ than there are students and most of the function goes into acknowledging these individuals instead of the people who recently completed their rigorous educational program. The lack of long, self-promoting speeches read out on pre-written notepads allowed for each student to have around five minutes to speak about their experience in the program, share how they have grown and thank those who have supported them.  We also pieced together a nice video of each students’ GISB journey with an industry testimonial at the end – an effort which was well received by all.  

The special guests in attendance were some of the committed Foundation course facilitators who each spent around 20 hours with the students focusing solely on their growth and development, this included my wife, Avantika, who led the students through a number of Expressive Arts Therapy workshops and even provided individual counseling from time to time. The ever popular Nuero Linguistics Programming (NLP) coach Tejas Toro also led the whole audience through a taster session of his work which prompted some stimulating conversation among the faculty, parents and students.

The whole event went off without a hitch and it was followed by a few celebratory drinks at one of Powai’s many breweries.  Honestly, it was one of the best ways that I could ever imagine completing 2019, surrounded by my family, colleagues, friends and a group of students who fully entrusted me to help them transform their passion for sport into their profession.