Student Leader Interview - Haritima Sharma, Hansraj College

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1. Tell us more about your role & responsibilities at your college.

My position as a coordinator of a Literary Society usually constitutes of maintaining a healthy and functional flow of communication between the postholders and the members of the society. It includes communicating information about various events and tasks to the members, and the grievances, ideas, and suggestions from the members to the postholders. It also comprises of participating in organizing events for the society. 

2. How did you rise up to your position and how can a student aspiring the same, approach it?

While I do think the particular set of skills and credibility required for different positions are quite different, I would say some of the basic things are perseverance, confidence, and knowledge. You must have some basic information about the field you're entering, you must have faith that you are no less than anyone else, and you must be determined to improve and develop yourself over and over. 

3. What's it like to juggle between a leadership role and normal college life?

Well as it is said, 'With great power comes great responsibility', it surely affects your college life, in fact, I'd say that fulfilling that role becomes an essential part of your college life. Since college life is quite different from school life, as it is not only about academics but also developing and enhancing your skills and talent in things that interest you and to improve and learn. 

4. What have been some of your biggest challenges and learnings from what you do?

It's usually a little challenging in the start to try and adjust to any kind of post I would say. Because in college you're sort of trying to fit in yourself and getting introduced to a whole set of new things, but I think eventually you start to get a hold of it. I'd say no challenge is big or small because at the end it all helps You to grow and evolve.

You learn a lot about working with others, you learn about how to engage with others and how things function, you learn about how to have various perspectives towards things, moreover, it broadens your knowledge and understanding and a lot of it are done through the small challenges you face along the way.

5.  How do your parent's look at you participating in extracurricular activities?  

 My parents have always been rather supportive of my participation in extra-curricular activities. I think the support of parents is an absolute necessary support one needs for advancing their skills because it motivates the individual to participate in such activities often and allows them to improve and enhance their skills. When one lacks such support it can prove as an obstacle in the way of improving. 

6. What are your career goals and how is what you are doing going to help you with that?

Well, I aim to go further into the field of academia, and I think being a part of a Literary Society helps a lot for that. It enables me to get more knowledge and information about the academe and how the academia functions. It works to increase my knowledge on various topics and subjects relating to the academic field. 

7.  How can we encourage more young students such as yourself to take-up leadership roles?

I think it depends a lot on the willingness and interests of the students themselves. But one of the key components needed would be confidence. Often one might think they are not as good as others, but we must have enough confidence and faith in ourselves and strive towards what we want to achieve. 

I think it's necessary to work towards what you want to aim at, despite the setbacks you might encounter on the way. There would be moments when one might feel defeated or might not have much faith in themselves, at those moments one must remember to pick themselves and work towards what they believe in. 

8.  What's your message to encourage students to do internships and attend conferences?

Once one realises the importance of such events, one is automatically prone to attend them. If carefully picked, such internships and conferences can prove very useful to the students and further help them advance in their field. Often the classes are not enough to provide with the necessary information one might need as there are several restrictions, but such events can be a good opportunity to help one grow and develop, and get a step ahead. 

Interviewed by- Saarthak Gautam