Chennai
“We want to start a Centre for Rocket Science, in which we want students from all Indian universities to come and study. We want to start more centres of research and make our institution a research university,” she says. Dr Mariazeena wants students to focus on research during their under-graduate years and get patents for their innovation during post-graduation. She wants the Union Government to expedite the process of registering students’ patent.
“When a student in a university abroad is able to get a number of patents even while studying, an Indian student should also be able to do this. We are now happy that we are going towards this goal. Government initiatives for the youth are the kind of initiatives that we need,” she says.
Pointing out that the Union Government should recognise all universities equally, the Sathyabama University director says that all deemed universities had started concentrating on research, which was the need of the hour. Deemed universities are now on par with government universities, even in launching satellites, like the Sathyabamasat, she points out proudly.
She recounts enthusiastically how she and the Sathyabamasat (a satellite developed by students and faculty of Sathyabama University) team recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting lasted for about 20 minutes, during which time the Prime Minister eagerly asked them about the future of the satellite. The PM referred to the team of students as ‘scientists’. “During our interaction we requested the PM to allot us a Centre for Rocket Science,” she says.
Dr Mariazeena is strong in the belief that people should give students an opportunity to present their ideas and guide them. She is of the opinion that a good leader creates more leaders.
She feels that if a person is able to succeed in something, he or she should boldly go to the next level. If they fail, guide, because they would know what failure had been.
She has implemented a number of initiatives at the university. One that is on the cards is to make the university paperless, and exams too. The library has also been digitized. Every student in the university has an ID, which they can use to access the library from anywhere and at any time. Success mantra according to her is quite simple. “I learn every day, keep smiling. Every day is a learning for me,” she says. “The more you read, the more your life will go to the next level. If you stop reading, you stop talking. Only if you read can you talk more,” says the director, who talks to students regularly, duly inspiring and leading them. She would like to be a student forever.
She also feels that one should be positive in life to achieve great success. Giving people respect and being of good cheer are equally important, she adds. “Give everybody an opportunity to put forward their views and ideas, is also my success mantra,” says Dr Mariazeena. Her social consciousness has had the university enrolling 500 students every year on scholarship through the Anbu Foundation. Students with disabilities get a full scholarship at the university. This year the institution has admitted seven acid attack victims, also on full scholarship.
“We run a programme called ‘My Saturday University’ through which we concentrate on Class 10 dropouts. Government schools can use our infrastructure on Saturday for free, students can go to school five days a week and come to our university on Saturday. We teach them skills, such as mushroom cultivation, soap making and gadget servicing. We teach girls solar light making and have now introduced a beautician’s course too,” says Dr Mariazeena, who is the patron of 45 trusts across the country.
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