Koral ‘Purnoor’, Demokretic Front, Chandigarh August 26, 2022

UIFT & VD organized an orientation program for its B.Sc. first semester students. The students were initiated into the academic atmosphere through interactive lectures. The schedule of the program was spread over two days 24 and 25^th August 2022.  The programme started with a welcome note by the Chairperson, Dr. Anu H. Gupta which was followed by an introduction and interaction of all the faculty members, research scholars and staff of the department.

The alumnus speaker Mohini shared her journey of starting her career as a young Blogger and moving on to her Startup -clothing line” Moji”. She elaborated how she conceptualized the startup, and how does she work from idea generation to finalizing design ideas into final products. This was followed by another interesting and interactive talk by Dr. Ramandeep Bawa, faculty UIFT. She introduced the students to the idea of “Visual Merchandising”. She explained how important is visual merchandising for the retail business and how design professionals work on various ideas of Visual merchandising. 

Another noteworthy online talk was given by a member of the industry, Ms. Minal, a senior merchandiser at Windspree Fashions Pvt. Ltd. in Noida and an alumnus of UIFT. She discussed the ‘Scope of growth in garment industry’. She described the full process of work done in an Apparel export house. Along with describing in detail how to create embellished product designs, she also showed the students the real samples she had at her export company. She also took up queries of the students and briefed them about the job roles in export industry.

Along with the lectures on hands-on experience from the industry experts, Ms Parneet Brar, faculty member introduced the students to the study culture and decorum of the department.  Videos of fashion show of UIFT ‘Shears and Rubans’ from various years were showcased, which was followed by interactive session of question-answers and this ended with a campus tour, where students of B.Sc. 5th semester accompanied the freshers to the prominent places of PU campus like Gandhi Bhawan, AC Joshi library, Student Centre etc. Seniors showed them nearest market and tuck shop where they can buy raw materials in the future. The students found the visit to the Museum of Geology Department to be really fascinating, particularly the colour and texture of the museum’s collection of mineral rocks.

The orientation programme was enjoyed and was found to be very engaging by the class. “First day I was kind of nervous but then it turned out to be the best day” said Himanshi Sodhi. Kanita said that she was very happy with workshops and lectures that were organized for freshers. Arsh was very impressive with the greenery around in the campus. Pratigya added that we freshers all are from different cultures and enjoyed these initial days at UIFT and learnt from each other. Nupur remarked

“Since day one we had exclusive lectures with people working in the industry sharing their experiential knowledge and insights about their business from start to boom. We were guided and motivated as to the career opportunities we can opt for and how to make most of the course we’re in. We learned to be more patient during the process of learning and appreciate art while being exposed to everyone else’s thought process and create something new. These activities helped us come together as a class and help each other.”