St Mary’s college: 75 years of dedicated service
SHILLONG: A première institute of the city, built on the firm tradition of virtue and excellence yet with a futuristic outlook, St. Mary’s College, is abuzz with activity and exhilaration as it gears up to celebrate the many milestones set up by the RNDM sisters, its accomplished alumni and teaching fraternity over the decades.
Run by the Sisters of Our lady of the Missions or RNDM (Religieux Notre Dame des Missions, an international religious congregation), St. Mary’s College has completed 75 years of noble service. The faculty call it a celebration of the rich legacy of an institution that has always reached out to society, through relevant education, research and field action. Historically, St. Mary’s College has always stayed connected to the parent institute of St. Mary’s Convent which in turn had its headquarters in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
The theme of the Platinum Jubilee commemoration is “Celebrating the roots of tradition, while moving towards a new dawn”. The Grand Finale will mark the end of a year-long celebration which included programmes organized by the College such as the inter college singing competition, inter college basketball competition, inter college debate competition, inter college quiz competition, half marathon, national seminar,youth development seminar amongst others.
Mother M. St. Euphrasie Barbier is regarded as the founder of the college. Mother M. St. Rudolphe was the local supervisor of the convent from 1937-1943 and was mandated to function as the first college principal.
Riding high on its motto, ‘Virtue and Knowledge’, St. Mary’s College has consistently focussed on quality education, competence and skills in various spheres of life so as to inculcate the human values of peace, love, justice and unity. From its establishment, the College has exponentially in terms of student enrolment while simultaneously developing the infrastructure and academic progress.
St. Mary’s College is accredited ‘A’ grade by National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) of India in 2005 and 2011. The Department of Bio-Technology, (DBT), Government of India has recognized the exceptional performance of the college and has granted St. Mary’s College with the ‘Star College’ status.
Over the period of seventy-five years, the college has successfully institutionalized several good and innovative practices such as organizing short time vocational certificate courses as Add- On Courses which the students can avail of. Speaking to a cross section of alumni, provided glimpse of what the institution has done to support the marginalised. “I could complete my History Honours only because Mother Eusebius generously lent me all the books i needed and which I could never have afforded to buy. How can I ever forget such kindness,” an alumni who did not wish to reveal her name said. Speaking to many other alumni who passed out in the 70’s was interesting. They all remembered Mother Anne who as Principal went after them like school children all out of love and an interest in their scholastic careers. “At that time we felt St Mary’s College was too strict. Now we wish our won children had that kind of maternal care even in college. It made a great difference to our lives and our attitudes,” said some of the past pupils. “St. Mary’s College has served the society well for 75 years. It has been a mentor, a guide and a home to the many young women who have graduated from its classrooms,” said a senior lecturer.
Professor Sutapa Biswas who is one of the organising committee members informed that the curtains for the year long Platinum Jubilee Celebration (2012-2013) will fall on November 30 with a programme to be at the College campus where the Governor of Meghalaya, Dr. KK Paul, will grace the occasion as the chief guest.