It is never too late to learn something new.

Awesummer 2019 was organized by St Andrews College, Mumbai in collaboration with St Pauls Institute of Communication Education, Mumbai, The Diocesan Youth Center and St Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy & Performing Arts, from 22^nd April to 30^th May, 2019.

From the very beginning of the AWESUMMER concept, the Society of St Paul (SSP) was knee to collaborate with the mission of the Church in Bombay. The summer programme created a platform for SSP to make known some of its apostolic activities to the youth of the Archdiocese of Bombay.

The courses conducted across 2 venues- St Andrew’ s College and St Pauls Institute of Communication Education-  offered the youth; aged between 16 years and 25 years, curated activities across genres to hone their interests, cultivate hobbies or simply to learn something new.

The participants benefitted this wide range of summer time courses, where options included a wide range of lineups- basic French, dancing, youth entrepreneurship, photography, mystery writing, graphic design, better communication, handwriting analysis and even baking!

One of the main highlights from Awesummer 2019 was the celebratory ‘Graduation Dinner’ took place at St Andrew’s School Quadrangle, on 30^th May 2019 with Bishop Barthol Baretto in attendance. This is where all successful candidates received their certificates. The Students excitedly walked up collect their certificates from the dignitaries presenting them- which included the who’s who of the Archdiocese of Mumbai- from Bishop Barthol, The Paulines, the Jesuits, the Salesians and the parish team from St Andrew’s Bandra.

Bishop Barthol Baretto thanked St Pauls Institute of Communication Education for the collaborative efforts to provide the classrooms, the multimedia labs and faculty required to make communication- media and design studies accessible to all interested students.

Fr Joseph Kandachamkunnel graduated with a Master’s degree in Pastoral Mental Health Counselling from Fordham University (a Jesuit Institution) in New York, on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. For the specialization in pastoral mental health counselling, he completed a 60-credit program with 600 hours of supervised clinical experience. The course focused on various counselling theories and practical skills of mental health counselling in a multi-cultural context, from a pastoral perspective. While doing the course, Fr Kandachamkunnel gained immense supervised clinical experience at St Francis of Assisi counselling centre, Manhattan. This Master’s degree qualifies him to apply for a license from the American Counselling Association.

The Provincial Superior, his team and the members of our Province congratulate Fr Kandachamkunnel on his praiseworthy achievement.

St Pauls Institute of Communication Education (SPICE) formally inaugurated its podcast studio on November 28, making it possibly the first media school in the country and certainly in Mumbai, to have such a facility.

The blessing was carried out by Rev. Fr Varghese Gnalian, Provincial Superior, Society of St Paul, India, with Fr Sebastian E., Director General of the Apostolate and others in attendance. Fr Anil C Paul, SVD, who teaches and anchors the podcast module, was on hand to showcase some student work.

Rajesh Tahil, co-founder of Audiomatic.in, arguably India’s first and best podcast network, inaugurated the studio and later addressed the students on the subject of podcasts or internet radio. During his address, which was accompanied by a presentation of podcasts from audiomatic.in, Mr. Tahil spoke of the immense potential of audio and its role in media. “I am thrilled to be part of this event, and I congratulate St Pauls Institute of being ahead of the competition.’ He added that very few media schools can boast of a podcast module on its curriculum, and even fewer would set up a proper facility to enable students to master yet another arm of the media ecosystem.

On their part, the students listened attentively to what he had to say and then asked questions pertaining both to teaching of the module and trends within the field.

St Pauls Institute now has both television and audio facilities aimed at ensuring its students, particularly those undertaking its Post Graduate courses in Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations, go into the work place armed with an awareness of industry practices, in keeping with its promise to work with professionals at every level in delivering practical training as well as technical knowhow, while developing content that matches industry needs and standards.

This year, St Pauls Institute of Communication Education and Title Waves featured as added venues for the Tata Literature Live, a four-day festival that is easily among the largest in the country. Till last year, it featured at the NCPA and Prithvi Theatre in Juhu. This time, on November 17 and 18, it was also at Bandra, on our premises.

The Festival promised more than 100 sessions, plus workshops and performances, over the four days. At St Pauls, there were 28 sessions, spread between Title Waves and the Alberione Hall over two days. What an illustrious lineup it was. From Stephen Daldry, director of Netflix’s famous series The Crown, interviewed by theatre personality and trenchant critic Craig Brown, to Lionel Shriver, talking about her books, NDTV’s Ravish Kumar, in a panel discussion moderated by Dean of SPICE Carol Andrade, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai talking to Govindraj Ethiraj about Journalism in the Modi era, discussions, debates, straight talks and poetry readings, there was something for everyone.

Plus there were the workshops in the Title Waves Lounge. Editing the written word with Ferdinand Mount, putting a thriller together with Sabine Durrant, even one of the science of using foul language by Sabine Durrant.

And the turnout was equally astounding. As Anil Dharker, founder of the literature festival put it, “We thought there would be teething troubles and we wondered if people would come to the new venue. But everything went off so smoothly and the numbers who attended, as well as the quality of those who registered, quite floored us”.

Rich praise indeed with footfalls to match, with an estimated 600+ people visiting over the two days. At the time of this writing, the figures were not yet in. In marketing terms, and if the aim was to raise awareness of St Pauls Media Complex among Bandra-ites and even those who are not from here, it was a 100 per cent successful exercise.