On Monday 27th March 2023, Swami Swaroopananda, the Global Head of the Chinmaya Mission delivered a public lecture to staff and students of Makerere University with the objective of creating mindset change.
The Lecture held in Central Teaching Facility II was coordinated by the Dean Margaret School of Industrial and Fine Art (MTSIFA, College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT).) Dr. Amanda Tumusiime.
In his address, Swami Swaroopananda urged his listeners to grow their mindset which will help them achieve greater academic success, take on more challenging tasks, learn from mistakes and persevere through difficulties.
In his written address Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the Vice Chancellor of MakerereUniversity said that they are desirous that in addition to high quality education, their students become grounded in cultural values and norms that enhance their appreciation for selfless human behavior that esteems respect for others.
He said that dialogues such as those delivered by Swami Swaroopananda are well aligned with their institutional student engagement activities. Prof. Nawangwe said Makerere University was honored to host such a world renown speaker to deliver a talk to final year students and proposed that such dialogues become regularized as an annual or biannual event through a partnership agreement or memorandum.
“The growth of Chinmaya Mission from humble beginnings on 20th May 1965 to over 250 centres in India and 75 centres abroad is quite impressive. Equally noteworthy is that Chinmaya Educational Institutions are affiliated to the International Baccalaureate (IB) and other high quality international education standards. In the same breath, I congratulate Chinmaya Mission’s academic institutions in India upon graduating one million students through their doors”, said Prof. Nawangwe. Speaking at the sidelines of the event, Associate Professor Dr. Amanda Tumusime the Dean MTSIFA and coordinator of the engagement said that talks of this kind were very important to students. She said she is regularly contacted by students with intentions of ending their own lives and that such engagements would empower them with the necessary advice and actions.
“We normally send them for counselling services but before we do that we need to understand how to talk to these students, calm their emotions and advise them to choose alternative ways of addressing their challenges. If these talks were regular, students would know how to handle themselves”, she noted.
She opined that for students to behave the way they do was not a crime but it is because they just don’t know how to go about the challenges they face and hence the importance of such talks more frequently.
“I am very confident that students who have attended today’s talk have gotten to understand that if one is going through some challenge, this is the way they should train their mind to think, but not to over think or to pick out good ideas not bad ideas”, said Dr. Tumusiime.
She said this was a concern for all of us as a community at Makerere University and as a Professor, Lecturer or a leader, the students are our clients, and because we want a happy community, and we too need to be happy as well.
Prior to meeting the students, Swami interacted with the University management and equipped them with tips on how they can thrive in the execution of their duties.
“I am very confident that students who have attended today’s talk have gotten to understand that if one is going through some challenge, this is the way they should train their mind to think, but not to over think or to pick out good ideas not bad ideas”, said Dr. Tumusiime.
She said this was a concern for all of us as a community at Makerere University and as a Professor, Lecturer or a leader, the students are our clients, and because we want a happy community, and we too need to be happy as well.