August 19^th, 2015, a pleasant Bangalore morning, as 30 young minds embarked on a new journey where new friends, learning new techniques and sharing ideas brought us to the classrooms of the Biocon Academy.

Mispronounced names and various cultural backgrounds, as we slowly began to fraternize and never before experienced photo shoots later. Batch 5 commenced to a great start. The orientation program conducted by Ms Shirley Jijo began with wise words from Dr. Arun Chandravasker, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Biocon, followed by encouraging notes from Dr. Steve Casper and Dr. Meghana Joshi.  Accounts of experiences and inspiring thoughts from various sectors of the biotech industry and the alumni of Biocon Academy lifted our hopes of looking towards a better future and working together.

Soon after the opening ceremony, we were introduced to our classroom, our ‘Knowledge den’ for the next 16 weeks, where the seating arrangement placed us in groups forming the motto of Biocon Academy; Empower, Leverage, Persevere, Innovate, Connect and Transform. A corporate presentation of the Biocon industry was presented by Ms. Seema Ahuja, Vice President and Global Head of Communications, Biocon, where an insight of Biocon, it’s functioning and innovations and success was introduced to the students.

Post lunch a fun and creative ice breaking session was conducted by Ms. Usha and Mr. K.S Ramanan, pairing students randomly and introducing each other, followed by group activities where students were asked to share their stories of success and factors that lead to the success, with some inspiring and some fun stories, this afternoon session definitely broke the ice and bridged the gap between all of us. Hence a calm and creative approach by Ms. Usha and Mr. K.S Ramanan showed us the importance of motivation, achievements and finally success.

The first day at Biocon Academy came to an end with a memory game conducted by Mr. Salavadi Easwaran, Academic Director, Biocon Academy, where we were asked to volunteer and reminisce names of all the other 29 students, the encouragement being a tempting bar of chocolate for the winner.

Even though it was a long day with a lot of activity in a new environment, it was day well spent and will be cherished, Batch 5 is definitely a plethora of talented and energetic young souls.

Written by: Sreyashi Dev, Biocon KGI Certificate Program in Biosciences