#CandidateSpeak — What Sets You Apart?

Transcribed below are answers given by the candidates in the Presidential Debate and Discussion organized by The Edict in collaboration with the Ashoka Alumni Association.

What is truly unique about your candidature? What sets you apart from the other candidates?

Jasmine Luthra:

I’ve worked on the interim council and the founding council. I have the insider’s view, a deep understanding of how things work, what are the gaps and what needs to be done. Although new energy must come in at this nascent age, I think having some continuity would have its own advantage.

Lav Kanoi:

I have had the experience of working in varied fields like Business Consulting, Government Advisory, Teaching and Research. In addition to the various languages I speak, I’m also familiar with ‘languages’ of the fields I’ve just mentioned. I have made sustained contributions to the Association and the larger community. As chapter head, I’ve worked and delivered on a number of different initiatives. I am uniquely positioned in Ashoka. At the moment I am a part of the Vice Chancellor’s office. My position and proximity ensures that the right systems and processes get integrated with the larger university.

Parushya

I’ve closely engaged with more than three batches: my own batch and the batches post mine. I’ve taken advice from all the batches during the course of making my manifesto. I consider my ability to collaborate a strength. Tangibly working with international universities, I’ve seen and studied the stages of development of Alumni Associations. I believe that with the help of both these qualities I will be able to achieve the common vision that we all have.

Simran Rana:

I’m not the most illustrious candidate running for President: I haven’t been associated with the previous councils. I’ve only been associated as a TA a couple of times but just like all the other candidates I have a lot of integrity and a lot of heart. I think that I would be able to bring in something fresh and a little bit new. I’m an outsider who does not exactly understand what the Alumni Association really does. I’d like to figure that out for myself and for a lot of people like me. I think my running for President will always be in the direction of involving everybody and reengaging with people who are dropping off of our radar and bringing them back

Ashweetha Shetty:

After the Fellowship I’ve come to Ashoka every single year. In the last five years I’ve interacted with several fellows from diverse backgrounds. I’ve understood what an alumni community means for others and for me. I feel I am someone who is far away from Ashoka in many ways. I work at the grass root level and I think I have a very unique perspective of looking at Ashoka. I add a lot of diversity to my batch and I want to ensure that it exists in all platforms. I am from the second batch and we experienced a lot of soul. This got diluted over the years and I want to bring back some of those things. These are some of things that make me very unique to this position.

Gaurav Mohta:

Over the last two years the current Association has done a wonderful job of setting up and strengthening the processes and systems of university and alumni relations. Things have improved since 2015–16. While we need to ensure that there is continuity in terms of what was planned we also need to accelerate the impact. The first council laid the foundation to create but we also need to consider the different viewpoints among the alumni, the fast evolving priorities of the university and the association and the virtual boundaries we have or will create for ourselves. I call this process driving on the highway. I’ve been a part of three early stage startups and I can say that we will make mistakes and even big blunders. It’ll be important to remain humble about making mistakes and openly accepting and learning from them. This will allow us to move forward in the right direction keeping the community’s trust intact. My key strengths are empathy, influencing without authority and my experience of leading multiple large and diverse teams through challenging situations at work and outside as well. I think these skills would be very useful to the association in its current stage and structure.

We are deeply thankful to Samyak Shami from the UG’19 batch for transcribing these answers.