In college, one of the skills that I developed was writing probably because of the number of books I read. One thing that bothered me was the absence of a college newsletter because I read about all the other big institutions in and outside India and how they have a very blossoming editorial team.
I therefore planned to start a college newsletter, but later decided in favor of starting a club which would organize events and contests on a regular basis. These events would be covered by the newsletter and thus maintain the required readership because everyone is interested in reading about themselves or someone they know. So, with the help of a few colleagues, I founded the Society of Civil Engineers for MNIT. We wrote the charter and created different teams under it. One of the teams we created was the Editorial team.
Initially, it was a two member team and we did everything from collecting the articles to selecting which ones to publish, from designing the newsletter and editing them to interviewing the professors. But with time, the team size grew to five, and I assumed the role of Chief Editor. For the first time in life, I was supposed to delegate work and it was awkward at first because it is difficult to yield control of something that I have nurtured so passionately. But by distributing the work, the process became less hectic and the content more versatile.
This experience groomed my ability to lead a team and blossom within a group of people sharing the same passion but different ideas.
5