Bhubaneswar, Jan. 3: It was a grand home coming for around 1500 alumnis of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University here on Saturday as the former students were reunited with their former classmates, relived their relationship with teachers and walked down memory lane as they visited their alma mater.

The former students visited their own institutions in the morning while an event was organised in the university auditorium in the afternoon which was graced by Dr. Debasish Dash, Director of the Institute of Life Sciences and Dr. Ramanuj Narayan, Director of CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology. SOA’s Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, presided.

While Dr. Dash urged the former students to share their knowledge and experiences with the next generation of students, Dr. Narayan asked them to feel proud for having studied at such a renowned university.

Dr. Dash also advised the students to keep in touch with each other. Dr. Narayan said they should ensure that the society benefitted from their learning.

Prof. Nanda outlined the progress achieved by the university in recent years while urging the students to visit their respective institutions to see how the same had developed over the years.

Dr. Biswa Samal, Director, Deloitte, Bhubaneswar and Dr. D.S. Arvind, Joint Director in the Health and Family Welfare department of the Odisha government, both formers SOA students, also spoke on the occasion recounting their experiences and memories.

Dr. Arvind, who passed out of the university’s faculty of medicine in 2018, said whatever he had achieved in life was because of the university. Dr. Samal said it was the social responsibility of former students of SOA to help the present batch of students.

Prof. Prasanta Kumar Patra, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Alumni Relation) of SOA, Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare), Dr. Sushmita Panda, Associate Dean, Alumni Cell-SOA, Ripti Ranjan Dash, Director, Corporate Relation, and Abhishek Pattnaik, Co-Coordinator and Member Secretary of Alumni Cell-SOA, also spoke. Prof. Gatha Mohanty of Institute of Dental Sciences coordinated the event.