The foyer, the auditorium and the indoor stadium of P. B. Siddhartha College of Arts and Sciences at Mogulrajpuram in the city on Thursday witnessed a flurry of activity as participants of The Hindu -Vignan Academic Pentathlon caused a rare buzz, vying for top honours in the series of competitions that kept them engaged for a good part of the day.
The team representing Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada, emerged winners while students of AP Social Welfare Residential IIT & Medical Academy, Eedupugallu, were declared runners up of the regional round of the event. The winners’ team included B. Praveen Kumar, Rohan Goswami, R. Manish, M. Thunesh, P.V. Ravikanth, Aishwarya, K. Meghana, Gabriella, G. Ramya Sahithi and P.V. Aditya.
The runners up team was represented by C,J. Chandini, P. Indu, C.M. Mamatha, D. Deepika, B. Keerthi, B. Maneesha, K. Praneetha, G. Madhuri, U. Nagajyoshna and M. Reddy Subriya.
Around 500 students drawn from junior colleges in Krishna and West Godavari districts took part in the five activities that were conducted simultaneously in three different places in the campus. Divided in 10-member teams, which further disintegrated in five teams (two members in each group), the young learners took part in a math quiz, a physics quiz and a chemistry quiz, besides English elocution and fine arts (song/ music/dance). The topic for elocution being “Pros and Cons of Social Media”, the participants spoke about how online communities promote increased interactions with friends and family, offer valuable access to educational support and materials, facilitate social and political change and disseminate useful information rapidly.
On the flip side, they said, too much engagement with the online space could prevent face-to-face communication, waste time on frivolous activity and most importantly, could expose users to predators like paedophiles and burglars.
M. Ramesh, Principal of P.B. Siddhartha College, addressing the students at the prize distribution function, said it was important to participate regardless of the result. Dean, Rajesh J. said activities like these would go a long way in grooming the children into rounded personalities, the need of this competitive era.
The winners of the regional rounds held at different places in the two Telugu-speaking States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana would take part in the grand finale to be held at Vignan University at Vadlamudi in Guntur district.
