The Community Outreach Cell has been working towards community engagement at the local and national level to nurture students into sensitive, ethical and critically conscious citizens who will contribute responsibly to communities and society. The Community Outreach Project (COP) is a fine example of the integration of the cell’s functions into the collegiate system – it inspires the evolution of students’ ideologies and care practices by virtue of active reflection and engagement in community work. In order to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the social sector and ensure an informed choice of organization for their COP, lectures by experts in the sector are arranged for students. The CO Cell also organises a donation drive to encourage sustainability and community participation.
In this academic year the following activities were conducted:

• Community Outreach Projects (COP)
  All SSLA students participate in a community outreach project aimed at initiating student contributions towards social justice. Experts from various organisations interact with students to make them aware of social issues. 92 students submitted their Community Outreach project reports, where they applied academic leanings to what they observed on the field. The students worked under the domains of Animal Welfare, Anti-trafficking, Community health, Civic Education, Child & Youth Social Work, Environmental Protection, Disabilities, Urban Development, Rural Development, Heritage & Handicrafts,Geriatric Social Work, Mental Health and Gender Issues.
• Sahara Donation Drive
  This year the CO Cell organised the Sahara Donation Drive, which focused on collecting clothes and books from the SSLA community to encourage sustainability by giving pre-loved items a second life. The week-long drive was organised from 16th April to 23rd April, 2025. A short engagement activity with music and interactive games was organised on 23rd April, 2025 to promote the donation drive. The clothes donated were given for the Muskaan Project, conducted by the Service Learning Centre of SCOPE in collaboration with the Ishanya Foundation.


A student participating in the engagement activity conducted on 23rd April, 2025



Sahara Donation Drive poster



The Donation Drive drop off boxes

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• COP Fair
  The CO Cell hosted a COP (Community Outreach Project) Fair for Batch 2028 from 26th March to 16th April, with speakers from various organizations, experts in domains and students from SSLA who have already completed their COPs. The fair included the following domains: Child & Youth Social Work, Education, Environment & Rural Development, Human Rights, Minority Issues, Working with the Government and Women’s Issues.
  The speaker and organisation details for the fair are as follows: Education (Door Step School Foundation), Working with the Government (Drona Tewari), Human Rights (Asha Trust), Women’s Issues (Prof Ipsita Gauri - SSLA Faculty), Minority Issues (Snehalaya), Environment & Rural Development (Prof Richa Minocha - SSLA Faculty), Child & Youth Social Work (U&I), Student Experiences with COP (Shraddha Routray, Sangana Ghosh and Taniya Madan), COP Report Writing student led (Mahalakshmi R and Mahek Mehta). Each session was one hour long, with fifty minutes allotted to the speaker and the remaining time reserved for any questions the students may have.


Evidence of session with U&I for Child and Youth Social Work for the COP Fair, 2025



Evidence of the session on report writing for the COP Fair, 2025

Semester Exchange: Outgoing

• Ms Janhavi Singh (batch 2022-2026) - Leiden University, Netherlands, (See Annexure 1)
• Ms Khushi Tulsyan (batch 2021-2025) - University College London, UK, (See Annexure 1)

Semester Exchange: Incoming

• Ms Hannah De Vreeze - Leiden University, Netherlands, (See Annexure 1)
• Ms Myrthe Molenaar - Leiden University, Netherlands, (See Annexure 1)

Summer School: Outgoing

• Ms Sameera Madipalli (Batch 2022-2026) - Hochschule Bremen City University, Germany, (See Annexure 1)
• Ms Amrita Rath (Batch 2021-2025) - Hochschule Bremen City University, Germany, (See Annexure 1)
• Ms Nidhi Konejkar (Batch 2021-2025) - London School of Economics, UK, (See Annexure 1)

Student Achievements:

• American Youth Leadership Exchange Program (AYLEP) (Dubai, August 2024) - Ms Fizza Khanbahadur (Batch 2023-2027) was selected to represent SIU, Pune at the programme.
• Sweden India Nobel Memorial Quiz (October 2024) - Ms Sera Varghese, Ms Shivani Panda and Ms Vallari Desai (Batch 2024-2028), (See Annexure 1)
• Singapore India Partner Foundation’s (SIPF) “Student Experience Program” (April 2025) - Ms Diya Pardeshi (Batch 2023-2027) and Mr Priyanshu Ghosh (Batch 2022-2026) were selected to represent SIU, Pune at the program, (See Annexure 1)

Scholar in Residence: (See Annexure 1)

• Name and Bio: Dr Zafar Iqbal, Associate Professor and Director; MS in Marketing Program, Department of Marketing, Driehaus College of Business and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University Chicago. Dr. Iqbal is also the Associate Director for Regional Initiatives at DePaul and is responsible for developing and executing DePaul's internationalization strategy in India. In addition, he is the Co-Director of Integrated Marketing Education, the undergraduate Marketing honors program at the Driehaus College of Business.
• Period of Residency: 20th July 2024 - 1st September 2024
• Teaching: Marketing Strategy: Developing Profitable and Sustainable Business Models and Fundamentals of Marketing
• Research: Collaborator on a project titled ‘Positioning of Liberal Arts Education to Corporates in India’.

SSLA-Bournemouth University Turing Programme: (See Annexure 1)

• 3 students from Bournemouth University including one predoctoral scholar, Ms Kara Price Jones, and 2 undergraduate students visited SSLA between 3 June 2024 to 3 July 2024 as a part of the Turing Program. This is a collaboration between the Psychology faculties of both institutions led by Dr Shanti Shanker of BU and Ms Atiya Fatima and Ms Ipsita Gauri of SSLA.
• The Turing programme has led the collaborating faculty to work on a research paper. The early stages of ideation of the paper were presented at a conference on Race and Equality at Bournemouth University.

Global Learning Programme: (See Annexure 1)

• Dr. Kathryn Ibata-Arens of DePaul University and Dr. Sulakshana Sen engaged in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) this semester with courses Global Justice at SSLA and International Political Economy of the Asia Pacific Rim at DePaul University (Period Sept 2024 to Nov 2024).
• This collaboration has also led to a joint paper authored by Dr. Kathryn Ibata-Arens and Dr. Sulakshana Sen.
• Prof. Howard Rosing of DePaul University spoke to students of Dr. Richa Minocha’s course "Introduction to Social Work" in October 2024 on two themes: 1. Community-engaged Learning and 2. Social Protection Programmes in the USA.

Lectures, Workshops and Visits by International Partner Universities: (See Annexure 1)

• Deakin University, Australia: Dr. Victoria Duckett (Associate Professor of Film, Media and Communication and Associate Dean of International Partnerships) and Prof. George Duke (Associate Head, International and Engagement, School of Humanities and Social Sciences) from Deakin University, Australia, visited SSLA on 20th September 2024. Dr. Duke's teaching and research interests overlap Philosophy, Law, and Political Science, and he delivered a master-class on the topic “Popular Sovereignty and Democracy.” Dr. Duckett delivered her talk on “Digital Storytelling and Society” and discussed programs at Deakin University that were of specific interest to SSLA students majoring in Media Studies, English Literature, Political Science, and International Relations.
• Aston University, UK: Prof. Mark McCormack, Professor of Sociology and Policy at Aston University, UK, delivered a talk on the Sociology of Gender and Sexuality on 26th July 2024.
• University of Manchester, UK: Prof. Soumhya Venkatesan, Head of the Anthropology Department at the University of Manchester, delivered a talk on “How do we know what is good and right? Social Anthropology and the Anthropology of Ethics” in January 2025.

Global Learning Programme and COIL:

• Dr. Richa Minocha of SSLA and Prof. Howard Rosing of DePaul University have an ongoing COIL for two SSLA courses: Politics of Social Justice and Introduction to Social Work, and the DePaul course Geography, Food, and Justice. The following activities were undertaken in these courses:
• Dr. Richa Minocha spoke to students of Prof. Howard Rosing of DePaul University on the course Geography, Food, and Justice on the theme of Gender and Food Justice in March and April 2025. In her interaction with DePaul students, she provided a historical and chronological account of food injustices and related gendered contexts and concerns.


Screenshots from Richa Minocha’s talk on 21st/22nd April 2025



Screenshots from Richa Minocha’s talk on 21st/22nd April 2025

• Prof Howard Rosing from DePaul University, Chicago, interacted with students in the Elective Course – Politics of Ecology and the Environment in Developing Countries on the theme - Historically marginalized farmers in the Chicago/Midwest area of the U.S, on 27th February 2025.
  

  Interaction with Professor Howard Rosing on 27th February 2025
  
  Dr Howard spoke about people who are not only economically distressed but don’t have access to fresh food. He spoke about his Harvest study on 260 community gardens in Chicago and emphasised the contribution of these community growers to Chicago’s food systems and to their own food security and sovereignty. He spoke on the importance of consumers becoming conscious and adopting a good food purchasing policy.
• 11th October 2024, Prof Howard Rosing spoke to Richa Minocha’s students in the course Introduction to Social Work. The theme was Community Engaged and Academic Service Learning. He also highlighted the Social Protection Programmes in the USA.


Prof Howard Rosing talking to students in the course – Introduction to Social Work



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Research Project Collaborations by SSLA Faculty:

• Dr. Manjari Jonnalagadda and Iain Mathieson – Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Genetics.
  Research Project: Exploring the ancestry background of genes associated with pigmentation.
• Dr. Manjari Jonnalagadda and Elena Bosch – Professor and Principal Investigator, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Barcelona.
  Research Project: Detecting adaptive selection in Vitamin D genes among Indian populations.