Latest news with #St.Joseph'sUniversity
The Hindu
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Degree admissions: Universities see renewed interest in life sciences
While Commerce stream continues to dominate the admission process in Bengaluru colleges this year, there has been a renewed interest in Life Science subjects like Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Forensic Sciences this year, among students seeking admissions to undergraduate courses. According to college managements, there have been many factors behind the renewed interest in those subjects, including peer pressure, the growth of Bengaluru as a biotechnology hub and an inclination towards pure science studies. 'There are a lot of start-ups and biotech companies growing out of the city and that provides more job opportunities to students. With universities taking an industry integrated approach, students also get to work in labs while studying these days, which adds on to their experience,' said Christo. V. Joseph, director, Garden City University. Courses like Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) and Bachelor of Commerce (BCom), which have been attracting a lot of students over the years, have had a lot of takers this year too across colleges. 'Most seats for our BCA, BBA and BCom courses have been filled already indicating a great demand. In the post pandemic period, everyone feels that Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Gen AI are the future and that drives a lot of students towards BCA and BTech. Even those who cannot get into BTech, now choose BBA,' said Mackey Agarwal Jain, Chief Manager- Marketing & Admissions at JAIN (Deemed-to-be-university). Some noted that the demand for commerce is increasing due to recent graduates finding jobs quickly. 'Many of our students also clear international exams while studying and once they graduate, they find jobs quickly. Word-of-mouth spreads and they act as ambassadors for these courses,' said Melwin Colaco, registrar, St. Joseph's University. Increased interest in media studies, law While there has not been a significant change in demand for Humanities, universities have seen an increased interest in Media Studies, Law and Economics. 'We have always had demand for subjects like Psychology, Economics and Law. But this year, there has been a greater interest in Law,' said Anil Joseph Pinto, registrar, Christ University. Fee increased by 5% While the State government announced a 5% increase on the fees of degree courses in government colleges, private universities have also hiked it by an average of 5%. While some managements said that they increase it annually by about 5% to 10% based on inflation, some have increased it by 5% this year. . 'The cost of living in Bengaluru has increased and we need to pay our staff salaries to match that. Very few of our departments are aided and hence, we adopt a demand-based fee escalation,' said Mr. Calaco.
The Hindu
27-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Mapping places where women hung out in Bengaluru's Cantonment area
It was while reading historian and writer Janaki Nair's book, The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore's Twentieth Century, that Nikhita Thomas first encountered an interesting expression: kineticization, 'a phenomenon in the 80s and early 90s where there was an increased presence of women in the public sphere due to the popularity of the Kinetic Honda.' But the Bengaluru-based writer and teacher, an assistant professor at St. Joseph's University, did not just stumble upon Nair's term serendipitously. 'I was initially reading Mobile Girls Koottam: Working Women Speak by Madhumita Dutta, and was talking to my dean, Dr. Arul Mani, about the book,' she says. 'It was he who suggested I read Janaki Nair.' The growing participation of women in public life got her thinking about how the phenomenon of just hanging out transpires for women, says Nikhita, who, along with Pranav V.S., has embarked on a project to map places where women hung out in the city's Cantonment area between 1984 and 1994. 'The idea was to talk to women who lived, studied and worked in Bengaluru Cantonment during the 80s and the 90s,' she says. 'We picked this specific period because of the 'kineticization' that Janaki Nair talks about and because this was a period of rapid change in the country, including two waves of liberalisation.' This project, supported by the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under its Neighbourhood Engagements of Project 560, 'seeks to explore the spatial relationships women have with the cities and neighbourhoods they call home,' states the IFA website, adding that Nikhita's and Pranav's research engages with the following questions: When are women rendered invisible, and when are they on display in the city? How does the purpose of their movement through the city get women tossed between obscurity/safety, and visibility/danger? And how can spaces designated for one kind of interaction be persuaded to house other exchanges, given the spatial practices of women? Origin of the idea Nikhita first applied for an IFA grant in 2023, wanting to look at student migrants in the city and the spaces they occupied, 'specifically to go into their hostel or PG rooms and draw from that,' she says. While she cleared the first round of the grant, she didn't make it to the final round, 'but they encouraged me to apply again.' In July 2024, Pranav, too, joined the English Department at St. Joseph's University. They were in conversation with Dr. Mani, she says, who encouraged them to apply for the grant together this time. 'We were bouncing ideas off each other, with Pranav initially suggesting we do something about the lakes that used to exist in Bengaluru,' she says. Dr. Mani, however, was not enthusiastic about this idea, recalls Nikhita, who, around the same time, was also reading the Janaki Nair book. There was also a movie that both of them liked, Brahman Naman, 'a movie about the quizzing culture in Bangalore with mostly boys who loiter about the city,' she says. 'It is a super movie, but it left us wondering: Where are all the women?' That was the starting question for the project, which involved the duo interviewing about 15 women who had lived, worked or studied in the city between 1984 and 1994 to understand their relationship with the Cantonment. 'A lot of people thought we were looking to hear about famous spots in Bengaluru that no longer exist, but we are actually also curious about pockets of the city that no one's ever heard of,' she says. Memories and more Take, for instance, the memory of a participant who used to go to an all-women's gym. 'At the end of the gym session, the girls would gather outside the Hosur Road Cemetery for a smoke,' she says, pointing out that it wasn't a famous hangout spot but just 'one corner of the road where nobody stared at them.' She also mentions a conversation with someone who had brought her husband, then boyfriend, home to meet her parents. 'The place where they hung out was a swing in her parents' backyard, and that's still there…somewhere in Victoria Layout,' she says. Another participant whose stories enthralled them was the accounts of the journalist and novelist C.K. Meena, who had moved to Bengaluru from Kerala for her master's degree. 'She just owns the city like nobody else I've met. You cannot tell that she has lived anywhere else but here,' says Nikhita, recalling the plethora of experiences that Meena shared with them. These include accounts of working with the City Tab – a weekly Bengaluru newspaper – living alone in the garage of someone's house, which had a makeshift entrance and windows she curtained with an old Mysore silk saree that her editor's wife donated, eating at Hotel Shyamprakash, a restaurant on Infantry Road, which offered cheap food, stale beer and live music and of lugging a typewriter about the city, the way someone today carries a laptop. 'We were very excited about hearing stories like that,' she says. Essay Book All these stories will come together into a co-created art essay book, which will be showcased at 1ShanthiRoad Gallery/Studio on June 14 and 15. 'The idea was for us to create a sort of heritage walk through this book,' says Pranav. Elaborating on the nature of the final product, which will consist of illustrations and anecdotes running through the text, they say, 'When you read this, it should feel like you are going through these neighbourhoods.' While Nikhita and Pranav are still finalising the text and illustrations that will go into this book, they have also been actively engaging with the community, part of the mandate of Project 560, through a series of quizzes. 'Both of us are quizzers who have been part of the college quiz club,' says Pranav. 'So, we thought this was one of our strengths, and we can work from there.' So far, they have conducted three quizzes in the city, all within the Cantonment area and specifically focusing on it, with the questions drawn from 'all the books that we had read and combed through all our conversations to find nice little fundas about the Bengaluru Cantonment.' Pranav adds that many women come to quizzes even though they are traditionally seen as masculine spaces among women. 'So we were very, very happy about that.' Deeper relationship Another impact of the project, says Nikhita, is that it has led to a deeper relationship with the city, one that began for them as college students. 'Our relationship with the Cantonment began in college because St. Joseph's, where we studied, is right on the border of it,' she says. One of the assignments she had to do, as a journalism student, was to look at how neighbourhoods in the Cantonment and the pete area outside of it got their names. 'To me, till then, Bengaluru was Bengaluru. This concept of Cantonment and pete did not exist for me,' she says. 'I started grasping all of this only in college.' According to her, encountering the neighbourhood this way, unearthing streets and discovering why they are named the way they are, changed how she looked at her city. 'All these things which, in some ways, would be boring history if you read it from a textbook suddenly become superbly interesting because you pass these streets every day,' she says, listing some of the reading material that helped them on the journey, including Roopa Pai's columns, Kirtana Kumar's Bangalore Blues' and Multiple City: Writings on Bangalore, edited by Aditi De. 'Personally, the project has made me feel great affection towards my city. Previously, it was just a city where I lived, where everyone is always complaining about the traffic.' The duo also thinks of the project as a way of archiving the city, capturing stories of places that no longer exist or have never been written about before, and a physical way of holding onto the spirit of the city that Bengaluru used to be. 'I know it is romantic, but I can't help but miss that time,' says Pranav. 'It seems to have been a much kinder city than it is now.'
NBC News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
LGBTQ Catholics hope Pope Leo XIV continues Francis' legacy of acceptance
In the eyes of many LGBTQ Catholics, the late Pope Francis created a 'seismic shift' toward acceptance. Now, as the world welcomes the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, these lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer faithful say they hope he will continue to move in the same direction. Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the LGBTQ Catholic advocacy group DignityUSA, was in Rome on Thursday when Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native who holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, became the new pontiff. 'I was actually quite excited to see that Cardinal Prevost had been elected as Pope Leo XIV and thrilled that he took the name of a pope rooted in social justice. I think what a clear signal to a hurting world that that's where his energy is going to be focused,' she told NBC News in an interview Friday. 'I also found a lot of hope in his remarks from the balcony … where he talked about God's all-inclusive love without any condition, and where he talked about being a church for all of God's people.' Jason Steidl Jack, a gay Catholic and an assistant teaching professor of religious studies at St. Joseph's University, New York, described his reaction to the election of Pope Leo, the first-ever American to lead the Holy See, as 'cautiously optimistic.' 'I do see him continuing Pope Francis' legacy, especially of dialogue and synodality,' Steidl Jack said, describing synodality as 'this idea of journeying together' and 'listening to one another.' However, he said the new pope's election 'doesn't assuage all of the fears that I have as an LGBTQ Catholic.' 'The church's teaching, even under Pope Francis, remains incredibly homophobic, and the church goes on inventing new ways of being transphobic as it really avoids learning about trans people and their experiences,' he said, adding, however, that the new pontiff seems 'open to dialogue and inclusion' given his remarks on Thursday. Chicago resident Greg Krajewski said he's been a practicing Catholic his whole life and sings at his local parish every Sunday. However, he said, as a gay man, he's 'careful who I talk to and how I present myself.' 'There's a few things in his opening speech that he gave that really give me a lot of hope,' he said of Leo. 'The first thing is he said a couple of times, 'God loves us without limits or conditions.' I think this is a really big indication that even if he himself maybe has more reservations about the LGBTQ issues in the church, he is open to those discussions. He is open to bringing us in.' Track record on LGBTQ issues Leo's past comments on LGBTQ issues are limited, though several LGBTQ Catholics expressed concern about remarks he reportedly made in an address to church leaders over a decade ago. During the 2012 Synod of Bishops, then-Father Prevost reportedly lamented the challenges presented to the Catholic Church due to sympathetic media portrayals of 'alternative families.' 'Note, for example, how alternative families comprised of homosexual partners and their adopted children are so benignly and sympathetically portrayed on television programs and in cinema,' he told a group of bishops at the time, according to the Catholic News Service. 'The sympathy for anti-Christian lifestyle choices that the mass media fosters is so brilliantly and artfully engrained in the viewing public that when people hear the Christian message, it often inevitably seems ideological and emotionally cruel by contrast to the ostensible humaneness of the anti-Christian perspective.' Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, which works to foster LGBTQ inclusion in the Catholic Church, called the remarks 'disappointing.' 'We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,' DeBernardo said in a statement. Steidl Jack said Leo seemed to have a 'culture warrior mentality' on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ representation in pop culture back in 2012, but he expressed hope that the new pope's views have changed since then. 'A lot of the world has changed since 2012 — even Pope Francis changed a great deal over the course of his pontificate,' he said. 'So I hope that Pope Leo has been listening to LGBTQ Catholics. I hope he's been paying attention and growing, just as Pope Francis did, just as the rest of the world has been.' Views on LGBTQ issues have shifted dramatically over the past decade, including the views of practicing Catholics. For example, the Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, which found 19% of U.S. adults identify as Catholics, found 70% of Catholics favor allowing same-sex couples to marry, up from 57% in 2014. Michael O'Loughlin, the executive director of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic organization, was in Rome for the announcement of the new pope. He said the 2012 comments were disappointing but that he was keeping an open mind. 'I'm willing to look at his wider message, which was one of peace and standing up for the marginalized,' he said. 'The fact that he switched to Spanish to address his former community in Peru I thought was a nice sign that he's a man of the people.' After 2012, the future pope's subsequent remarks on LGBTQ issues are sparse. In 2017, when he was bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, and spokesman of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, he appeared to speak out against 'gender ideology,' a term some people use to refer to transgender identities, telling local media that this ideology 'seeks to eliminate biological differences between men and women.' Then, in 2024, a year after Pope Francis formally approved allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, then-Cardinal Prevost said the subsequent pushback from bishops in Africa highlighted the need to give more doctrinal authority to local bishops, according to CBCPNews, the news service of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. 'The bishops in the episcopal conferences of Africa were basically saying that here in Africa, our whole cultural reality is very different. … It wasn't rejecting the teaching authority of Rome, it was saying that our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work,' Prevost said at the time, according to CBCPNews. 'You have to remember there are still places in Africa that apply the death penalty, for example, for people who are living in a homosexual relationship. … So, we're in very different worlds.' Hopes for the future When asked what she'd like to see from Leo's papacy, Duddy-Burke said she hopes he can serve a 'trusted moral voice.' 'The world is so broken at the moment in so many places — you know, this rise of nationalism, the increased xenophobia, so many wars that are very vicious happening around the world — I just hope that he can become a very clear and trusted moral voice in the world, and some of that means dealing with the inequities and failings within our own church as well,' she said. Steidl Jack said he hopes Leo listens to Catholics with differing viewpoints. 'One of the gifts of Pope Francis' papacy was that he encouraged church leaders to go outside of the church, to listen to people outside of the hierarchy, and that's really what Pope Leo needs to do, especially regarding same-sex relationships and transgender experience,' he said. DeBernardo, of New Ways Ministry, said in his statement that he hopes Leo continues to build upon the foundation that Francis laid out. 'Pope Francis opened the door to a new approach to LGBTQ+ people,' he said. 'Pope Leo must now guide the church through that door.'
The Hindu
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
The Cecilian Choir, from Bengaluru, raises its voice for a cause
One of Bengaluru's oldest choirs, The Cecilian Choir, will perform for a fundraiser in Bengaluru. Titled Memories Are Made of This, it is a fundraiser for St. Joseph's University Scholarship Programs. The Cecilian Choir was started in 1982 by a group of musicians under the leadership of Reverend Dr Theodore Pereira. This year, the concert will be held at St. Joseph's Auditorium, and offers financial assistance to students who come from economically weaker sections of society, says Arthur B Pais, President, Cecilian Choir. The choir, he says, has been around for 42 years. 'We are probably the longest serving choir in Bengaluru and intend to keep this legacy going. All our stage performances are fundraisers.' Arthur describes each of the choir's fundraisers as a worthy cause and over the years Cecilian Choir has helped raised funds for Multiple Sclerosis Society, Maria Seva Sangha, Abala Ashraya Sangha, Atma Shakti Vidayala Society, The Karunashraya Hospice, St Mary's Orphanage, Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre, The Association of People with Disability and Jeevarathani Foundation. 'In fact, when Karunahsraya started, we helped raise funds for their infrastructure. The concert was held at Guru Nanak Bhavan,' recalls Arthur. Besides these, Arthur says some of their memorable performances include the 1999 concert at the invitation of Ministry of Tourism, Israel to perform at the Sherovah Theatre in Jerusalem and at a monastery in Nazareth for the millennium celebrations; and the 2011 concert presented by Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Bangalore School of Music (BSM); in the presence of the ex-President of India, Pratibha Patil. 'We were the only Choir to have ever sung a song in Kannada at the Rashtrapati Bhavan,' shares the chorister. St Joseph's University, Arthur says, help students with excellent academic records, high achievers, and differently-abled students. 'The university also has study and residential scholarships, besides giving them midday meals, which most of the time, is the only meal some students get due to their financial situation. That's who we are singing for.' The first half of the concert, Arthur says, will feature music across eight decades. 'There will be a Broadway musical medley, jazz, ballads and masterpieces, some of which, will be a cappella. The second half includes 'Remember the Cross' an Easter Cantata that intertwines songs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday in a blended and contemporary setting'. The choir will be conducted by Deirdre Fernandes-Dominic and will have Rebecca Thomas-Colaco (piano), Justin A Santosh (drums), Eric Samuel (guitar), Pearl Mukadam (bass), Darren Sherwin and Sabarish R (keyboards) and 25 choristers. Sing in harmony, Arthur said the choir is nothing like a band performance. 'We are a choir and sing in multi-part harmony, which could be either a three, four, six or eight-part. When we say 'harmony', I strongly believe one has to experience it to know how a voice can modulate itself and give you different tones, which leads to a fantastic experience.' Arthur is a first tenor, and has been singing with the since 2000. 'Becky, (Rebecca) has been with us since 2005. She is a reputed pianist, known world-wide and now is the director of faculty too with BSM (Bangalore School of Music).' A self taught singer, Arthur took to music as a young boy and started singing in his church choir. 'That is where you get noticed by conductors and are picked up for choral singing. For me, choral singing came naturally and I found it easy to pick it up.' The concert is on April 26 and 27, at 3.30pm and 6.30pm at St Joseph's University Auditorium, 36 Lalbagh Road. Donor passes/tickets on BookMyShow.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
St. Joseph's University honors Pope Francis with special mass service
The Brief St. Joseph's University held a special mass in honor of Pope Francis. The school's community reacted to the news of the Pope's death. PHILADELPHIA - Pope Francis held a very special place in the hearts of those at St. Joseph's University. As the first Jesuit pope, his visit here is one many will never forget. What we know On Monday night, a special mass was held in honor of Pope Francis on the campus of St. Joe's University. With candles lit in his honor, you don't have to look far to see the impact he's had on the Catholic university. What they're saying "The wind of the spirit hasn't stopped blowing. Have a good journey, brothers and sisters," said Fr. Joyce. Pope Francis made an impromptu stop at St. Joe's back in September 2015 during his North American visit for the World Meeting of Families, two years after being elected. During his stop, he blessed a new sculpture on campus dedicated to a Jewish and Catholic partnership. For those at St. Joe's, the loss of the only Jesuit pope is profound. "A lot of people are feeling like they lost a family member, somebody who was part of their everyday life. And certainly someone who is an inspiration to us here and to many people of all backgrounds," said Fr. Dan Joyce, VP of Missions. "He is just an amazing pope. He was just a pope that really touched my heart. He just accepted people for who they really are," said Samantha McAlesse, a junior at St. Joseph's University. These are some of the last images of Francis just hours before he died, riding in the Popemobile around St. Peter's Square. Catholic journalist Rocco Palmo says it was just like Francis to want to be with the people in the last moments of his life. "On Easter Sunday, to ride around the crowd is a way of saying I'm not going to die upstairs in the papal apartment where there is a full surgical studio. I want to be among you as long as I can. I want to push myself. And lo and behold, look where we are now," said Rocco Palmo. What's next Now, the Vatican looks to a new pope to be elected in the coming weeks. For the first time since 1915, an archbishop of Philadelphia will not be going into the Papal conclave. The Source The information in this story is from the Vatican and the St. Joe's University community.
