Symbiosis Bangalore students can now put a ‘paws’ on stress!
Symbiosis
Bangalore Campus welcomes two four-legged happy pooches, Birr & Baht, to
enhance emotional and physical well-being of students. It becomes the 1st
campus in Karnataka and 2nd in India only after Pune campus to
implement this wonderful initiative. The campus is shared by two institutes -
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Bengaluru and SymbiosisSchool of Media & Communication (SSMC), Bengaluru, and their students will
reap the benefits of this initiative.
“It is
well known and scientifically proven that pet therapy has many benefits
including lowering BP, releasing endorphins that soothe and make you happy,
lifts your spirits and lessens depression, lowers anxiety and isolation and
creates better socialization with colleagues.” – says Prof. Vickramm Sampath,
Director, Symbiosis School of Media & Communication, Bengaluru.
Prof.
Aarti Mehta Sharma, Assistant Professor at SIBM Bengaluru, quoted “This is a
very unique initiative and we have received excellent feedback from the
students. This will help the students to grow emotionally and become more
empathetic & kind.”
After few assignments,
presentations, and a tiring day at college, there’s something very comforting
about looking at those wagging tails and being greeted with wet kisses. Symbiosis
International University (SIU) is the 1st university in India to experiment and
implement this unorthodox method of full time dog therapy for their students
who undoubtedly undergo a lot of stress during the course of their 2 year MBA
program.
Kriti
Khanna, 2nd year SIBM Bengaluru student says, “In a B-school where
the stress levels are high on a regular day, imagine the frenzy during exams. These
happy pooches have the natural superpower to sense our mood and all it would take is a few minutes with them
to be relieved of all anxiety. ”
Niveditha
Sreenivasan, 2nd year SSMC student says, “I am so excited about the
whole initiative. I have 5 pets at home and all of them are nothing less than
brothers and sisters to me. If I have to owe my hyperactive extrovert nature to someone, it’d be undoubtedly my pets.”
With this smart move,
Symbiosis University puts itself on the same page as colleges like MIT,
University of Illinois, etc. which
have shown the results on how petting animals can lead to improved
learning for students.