Hard work fetches them gold medals

MANGALORE: At 40, Usha Prabha Nayak, correspondent and secretary, Expert Educational and Charitable Foundation, shared the classroom with students half her age in pursuit of MBA degree at SDM College of Business Management.
Having secured the fourth rank in the course, Usha also bagged the N Raghavendra Memorial gold medal, which she received from governor H R Bhardwaj at the 31st annual convocation of Mangalore University on Saturday.
When she mentioned the fact that she had completed her MBA degree a good 20 years after she completed her formal education to Bhardwaj in a brief tete-a-tete on stage, the governor was all ears.
Usha later told STOI that the governor asked her not to stop her zeal to study and reminded her that age should not be a factor for anyone to pursue their studies. "I didn't aspire for the gold medal," said Usha who recently celebrated her 40th birthday in the class.
Meera Nambiar K K, lone gold medallist from law faculty, who received the Jayaraja Ballal memorial gold medal from the governor, attributed her success to hard work and blessings of her parents and teachers. Currently a practicing advocate in Kerala High Court, Meera, and an alumnus of SDM Law College, said it felt nice to bag gold medal. Deki Zam Dorji, her batch mate, could not attend the convocation to receive the Dr TMA Pai Gold Medal.
Ashwani Kumar N K R, currently a trainee journalist who bagged two gold medals and a cash award, said the campus gave him the hands-on experience. "The encouragement of our professors and guest lecturers made learning not so difficult chore," he said, adding that it was this encouragement that made the two-year PG course in master of communication and journalism a breeze. He was among four other students who bagged two gold medals each.
Shobhana Y, student of MSc (Applied Botany), Nikil P (MSc Industrial chemistry), Archana K (MSc - Yogic Science), Prameela (MCom) were the others to bag two gold medals each. Shwetha, student of MA history bagged one gold medal and five cash awards, while Soumya Holla T (MA Kannada) bagged one gold medal and four cash awards. Lynsha Irene Rowena Lobo (MA English) took home three cash awards for her performance.