Feature

Hafsa Bintey Faruq

English Society of Manarat International University or ESMIU started its journey back in October 24, 2005. Establishing of this society was undoubtedly a great news for the students of the department of English and it brought flood of happiness among all because until the English Society emerged, there was no distinctive club for the English department of Manarat International University. So, this society came out exclusively for the students of English department. But that was only in the beginning, day by day this organization has gained popularity among the students of other departments too. Recently few students of other department have shown interest to join the English Society and a student of Business Administration Department became the first associate member of the ESMIU.

The English Society was formed with four sections and these are Creative Writing and Fine Arts, Spoken English and Theatre, Film and Photography and Reading and Bibliophile Section. Later one more section was added and it is the Higher Education and Career Counselling Section. So, now it has total five sections. Each sections of ESMIU arrange a workshop on a certain day of a week and to the members it is generally known as ESMIU day. The English Society encourages its members to join in extra curriculum activities such as writing, photography, art, etc. Nonetheless besides academic studies these extra curriculum activities help the members to build up their career in future. So, whenever a workshop is arranged it always takes care of the fact that members enjoy it and they learn something from it.

Presence of the designation holders and members make the workshops of ESMIU very lively and attractive. Though the directors of the sections usually conduct the workshops, sometimes the moderator also runs the workshops; especially those that need more specialised knowledge. Most of the workshops arranged by ESMIU were successful. Among them a few can be mentioned here.

The Higher Education and Career Counselling section discussed about higher education in foreign countries such as the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland etc. Those workshops were very much helpful to members who are interested to study abroad. Apart from that this section also discussed teaching as a profession for the English graduates and in near future it hopes to arrange a workshop on journalism. English graduates often feel hesitated in choosing their professions, so the Higher Education and Career Counselling section also talks about the scopes of English graduates.

The Reading and Bibliophile section puts emphasis on the habit of reading among the members. This section has arranged several successful workshops, where members talked about their recent readings. This section allows both English and Bengali literature, so members are free to talk about whatever they read. Most of the times the participants recommended other members to read the book they read, so others were inspired. And since there is the chance to talk about the positive and negative sides of works of other authors, it creates a critical insight in the participants.

Another active section of the ESMIU is the Spoken English and Theatre section. As the name suggests it focuses on the skills of members to speak fluently in English. This section sometimes arranges open discussions where members participate freely and express their opinion about the given topic and it is done in English. In near future it hopes to arrange programmes like fun debate. In one workshop this section staged a play written by the famous Russian author and Dramatist Anton Pavlovich. The members enjoyed these programmes very much. Apart from that this section also arranged a poetry recitation competition.

The Creative Writing and Fine Arts section is another popular section of the ESMIU. There were workshops arranged from this section on creative writing, where members came up with their poems, short stories written on their own. From the workshop the best writings were collected for ESMIU's publication purpose. However, this section not only is for members who show their talent and creativity in writing, but it also is for members who are interested in art. Hopefully soon there will be a competition on art and thus the ESMIU members will be busy with various colors and paintbrushes.

The Film and Photography section of ESMIU encourages members in photography, beside that it often arranges film show. This section of ESMIU certainly gets the credit of arranging film shows in the campus, since Manarat International University had arranged no film show before. So, arranging those film shows were great success of the society and students of all departments showed great interest in it. As a result, not only the members of ESMIU, but also non-members also enjoyed those film shows. So far this section showed The Pianist, Moby Dick and Life is Beautiful. This section also arranged one workshop on photography. ESMIU is planning to arrange an exhibition on photography.

Founded by Mr. Sabir Abdus Samee, Lecturer of English Department, Manarat International University, the English Society was established only for the students of English department and later it gained popularity by students of all other departments. Now the English Society is a very familiar and popular name in Manarat International University. This organization has helped creating nice and friendly relations between the senior and junior students. All the members of the ESMIU are the future leaders of their distinctive fields, so ESMIU always tries to help them reaching their goal by its various activities. The ESMIU has a logo, which is shaped as a star; ESMIU hopes that its members will be as bright as stars in their own professions. To reach that goal extra curriculum activities are needed along with academic studies, so ESMIU is always there and the journey will go on and on.

Hafsa Bintey Faruq
President
English Society of Manarat International University (ESMIU)