By Our Staff Reporter
DEHRADUN, 24 May: A grand investiture ceremony was held at Mount Fort Academy on Saturday, as the sun dawned bright on the horizon. The event is ideally held each year to inculcate leadership qualities amongst growing boys and girls at an early age. The Chief Guest for the occasion was Vinai Pande who is himself an educationist par excellence! He has headed the prestigious Lawrence School in Sanawar apart from being a Senior Deputy Headmaster at The Doon School He is an accomplished statesman and has a postgraduate degree in chemistry from Lucknow University. He and his better half Usha Pande, who herself is a well-known Mathematician of the town graced the occasion.
Inaugurating the programme on stage were. Vinay Pande, Directors of the school Ashish Jain, Puja Jain and Atin Jain along with Principal. Paarull Sharma. The lighting of lamp was followed by the Saraswati Vandana presented by the girls from the Senior School. The audience were left spell bound by the presentation of the girls. The Phoenix Band of the school, sang the hindi song from the film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ titled “Kholo Kholo Darwaze” leaving a message with the audience to always have an open mind to challenges. The meritorious students from classes I to XI and toppers of ICSE, Komal Shani and ISC, Avantika Dhaulakhandi were felicitated by the Chief Guest. The newly elected members of the STUCO (Student Council) body marched smartly on the stage and each member of the body took oath to carry out the responsibilities levied on their shoulders as they promised to keep this school banner flying high by leading their juniors with compassion and setting high disciplinary standards to be followed by school students.
The audience were deeply moved by the address delivered on the occasion by the Head Boy, Sarthak Pokhriyal and Head Girl, Anjali Chauhan, in which they reiterated their allegiance to the school and its rules. Thereafter the school choir presented the song “I have a dream” which won them a thunderous applause by the spectators for not only the presentation of the song but also for the choice of the song, at the Investiture Ceremony enriching the feelings to “Dream Big” for the future endeavours. In his address, Vinay Pande stressed upon the qualities of compassion, teamwork, honesty, integrity and empathy among the STUCO body members. He further endorsed that newly elected members should have effective communication skills both verbal and non-verbal with the student body to make a lasting impact. He blessed the members of the student council for their journey ahed. Paarull Sharma presented a vote of thanks. Chairman’s wife Kamlesh Jain as a token of appreciation to Pande presented a shawl and memento. Usha Pande was felicitated by Puja Jain and Paarull Sharma. As all good things come to an end, the Investiture Ceremony came to its closure with the singing of the school song followed by the National Anthem which was sung with the huge patriotic fervour and pride by one and all present in the hall.
