Princpal

The role of an educational institution is not limited to the responsibility to impart quality education and to groom academically oriented students. It should aim to provide holistic education through character formation, consideration for fellow beings and nature, social enlightenment and to groom students to be citizens with a sense of social responsibility. It is this noble cause that propelled the visionaries of St. Stephen’s College, Uzhavoor, to establish an institution in the comparatively under-developed village in the Kottayam district of Kerala. As envisioned, St. Stephen’s College has played a vital role in the socio-cultural, educational and economic development of Uzhavoor. It has played a pivotal role in a common man’s fulfillment of the dreams of higher education and enabled them to pursue better opportunities.

The fact that the younger generation have successfully continued to be the torchbearers of the futuristic social vision set forward by the founders of the college, is evidence of its success. In order to ensure quality education, the management, staff and students have worked together, to extend a helping hand to the suffering and the needy. It is indeed a matter of pride that our former students uphold and impart the vision of the college and the values gained during their college days to the present generation and society.

The college has been instrumental in the upliftment of the society, both intellectually and economically. A large number of individuals have benefitted and have been able to climb the ladder of success due to the efforts of the institution. The gratitude and whole-hearted support of its stakeholders have further contributed to the developmental activities of the college, making this relationship a mutually beneficial one. All the activities and development spearheaded by the college is the result of collaborative efforts between the college and its stakeholders.

High performance on the academic indicators is evident from the fact that St. Stephen’s College has to its credit an illustrious list of alumni. Our alumni include teaching, engineering, legal and medical professionals, bureaucrats, writers, artists, social and political activists among many others. Successful alumni are always an inspiration and acceptable role models for students. Students are able to imbibe the drive to succeed, more convincingly, from the alumni who have come from a similar background, faced quite similar or even bigger challenges and had overcome adversities to succeed. The experiences shared by alumni help to inculcate important values related to personal, social, managerial and administrative traits. Through such interactions, the alumni motivate students to face challenges and convert them to opportunities, which, in-fact, is in line with the vision of the college.

St. Stephen's alumni, ALMASS, have always been at the forefront in providing financial and moral support to all the ventures of the college, including infrastructure developments and other developmental activities focussing the students and society. We are proud to have alumni who always understand and exercise their responsibilities towards the college and society and rise to the occasion whenever a need arises.

The support of a strong alumni and dedicated group of staff and students, motivate us to take up projects for the overall development of society. The developmental activities of the college uphold its esteemed vision and are the result of collaborative efforts of the students, staff, alumni, public and local administrations through the various initiatives of the college, like CEERD, Health Infonet, Snehanidhi, Lend-a-Hand, Koodeyundu St. Stephens.

The college considers it to be its prime duty and social responsibility to provide authentic health information and to safeguard people from false information spread through social media. This sense of commitment propelled the college towards a unique initiative called Health Infonet, created with the support of competent registered doctors from across the country.

Health Infonet, a not-for-profit initiative projected as an institutional effort of St. Stephen’s College and Mahatma Gandhi University, provides its services through the Health Infonet web portal (https://healthinfonet.in/). Additionally, there is an Academic Health Social Network Platform for collaboration and learning on health-related aspects, using the premium version of Workplace App of Facebook. It has been an active academic collaborator with National Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (NIPMR) for conducting webinar series on disability-related issues. The platform provides free access to users and allows them to raise their queries, and suggestions through the comment box in the portal whereby arespective professional answer their queries. Plans are on to set up a toll-free number as a gateway to the help desk with a call back facility.

CEERD (Centre for Environmental Education and Rural Development) works towards inculcating values of social responsibility and environment consciousness among students and community. The activities organised by CEERD concentrate on creating an awareness on social and environmental issues, promotion of collaborations between college and community to address such issues, identification of the potential resources in the area for sustainable development etc.

Koodeyundu St. Stephens, which literally means ‘St. Stephens’ is with you’, is a combined venture of CEERD, NSS, NCC, KR Narayanan Study Centre and Health InfoNet, started during the pandemic with the objective to provide support as a COVID-19 Help Desk for the people of Uzhavoor and nearby panchayaths. We extended our community participation activities to vaccination and doctor support, blood donation, transportation/emergency support, spiritual/counselling support, support to health workers etc. It also provided training to volunteers of the above initiatives and successfully extended these services to Uzhavoor and Veliyannoor Panchayats through collaboration with the local administration.

Thus, the college acts as a socio-cultural and intellectual focal point and continues to contribute positively to the upliftment of society, without any hesitation, prejudice or bias. The management, teachers, non-teaching staff, parents, students, alumni and beneficiaries of different initiatives have been the pillars of strength and leaders in all the developmental causes undertaken by the college. Upholding the vision – Social and Environmental Development – the management and staff of St. Stephen’s College, are committed to mould the present generation into responsible citizens of India who contribute to the progress of the local community and the country.

Our Distinctiveness