ISB has instituted student leadership awards as a tribute to the ISB students who have demonstrated extraordinary ability, leadership, commitment, and quality of participation in student activities, and/or any other ISB brand building activity. They shall be portrayed to recruiters along the same lines as the Dean’s list. There are two categories – ISB Young Leaders Award to be given to a maximum of 5 and ISB Torch Bearers Award to be given to the maximum of 10 % of the class size to maintain parity with Dean’s list. The award is given to those who demonstrate maximum effectiveness, as opposed to efforts, in various categories defined by the selection committee.

I think this is a good initiative taken up by the elected graduate body of the students and the ISB administration. This is to prove the point that at a b-school like ISB where one learns as much (if not more) from the peer group as from the curriculum, focusing on academics alone is not optimal. While people who have excelled in academics deserve full marks and are given a chance to get noticed by the Dean’s list, people who have actively participated in co-curricular activities through student clubs or otherwise do not get noticed, particularly by the recruiting community. By instituting this award, ISB has created a level playing field. Now students coming here will not be constrained to spend time on activities, which help the entire community and help in their own self-development.

It is also noteworthy that there are a few people who figure in both Dean’s List for their academic performance and Student Leadership Award category (in both Young Leaders and Torch Bearers) for their contribution to ISB community and brand. These people again prove that it is a wrong to think one can focus only on either academics or co-curricular activities. They have shown that one can excel in both. They indeed stand for the spirit of ISB as a school.

PS: I am one of the recipients of the Torch Bearers Award 🙂