The Database

After over six months (because time simply works differently here), the college and I have finally begun work on the project that I was sent here to help them complete - the alumni database.

Until now, the college has had no formal system of keeping track of their alumni (or, as they lovingly call them, old students). There are handwritten files with names and addresses, but they have never been kept up-to-date and, therefore, are probably useless at this point. I spent much of my first couple months here researching names and addresses of some of the old students whom the college had lost track of over the years. That research, however, did not produce too many results; so, on my suggestion, we have decided to focus on gaining information from students who are graduating this year, beginning a system that will be used to keep track of all old students of the future. It is, in essence, the beginnings of Union Christian College's Development Office, which is an exciting project with which to be involved.

Unfortunately, the work that has been assigned to me is not all that exciting at all. My current work includes entering information into the database we are building. Every student who is about to graduate has filled out a form, and my job is to transfer the information they have given into the computer database. So far, I've completed the BA students from the Malayalam and Economics Departments. And, I have to say that some of them have extremely poor handwriting.

I thought this project would be a tedious one, but it has actually been exciting for me to watch the database grow from one name to 10 to over 100 now. And, amazingly, time passes rather quickly as I type names, addresses, and students' memories into my computer.

I have many more departments to finish, though, so now I must get back to work!