Salesian College Publication
Don Bosco, the fountainhead of the Salesian Institutions across the world
Don Bosco, the fountainhead of the Salesian Institutions across the world, was in his day and place – 19th Century Italy – one of those who saw ahead of his times the changes dawning into the modern world. The global reach through the newly emerging media like photography and lithography were easily taken on as not only new domains of employability for his youth but as the means through which a new generation’s interests and aptitudes would be shaped. As an educator par excellence of his day, he saw in these developments a for wholesome and gain some living.
This tradition of emphasising the role of print media has continued in the countries wherever Salesians arrived. The schools for technical skill acquisition included the printing press in the early decades of the twentieth century onwards and in the more recent times, even in India, there is the state of the art printing presses across the country. The transition to digital media has been largely welcomed as a means to provide new avenues of self-expression, to a new generation of youth.
Salesian College has had a history of printing going back to the days of mimeographed notes being made in-house and the machinery required for it, initially imported from Italy, being maintained by the interns in the 1950s and 60s onwards. Similarly, with the arrival of screen-printing on the scene, there were student enterprises to make book covers and T-Shirts in the late 1980s. The computer and printers arrived on the scene in the 80s ushering in a new print and publishing culture.
The printed word, TARUNMITRA (friend of youth) was a means for educating and empowering the youth of the Balasun Valley and was fully managed by the students from the 1960s onwards. The College Magazine, SCSpeaks has a history of two decades while SPARKLE a decade and more. These and other literary expressions like the TST, TSP, EVOLVE, ESSENCE, and DigiTrek are a continuation of an earlier generation’s “Just For You” and OLB. All of it goes to show that self-expression in print is something that nurtures self-discovery and empowerment for the focussed youngster whether in the past or now.