Hello People!
I will begin with a short
introduction about me. I am Arnab, an electronics engineer currently studying
management at IIM Kozhikode. I have worked in the Information Technology domain
for more than a year with Tata Consultancy Services before joining my
management course here. I am very passionate about technology since I was a
kid. During my early school days, I was fascinated by the Air conditioned
computer lab in our school and would wonder when could I enter into it and see
how the computer worked. Since then and till today, I enjoy technology.
I was a part of the Microsoft Student
Partners program during my graduation and was closely associated with the
developer and platform evangelism team of Microsoft for two years during my
tenure as an MSP. I used to blog on Technology at that time as well. I was also
a member of the Opera Campus Crew, a student evangelism body of Opera software.
Here at IIM Kozhikode, I was a part of the Students’ IT Committee during my
first year and was responsible for managing students’ issues related to
software and IT Infrastructure. In the field of IT, intrusion detection,
digital forensics and network security are my favourite areas.
Now, why Microsoft?
Microsoft Windows is synonymous
with the word “Operating System” worldwide. All of us, at least most of us, would
have noticed the boot screen having the word Windows 98/XP before learning how
to operate a PC. From then, I was curious to know what “Windows” is. And
gradually, I came to know about Bill Gates and “Microsoft”. Microsoft has
impacted me largely since then and my passion led me towards being a Microsoft
Student Partner. After becoming a part of the MSP India team, I came to know
about a lot of MS products which I was not aware of earlier. I became aware of
the various student initiatives Microsoft takes to leverage digital literacy in
schools across India. I was proud to be a part of the Microsoft ecosystem.
During my stint as an MSP, I conducted workshops, invited various speakers and
organized national level event “Dreamspark Yatra” sponsored by Microsoft.
Technology evangelism was something I love and was very satisfied when people
would come out of workshops learning about new innovations in the field of
technology delivered by Microsoft products and technologies. I remember
screening videos showing the future of technology which were released as a part
of “Future Vision” series by Microsoft in many events where the participants
would be mesmerized by technology. I also developed a keen interest in
developing Windows Phone applications using Visual Studio and even helped
people eager to build apps to setup the environment. I helped promote digital
literacy in government run schools as a part of Microsoft Yuva initiative. My
association with Microsoft has been a memorable one and now, once again I have
entered student life and have got another chance to start a new journey with
Microsoft and would love to take this further.
How will I impact the society?
With passion and proper
direction, it is possible to impact the society at large. Well, the impact
would start from a specific group of people, which in my opinion, is the
student community. Students are the future leaders of tomorrow and making them
aware of tools and products which they can work upon and bring out new ideas
and innovate is the key. I believe there are lots and lots of students
undergoing primary education without any access to computers keen to know more
about it. Promoting digital literacy with basic Office applications such as
Word, Excel and PowerPoint will help them. At the graduate and post graduate
level, many students are unaware of products such as Visio, Azure, Photosynth,
Visual Studio, Silverlight and many more which can help them leverage their
capabilities. My primary focus as a Microsoft Student Associate will be to
evangelize technology among my peers according to their requirements. I believe
that change starts from a small effort and if I am selected as an MSA, I am
sure I will definitely be able to impact the society.
I would appreciate your comments
and feedback. Thank you for reading my story! If you liked my story, please like the Facebook link.
#MSAIndia
