Meet Shrudeep (he/him) – full-time student, part-time party animal, Study Perth ambassador and seriously good basketballer 🏀 🗑️
We all know the feeling. And the questions. Am I enough? Should I have done more? Have I made a mistake by not putting myself ‘out there’ (wherever ‘that’ is) during my time studying? For Shrudeep, getting to the midway point of his Bachelor of Science degree left him wondering if he’d done ‘enough’ to make the best out of his time at uni.
I'd had enough of letting opportunities go, so I decided that I was going to start applying to everything I came across. I wanted to be able to make the most of my time here at UWA; to get more than just a degree.
When we chatted to Shrudeep he had just finished the four-day immersion experience in the Global Leadership Experience Program (think school camp, except way better people and actual job prospects at the end of the trip). “The Global Leadership program was an amazing experience. The best part was that many of us were invited to stay at UniHall while we completed the program, so it felt really special. We had heaps of fun throughout, whether it was the online learning sessions in Reid meeting pods, breakfast or playing basketball before dinner or even when we were just unwinding in the games room. We also used the music room to get in touch with our past musician selves.”
“The immersion visits to organisations were a massive highlight. It enabled me to add some really good connections to my network of industry professionals. It was a once in a lifetime experience to get to go behind the scenes at the guest companies and find out how they are managing to evolve rapidly in the face of COVID-19.”
There really is a sense of bonding that you feel being taken out of your environment and placed into a fully immersive experience program with other like-minded people. For Shrudeep, this sense of community changed how he felt about himself and others in a profound way, telling us “I left the program feeling like a different person than I went in – that’s what a community can do for you."
My advice to other students is to really make your uni experience more than just study. Just like basketball, in life you'll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!
If you see anything that even remotely piques your interest, don’t think about whether you'll get selected, just apply. When it’s something that speaks to you, you will automatically send in an amazing application. If you don’t get selected, think of it as a learning experience. I know from first-hand experience that putting yourself out there and trying out for whatever you can, reaps so many personal and professional rewards, no matter what the outcome.”
Sign up for anything and everything by heading to unihub.uwa.edu.au #HumansofUWA #GlobalLeaderExperience.
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