Volunteering Experience of Akarsh Ashok
As a Kendriya Vidyalaya student and my father is a Central Government employee so, my school life was not restricted to a single place. It was beautiful to see other cultures and got the opportunity to learn their languages, but not enough time to make friends, which led me to become an introverted person , but when I joined College i wanted to change , try something new and that’s how I joined IEEE. To be honest, once I saw the vibrancy of the Student Branch, I was hooked on volunteering, and it’s been 5 years since then. Fortunately, I’m currently doing my master’s at the same College, so I can be a student volunteer for 2 more years.
The core benefit I consider from IEEE is to overcome our personal fear. I started out as an Introvert, but continuous interaction and networking has shown how these fears are just manifestations from my perspective. Understanding others eventually helped me understand myself. One of my Favourite IEEE stories is Student Branch NSS College of Engineering’ Flagship Event – Xperion’20. This was its first edition. Our SB has been planning such an event for the past 2 years and 2019 ExCom Made that dream into reality. It was a 5 Day Event and to make those 5 days perfect, we had many sleepless nights, a number of meet-ups and with each day getting closer, our anxiety grew as well. We had fewer sessions and more other activities like treasure hunt, DJ night, cultural night, dance, open stage and many more. Coordinating such a big event is a great task, but when you release it will give you a fruitful result, you automatically get motivated.
Additionally, IEEE paved the path for me to be a great leader. Since my first day, I’ve always helped others and as a leader, I was able to help juniors to achieve their potential (managerially and technically). I helped them to carve their way out of their comfort zone and to the bright future of leadership. Also, I got my hand in Website development and mentored many students as well. IEEE helped me in networking and my IEEE volunteering experience started as webmaster in region 10 SAC as well as Region 10 Information Management Committee (IMC) and networking from R10 gave me a chance to volunteer at India Council Student Coordinator Team. Currently I’m the Associate Webmaster of Kerala Section and this gives me immense pleasure beyond any imagination. Apart from these, I’m currently volunteering as Web Team Member of IEEE YP Kerala AG, Jt. Sec YP of CS Kerala Chapter and Webmaster of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter. It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I hope for the best in the future.