Outstanding Student Volunteer - Rohith Mathew
“Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.” – Henry van Dyke.
With this mindset towards success when Rohith Mathew joined college, he adopted networking with people as second nature to nurture his brain for growth.
Once he joined IEEE, he realized that his heart lay in Graphic Designing. Honing his skills earned him multiple freelance projects with small organizations and he is proud to say that he was able to pay my semester fees with his own earnings, during an economically-distressing time for my family.
Besides this, he considers himself an avid cricketer. On the field, his quick decision-making abilities often came handy for the team. He says that he also learned stress management and how to multitask efficiently, as he learned to balance my academics alongside playing matches for the college team. Cricket also schooled me in accepting my failures.
To pursue his passion for singing, he participated in the Voice Hunt Competition, hosted by Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology, Kochi, in his first year and made it to the semi-finals, with no formal training. Thus, he believes that challenging oneself really does wonders!
He ardently explored hackathons during my college years too which made him win first prize in both Major League Hacking (Kerala Edition) and Think India Hackathon organised by VIT, Vellore.
He also had the opportunity to be the Chief Creative Officer at RSET Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Cell, an initiative by Kerala Startup Mission for college students.
All in all, he defines himself as a scion of the hustle culture, but one that strives to achieve a modicum of balance in all things.
He worked closely with the CEO and IEDC Nodal officer to develop the brand identity of IEDC Rajagiri. He transformed rough ideas into cohesive projects for branding, marketing, design, media outreach, and message development. He responsibly delivered all projects assigned to the creative team and upheld the values of my Alma Mater.
As an initiative to provide guidance to his peers and juniors from the college, he also set up a career help group on WhatsApp, where he held weekly AMAs and discussions, to promote self-development.
His recent contribution in IEEE is:
- RSET IEEE Student Branch Chairperson
- Head of Design- IEEE Computer Society Student Leadership Team 2020
- IEEE “Computer Society India Symposium 20” Design Team Member
- Representative of IEEE Kerala Section at R10 SYWLC 2020
- ORE (Outreach for Resources in Engineering) Graphic Designing Mentor
- IEEE PES Day 2020 Ambassador
- IEEE TEMS Global Design Team Lead
- IEEE Kerala Young Professionals – Global Outreach Initiative Team Member
- Kerala Section Ambassador – IEEE R10 Revol Awards 2021
- IEEE Xtreme 14.0 (2020) Student Branch Ambassador
Rohith has been a part of IEEE from the beginning of his engineering journey. His past year contribution towards IEEE includes:
- IEEE Awards Global Design Lead (2018)
- RSET IEEE Student Branch Vice-Chair (2019 – 20)
- RSET IEEE Student Branch Technical Coordinator (2018 – 19)
- IEEE Awards Global Design Lead (2018)
Out of my many achievements, I consider inspiring my juniors the biggest. With earning this award, I hope to keep on inspiring them to strive to explore their potential and find out what truly drives them.
He says that while all his peers were engaged in living the college experience, he joined IEEE hoping to explore more avenues, and find out what his real passion is.
He was able to handle multiple leadership roles, find out his true passion and more importantly, make an impact on all the roles he handled.
According to him, when he took over the role of the Student Branch Chair of my college, they were non-prolific in the IEEE community, but within a year, they were able to grow it to the largest Student Branch in India and the third largest in the world.
They were able to bring in more societies, engage more students and develop new leaders for the IEEE Kerala Section, and their Student Branch was adjudged as the Outstanding Student Branch IEEE Kerala Section 2020 and R10 Exemplary Student Branch in 2021.
While contributing to the Student Branch, he also focused on developing himself, and was adjudged as the Outstanding Student Volunteer of IEEE Kerala Section in 2020 for contributions to the community. He was also the winner of the IEEE R10 TENHUMCH’19 where his team developed a solution to combat outdoor air-pollution.
Along with his contributions to IEEE, he believes his achievements and experiences in other walks of life have shaped him to have a never-give-up mindset and face any adversity with patience and determination.
A true leader’s impression is one of humility, and he believes the numerous roadblocks that he has faced while chasing success, have helped him retain this important quality.
In short, he considers himself as a suitable recipient for this award, because he believes it can spur him on to continue on my journey further, chasing my passions and growing through uncomfortable times.
This award will definitely help him in his professional career as a recognition of his ability and excellence, and also inspire others in the community to go above and beyond what is expected and focus on being a hard-working individual with integrity.