Volunteering Experience of Ishita Choudhary

My undergraduate started online (thanks to Covid-19!), so when I came across IEEE, I thought it was some organization for those who are in the electronics domain. It was then one of the webinars I attended about the research benefits which IEEE provided, which made me a member of IEEE. As I started attending more events and being on the event organizing team, it made me realize that IEEE is much more, it was not about anyone who belonged to electronics- it was for everyone. I also loved the idea of IEEE WIE to promote women around the world to follow their academic interests in a career in engineering and science, as I have been observing lower interests of women in technological fields in my surroundings. All of this inspired me to join IEEE in order to contribute to its objective of fostering technological innovation for the benefit of humanity, as well as to assist WIE in promoting gender equality in STEM.

As an IEEE volunteer, I have been a part of leadership positions be it at the student branch- organizing events or as the Associate Editor at the India Council Newsletter. I was fortunate enough to be the organizer of two WIE events of my Student Branch- WIEkas 2.0 and WIEbhav. Each of these focused on educating underprivileged children as well as girls and women – making them aware of the technological advancements and creating more healthcare awareness. Also, I have loved being the moderator for the podcast series of India Council Podcast Series, due to which I was able to try something new.

I have learned so much from IEEE, which I couldn’t have learned while sitting in the four walls of the classroom. Two major qualities IEEE has instilled in me as the WIE Chairperson at my student branch and as Associate Editor at IC Newsletter are leadership and communication skills. With vast opportunities for networking provided by IEEE, I have made so many new friends, worked with cross-cultured people, and learned so much from experienced IEEE Senior Members. Meeting and talking to new people from different domains helped me improve my cross-thinking.

IEEE has made me a multi-tasker and helped me improve my time management skills. Volunteering at the student branch, and India Council level has given me the confidence to take responsibility and work as a team. Every event at IEEE has pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me grow more personally and professionally. My favorite IEEE story has to be the Women’s Day Celebration at my University. Planning, organizing, managing, and anchoring at a large scale had been exciting. Interacting with women and girls, and imparting to them the knowledge we had, had been super amazing. In the years to come, I am sure I’ll be creating more memorable IEEE stories.

Apart from IEEE, I have been pretty active in other extracurricular activities and hackathons at my college. I secured an all-India rank under the top 15 in the NetApp Women Hackathon. I have been the recipient of 50% scholarship for securing a rank under 200 scholars for the 2021 cohort of the Google TalentSprint Program.

I have also been one of the top academic scorers. I have also been a part of the Codechef and Enactus societies of my college.

To sum up, I would like to thank everyone who is a part of my IEEE journey; I have got great mentors through IEEE who have helped me grow into the person I am today.