Volunteering Experience of Sarath S

During my days of diploma, I was an active volunteer in the IEDC community. This exposure to volunteering and service-minded activities took me close to IEEE. The ideologies and visions that the community of IEEE was upholding for these years gave me a sense of inspiration. Since volunteering was a passion for me, I decided to step into IEEE. Seeing my vibrancy and activeness, my seniors provided me with a chance of being a volunteer in All Kerala IAS Student Conclave. That was the turning point, a watershed moment in my life. That opportunity gave me insights on event management skills, leadership skills, and crisis management. Ever since then, IEEE has been a stepping stone for me to a huge variety of professional connections and provided me with wide opportunities for developing my technical and managerial skills. Eventually, it became an emotion rather than volunteering. The biggest advantage I gained from IEEE was the opportunity to interact with people from all around the world. 

Also, as a volunteer, I always wanted to spread the wings of IEEE and take the essence of IEEE to the coming generation of school students. Being the Student Activities Chair of IEEE Education Society Kerala Chapter I had an event in the plan. Similarly one of the student team members came up with a similar idea. Combining both our ideas we launched an event named Rural Student Technical Enhancement Program (R-STEP). We submitted our idea as a proposal for STEM and were funded with $2000. The R-STEP was a free-of-cost advanced technical training and skilling session specifically designed for the rural higher secondary students. This initiative provided hands-on experience on Technical training in Arduino, IoT, C Programming, and Web development for 110 School students.Prior to the beginning of the event all the student leadership team members were mentored on all the topics. All the students were divided into a group of 10 and were appointed a mentor to each team. In regards to this event, we also started a Research on “Rural School Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions toward Engineering Education and Engineering Profession” which includes findings from all the 110 students.

I had many fruitful memories throughout my journey, which is why I still wish to volunteer for IEEE. I have worked in many global teams as well as section teams on many events and many roles. I extracted those qualities even to my daily life thus making me more efficient in my personal and professional life. I personally believe IEEE made me more mature and gave me wide opportunities to explore my own abilities. I found the real me through all the volunteering experience I received. I attained the qualities of leadership skills, managerial skills, and technical expertise from IEEE. But the best gift that I received from IEEE is the networking. I got a bunch of great friends from all over the world. All my friends are ready to spread their hands to help me every time.The bonding and the compassion that I have in me now towards my fellow beings are all results of my experience in IEEE. Apart from professional learning, IEEE offered me a lot of qualities in every aspect. These qualities will be in me forever and whenever I meet somebody who is ready to learn these qualities, I will be more than happy to share my knowledge with them. So to sum up, IEEE has made me the man I am today. It transformed me from an ordinary student into a determined and dedicated personality.

When I was appointed as  the Student Activities Chair, all the events were done in virtual mode. The vibe that we received during an offline event is different from the online mode. It is actually incomparable. Realising this, from the IEEE Education Society Kerala Chapter we came forward with a plan of conducting an offline event named e-KITES (EdSoc – Kerala Integrated Training for Engineering Students) in Lead College of Management at Palakkad following all the Government protocols. The event provides technical training sessions on 6 domains including basics of python,robotics,web development,app development,design thinking and PCB designing . 200 participants from all over Kerala joined in the event. I was the core organiser of the event. This event gave me lots of experience and it gave me more insights on how to efficiently deal with a team. Even the participants were so active and we had a blast together. I will never forget those five days that made me smile from my heart. 

Also, outside IEEE some of my achievements include, participation in the Zonal Level on SUSTAINABLE ENERGY CHAMPION 2019 in June 2019, runner-up of Light’Em Up – Wiring Competition conducted as part of Dyuksha’20 – Tech Fest, winner of Start-up i3 conducted by Kerala Start-up Mission in December 2016. I have also taken part in a lot of other technical initiatives. As part of them, I designed & estimated a House Wiring Project which includes all main types of wiring in a house. It is currently kept in the EEE Department Wiring Workshop of the NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad as a reference to the freshers. Along with that, I collaboratively developed an Automatic Covid Protection BOT with features such as Data Collection, Sanitizing, Mask Disposal, and Temp check. I was also involved in the development of a software called “CAMPUS GUIDER” to find the location and details of staff in an Organisation. Apart from all these, I took part in the manufacturing and distribution of 1200 Emergency lamps for the Flood relief camps, during the time of Kerala Floods. From an academic perspective, I achieved several certifications namely, Oracle Foundation Associate Certification, Career Skills conducted by TCS ION, Python for Everybody, HTML & CSS in Coursera, Soft Skills & Life Skills conducted by Mahindra Pride Classroom in 2017.