Do you believe that experiences have the power to determine our intent and consequent actions? We have a heartwarming story of a student from the TechSaksham program who found purpose in one of her teenage experiences and used it wisely to make a difference. Meet Jharkhand’s Kirti Mandal, a final year student at GEC Bharuch. After reading her story you’d agree that

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
– Soren Kierkegaard

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect, and passion in their operation.
– John Ruskin

Impact of TechSaksham:

• Challenge one: At the time of enrolment, Kirti had apprehensions about how she would manage the curriculum along with her academic schedule. In the initial days she wondered if she would sound stupid upon asking doubts. The program encouraged her to learn, grow, and give back to society. Kirti drew inspiration from a real-life incident for her capstone project that warns people of the accident-prone locations in cities and towns. She implemented AI, insights from surveys, data with respect to road-lands, rate of vehicle production, accident prone zones and more, to make the project a success.
  
  
• Capstone project: When Kirti was in grade 12th she was travelling with her younger brother on a motorbike and met with an accident where her brother got injured, though she remained unharmed. She had seen other accidents in her area too. These experiences had an impact on her. Since then, she wanted to drive change and do something about warning people of the accident-prone locations in cities and towns. With guidance under the TechSaksham program she got an opportunity to address the issue of accidents in accident prone regions using technical knowledge and skills like Python, Cloud Computing, and AI.
  

• Challenge two: With an EC background, she faced a challenge with respect to ways in which she could implement AI, but with guidance from an encouraging mentor and support from group mates she started her capstone project on accident detection and reporting. The project involved the use of sensors, an app, and more.
  
  
• Challenge three: Kirti’s third challenge was to make the project proactive. Initially the intimation was given only after the accident had taken place and damage had been caused. That’s when she thoroughly worked and implemented AI, surveys, and data with respect to road lands, rate of vehicle production, accident prone zones and more. She shared, “Earlier my brother thought I was joking about the project and the theme. Later he realized I had actually done it. My parents didn’t say a lot but their eyes and smile did. I could feel they were proud of me.” The support of family, friends, and fellows plays a very important role in keeping one encouraged to learn, grow, and give back to society. We are glad that we were able to enable this transformation through the TechSaksham program.
  
  
• Interview at TCS: The learnings from the program, particularly on Python Libraries, helped her clear an interview at TCS. We asked Kirti, how her journey had been and she shared that her mentor was very supportive with respect to clearing her doubts and ensuring that she feels open about asking questions without any hesitations or self-doubt. We could hear the confidence in her voice. She shared that the healthy learning environment helped her stay engaged throughout. She excitedly told us about how the learnings from the program, particularly on Python Libraries, helped her clear an interview at TCS. The highlight for us was “I happily answered all the questions as all the concepts had been thoroughly taught in the course by our mentor.”
  
  Recently, she also got shortlisted for an interview at EY.
  
  “The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes

• Interview at EY: TechSaksham is very different from any other program out there. I have taken several courses but only experienced an interactive and intriguing classroom here. Our mentor Mr Vinay was kind enough to make various softwares and resources available to us. He went out of the way to solve all our queries. The course exercises made practical implementation much easier. Our accountability and responsibility towards our learning and growth increased tremendously — which many online programs lack. It is only because of Edunet Foundation and TechSaksham program that I could get shortlisted for a virtual interview with Ernst & Young (EY). I video recorded my answers as they were being presented on my screen and I must say the employability skills imparted during the session helped a lot here. Ernst & Young, being one of the big 4, an interview with them was a big opportunity for me. I was able to maintain a calm demeanour and a confident personality as a result of the technical skills and soft skills I had acquired during the program. The training also gave me the courage to be assertive in stating what I look for in the company I want to work at. Key knowledge on AI, robotics, cloud computing, python, C language, machine learning, and more helped me do a good job at the interview. I can say that in all these months after early August 2021, the training I got made me TechSaksham.