The Microsoft Student Ambassador Who Became an MVP: Bojan Ivanoski's Journey

By Guest Blogger Bojan Ivanoski 

Where it started 

I joined the Microsoft Student Ambassador program in my first year of university, mostly out of curiosity. I wanted to meet people who were interested in Microsoft technologies, learn outside the classroom, and see what other students around the world were building.  Four years later, around the same time of year, I opened an email telling me I had been awarded Microsoft MVP in the Foundry category. That email opened a new path forward, but it's one moment in a much longer story. 

My journey 

For the first time since joining the Microsoft Student Ambassadors program, I was connected with students from other countries who were building projects, running events, and sharing what they learned in public.  

A few weeks in, my friend Marko Atanasov (who became an MVP too) joined the program, and things picked up fast. We started building projects and running community events together. Along the program I met my first Microsoft MVP, Vlatko Ivanovski, who became my first mentor. He pushed me to think past university assignments and build something I could stand behind. I reached out to the ambassador community looking for someone to help, and that's the exact moment Marko reached out to me. 

That project became Azure in a Flash: one-click GitHub and Terraform deployment. With Vlatko's guidance, we turned it into a session presented at several universities across North Macedonia and at multiple tech conferences, the first time either of us stood in front of an audience with something we'd built ourselves.  

Around then I joined the Microsoft Zero to Hero community, where MVPs were generous with their time and welcomed me in. Watching how they ran sessions and mentored new speakers showed me what community leadership actually looks like. In that community, I became one of the leaders of the newly built NextGen Heroes community, which I co-lead with Marko and a dear companion and MVP, Nicklas Olsen. All the sessions that we did there helped students and early-career professionals explore Azure, AI, Intune, and DevOps, with room for new speakers to share what they're learning. 

The community grew past the three of us, with guests like Chiara Carbone, Martin Dimovski, Rod Trent and Lior Bela helping build a space where students interact directly with the people behind these technologies. 

Over the past few years that turned into more than 30 technical sessions across Europe, covering Azure fundamentals, DevOps, Azure AI Foundry, and agentic AI. Preparing to teach turned out to be one of the best ways to actually learn. 

I delivered those sessions because I wanted students and developers to understand technologies that were changing fast. They ended up carrying the most weight in my MVP nomination, which was submitted by MVP Saeid Dahl, who cited my dedication, work, events and the projects I had done for the Microsoft community. That inspiration got me to create Chat&Go, which started as my Bachelor’s capstone project, mentored by Microsoft MVP Miodrag Cekikj, using technologies like Azure AI Speech and Azure AI Translator. Together with Marko Atanasov we made it a real-time multilingual messaging platform supporting more than 60 languages. Teaching Azure AI concepts for years made building the platform feel natural.

Looking back 

When the MVP email arrived, I read it as recognition for something bigger than any single project: showing up consistently, contributing to a community that had invested in me from the start, and trying to give the next generation the same opportunities I had been given. 

The people made the real difference, more than any certification or title. The program put me next to friends who became collaborators and mentors who pushed me. The MVP award feels like a bigger platform for that same responsibility: keep contributing, keep mentoring, and help more people find the opportunities that changed my own path. 

What I would tell you 

If you are building things in the Microsoft community and wondering whether the MVP path is worth chasing - it is! Show up consistently, build things you're proud of and share what you know with the people around you. The best part of this process is watching your own growth happen alongside it, because it comes from doing something you actually love!

Author bio and additional resources 

Bojan Ivanovski is a Microsoft MVP (Foundry), and Microsoft Certified Trainer based in Skopje, North Macedonia. He co-leads NextGen Heroes under Microsoft Zero to Hero and is the co-founder and CEO of Chat&Go. 

Building Agents with Azure AI Foundry 
NextGen Spotlight: The Lior Bela Journey 
Give Your Apps a Voice: The AI Speech Journey
NextGen Spotlight: The Rod Trent Journey 

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