This series highlights Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who achieved the highest milestone of Gold and have recently graduated from university. Each blog features a different student and highlights their accomplishments, their experience with the Student Ambassadors community, and what they’re up to now.
Today we’d like to introduce Sunder Eshwar Kodi, who is from India and recently graduated from the A. D. Patel Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s in computer engineering.
Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
When you became a Student Ambassador in 2019, did you have specific goals you wanted to reach? What were they, and did you achieve them? How has being a part of this community impacted you?
I wanted to learn as much as I could from the Student Ambassadors community, meet people from around the world, and learn from them. The place where I studied did not host any knowledge/hands-on sessions regarding anything related to computers, so I can say that when I joined the Student Ambassadors community, I wanted to empower myself and the others around me.
I also wanted to get to know and talk with people around the world, and I got to do it with a lot of people from different countries. During lockdown, we used to get on calls on Discord and play games on Minecraft until night. We even celebrated a birthday once on a Minecraft server.
This community has helped me in a lot of ways. I was able to learn so much new stuff through Microsoft Learn, and I got friends from all over world--people who are close as family and who I will stay in contact with even after my graduation.
What are the accomplishments that you’re the proudest of and why?
The one accomplishment that I will always be the proudest of is of course being selected as a Gold Ambassador 😂 [Editor’s note: Student Ambassadors who are at the Beta level and excel in their efforts to be community leaders are nominated by the program’s Community Program Managers for Gold level status or by other Golds, and their efforts are then reviewed before they can be awarded the status of Gold].
Also, being a Gold Student Ambassador unlocks a lot of different opportunities, one of which was that I got to judge the projects for Imagine Cup Junior 2021. This was such an awesome experience to check the crazy ideas of participants from various parts of the world. I and my younger brother (he is just 10 and wanted to see these projects) saw all the different projects for a day. It was such a wonderful experience.
Another accomplishment would be getting recognized within the community for helping a lot of people reach their goals just like other people helped me reach mine. I always try to reach out and help people as much as I can, and in order for me reach this goal, the Community Program Managers helped me a lot, be it solving issues or answering queries about the program. They always were there when I wanted some advice and make sure that the community always stays active and healthy.
What do you have planned for after graduation? What’s next for you?
I have joined Crest Data Systems, which focuses on managing and deploying cloud environments, as a full-time CloudOps Engineer. Someday I hope to work at my dream company, which of course would be Microsoft always, and hey, if I ever want to return to this community, I can enroll myself in a Master’s program [Editor’s note: the Student Ambassadors community is open to university students of all levels].
If you could go back in time and redo your time with the Student Ambassadors community, is there anything you would have done differently?
I would definitely have applied to the program in my first year and started participating in the community way earlier. Also, I would have started to reach out people and tried to complete Learn paths on Microsoft Learn as much as I could.
If you were to describe the community to a student who is interested in joining, what would you say about it to convince him or her to join?
If I were to describe this community in a few lines, I would just say that it has one of the best and upfront communities that is always ready to teach and help you to reach your set goals, especially the program managers who are always ready to help you at any time. There are so many opportunities available to you during your tenure.
What advice would you give to new Student Ambassadors?
I would say to start learning different paths and taking initiatives as much as they can because this would lead them to gain skills technically and gain leadership by taking the lead in hosting events.
Do you have a motto in life, a guiding principle that drives you?
It would be a quote by Satya Nadella during an interview with Marques Brownlee: ”Be bold and be right. If you’re not bold, you don’t do big things, but if you’re not right, you’re not going to be there for much longer.” This has been my motto for a long time; I’ve always been following it.
What is one random fact few people know about you?
People who know me would agree that I’m a geek when it comes to something related to computers. One thing I would say people might not know would be that I’m also into motorsports. I love to explore new bikes and cars, and I go deep into their technical specifications. I love watching Formula 1 and MotoGP races regularly and play a lot of racing games.
Good luck to you, Sunder, in all your future endeavors!
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