Meet a recent Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador graduate: Tajamul Ashraf
Published Sep 16 2022 09:00 AM 2,657 Views

This is the next segment of our blog series highlighting Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who achieved the Gold milestone, the highest status level attainable, and recently graduated from university. Each blog in the series features a different student and highlights their accomplishments, their experience with the Student Ambassador community, and what they’re up to now. 

 

Today we meet Tajamul Ashraf who is from India and recently graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar with a B-Tech in information technology.

 

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Responses have been edited for clarity and length.  

 

 

When you joined the Student Ambassador community in 2021, did you have specific goals you wanted to reach, such as a particular skill or quality? 

I have always been fascinated by student communities and wanted to be a part of one while contributing to it. When I first joined this amazing community, I wanted to build my public speaking  and event organizing skills. I wanted to build a network with people who share the same passion and I have been able to achieve all that. 

 

Additionally, I wanted to improve my skills as a developer using Microsoft cloud technologies and share my knowledge with my community, empower in unique ways, and make a difference.  The community has given me access to the right opportunities, the right people, and the right platform to accomplish my goals. To this day, I am still in contact with many of these wonderful people and have even formed start-ups together.

  

What were the accomplishments that you’re the proudest of and why? 

There are so many  I am grateful for, but here are just a few:

  • I conducted a Microsoft Technical Workshop at the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar which was very special, as this was the first event of this kind/scale and made an impact on a lot of students in Kashmir...
  • I was very happy to have helped more than 50+ peers.  I have met amazing people and made friends for life.
  • I oversaw 100+ Microsoft Student Partners during my time as Program Lead. Creating this network was an absolute joy and has paid off as the strong friendships and professional connections this cultivated are a sight to behold.
  • The biggest accomplishment in this community was achieving the Gold milestone.

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What are you doing now that you’ve graduated? 

I am pursuing a master's degree in computer science with a specialization in machine learning and computer vision from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi while working as a software engineer at Leena AI.  I am involved with a few ventures involving  local collaboration and partnerships, including my own community, a digital platform that works to uplift the talents of the community and share local tech trends with them.  I am continuing to build our Student Ambassador community by speaking about technology, guiding local Student Ambassadors, and motivating them to conduct more events.

 

If you could redo your time as a Student Ambassador, is there anything you would have done differently? 

I would have applied to the community in my first year and contributed more.  I could have done more if I had utilized my time and planned better. I would have conducted more hackathons and collaborated with others to work on real-world problems in tech. Is there something that I could have changed to improve the outcome? Probably. However, I am very satisfied with how things turned out, and I would not risk losing that. So, to answer the question, no, even if I had the chance to change something, I would repeat the same process.

 

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? 

There are a lot of things this program has to offer to a student. However, the most valuable asset in my opinion is networking while participating in the community. You get to meet people who are just as passionate about technology as you are. You can interact with them, work with them on a project, or even organize and present an event with them. And if you are as lucky as I am, you might have the chance to build friendships that last past graduation.

 

The community truly provides one with the tools needed to learn about Microsoft technologies and get ahead in terms of premier tools and certifications. It also comes with an enormous global network of like-minded people. “Love to empower lives and make a difference? Then join the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors community.”

 

What advice would you give to new Student Ambassadors? 

You have an amazing and solid support system in the community. People are ready to help you.  They want to see you grow and succeed, so harness this opportunity. Connect with them, collaborate, make lasting friendships, and empower others. Learn as much as you can, do as much as you can, and above all, connect with as many people as you can. The community provides a lot of opportunities to learn.  The mentors are true representations of knowledge. Whenever I faced difficulties related to any technologies, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by different mentors mostly from Microsoft, who cleared a lot of my doubts.

 

 

What is your motto in life, your guiding principle? 

“Do what you love, love what you do, and with all your heart give yourself to it.”

- Roy T. Bennett. “

 

I learned that setting high expectations that are not fulfilled in situations that are out of my control can upset me. As a result, I let things happen and am pleasantly surprised by their outcome.

 

Celebrate others’ success often and know that it does not diminish your own.

 

What is one random fact about you that few people are aware of? 

I love traveling and meeting different people from different cultures around the world who have different norms. One thing on my bucket list is to visit an upside-down house, either in South Africa or the UK. I still cannot believe they exist.

 

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Skiing in Gulmarg, a famous hilly area in Kashmir.

 

Good luck to you in all your endeavors, Tajamul!

 

 

Readers, you can find Tajamul on LinkedIn, GitHub, Facebook, Twitter, and his website

 

 

 

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