Indian consulate, GOPIO host ‘Meet & Greet’ for Indian students

New York event connects students studying in the Northeast with the community and provides mentoring opportunities

Indian students from many universities across the Northeast participated in person and via Facebook Live in a ‘Meet and Greet’ event to connect them to the community and provide mentoring opportunities.

The event hosted by the Indian Consulate General in New York in cooperation with GOPIO Manhattan on March 31 also sought to raise awareness of consular services available to students, according to a GOPIO press release.

Read: GOPIO organizes ‘Meet & Greet’ for Indian students (October 31, 2022)

Welcoming the students, Dr Varun Jeph, Deputy Consul General, introduced the speakers and the topics and informed about the services offered by the consulate to students.

Consul General Randhir Kumar Jaiswal greeted the participants with a warm “Namaste to all young friends. A very warm welcome to the Consulate, your home and my office.”

The event was an effort to connect students who are here and those who come from India with each other and being there as they grow in this new land of opportunities, he said.

“We are the fifth largest economy and climbing to become the third largest economy,” Jaiswal said. “One million students among the 34 million diaspora are going to play a very important role in that and be the real champions.”

GOPIO International Chairman Dr. Thomas Abraham reflected on his journey fifty years ago with an example that a simple phone call back home would cost around $3/minute.

There was a concept of host families. With the advancement of technologies and ease of communication and growth in students, there is no more such need of host families, he said.

Starting in 2021, such sessions connect the students with the community, professional achievers and the consulate for help with issues or in case of emergency.

GOPIO Manhattan co-secretary and chair for the event and emcee Bhavya Gupta introduced the panelists— Akshat Tewary, an immigration attorney, Sanjyot Dunung, CEO & Founder of Atma Global, Moderator Prof Srikant Jagabathula from NYU, Anthony Irudhyanathan, President Zillion Technologies and Prof. Rajashekar Vangapaty.

Jagabathula, Robert Stansky Research Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Tech, Ops, and Stats at the NYU Stern School of Business, channeled the conversations across the topics of immigration to job search to internships, teaching assistantships.

“Wear different hats, multi-task, go out of your comfort zone, explore and discover,” he said.

GOPIO-Manhattan Executive Vice President Professor Rajasekhar Vangapaty spoke about the importance of on-campus jobs and securing the teaching assistant role while at campus and its importance in job search.

“Every skill-set you learn in your life will definitely benefit you somewhere in your lifetime. Never get discouraged, if you get hurdles,” he said.

Dunung shared her journey from India to England to Chicago as she experienced the culture shifts. “It doesn’t necessarily matter at what age you move to a new country,” she said, “the concept of culture shock, learning new values, attitudes, understanding how people do things, can be startling at the very beginning.”

She bridged the two cultures with every summer trip to India to retain and touch that Indian cultural experience.

Irudhyanathan reflected on his journey saying his motivation to be here was based on the fact that students from India have the chance to be a game changer and that he invests in the ideas from students.

This Meet & Greet platform is a good opportunity for students to excel in being a game changer as 60% of top 100 companies have Indians as CIO/CTOs today. “Students should immerse within the system, learn and connect with the people,” he said.

Tewary reflected on his journey to the US in Jan 1986 highlighting the sense of expectation, optimism and growth as also the cultural differences between homeland and USA.

Dr Bernadine Waller of Columbia University reflected on the mental health issues ranging from anxiety to depression and all in between. She highlighted various stresses that are faced by students such as job search, internship search, competitiveness, loneliness etc.

Read: NEW YORK INDIAN CONSULATE AND GOPIO MANHATTAN ORGANIZE ‘MEET & GREET’ FOR STUDENTS FROM INDIA AT THE INDIAN CONSULATE (April 6, 2023)

The optimal way to deal with it is “One bite at a time,” she said. “We encourage students to think of the career, plan for the present, think about the future, but come back to the present.”

Shivender Sofat, President GOPIO-Manhattan, who joined virtually, spoke of the importance of mentoring to the students, discussed chapter activities and motivated everyone to volunteer and become members at future events held by GOPIO Manhattan.

Siddharth Jain, GOPIO Manhattan Board Member concluded with a quote from Rumi: “It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.”