How To Come From India To Siberia And Become A Potanin Scholarship Holder

In 2021, the Master's student at Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology Nischal passed competitive selection and won the scholarship competition. He is pursuing a Master’s program in Data Management and is keen on cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies.

Nischal, tell us about yourself! You come from India, as we know. What brought you to Siberia?

– I was eager to get a decent education. My way was long. First, I took part in the competition and then studied Russian in Moscow. It was extremely difficult to study Russian, but it turned out to have much in common with Sanskrit! For example, the verb "proplyvaet" corresponds to "praplavate" in Sanskrit, and the word "semya" is similar to the Sanskrit verb "samya," translated as "keep together." It is thanks to the phonetic similarity of the languages that plenty of associations started crossing my mind at once, and I could understand everything.

Let’s talk about the competition procedure. How was it conducted this year?

– The competition was held in two stages. The first stage is held online, the second one is conducted in person. But, due to well-known circumstances, the second stage was held online, but this didn’t ruin my enjoyment at all! I really liked it. We worked from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. There were a lot of various business games and cases. During this period, all the participants managed to work in a team and individually. Everyone had a chance to prove themselves. I didn’t feel like I was just sitting and doing nothing. I didn’t have much trouble. At each stage, the competitors were assisted by the competition organizers. They explained everything in great detail on their Telegram channel.

The only difficulty I had to cope with at the first stage of the competition was essay writing. Of course, I made some grammar mistakes, but I was helped to correct them. I had no problems with anything else.

You have already mentioned that it is necessary to write an essay for the competition. What else do competition organizers pay their attention to?

– In general, it is very much like other competitions. The organizers assess your academic performance, availability of publications, whether you carry out any public activity or prefer sports. Generally, the more achievements you have, the better.

What did participation in the Scholarship Competition give you, besides the scholarship?

– I liked the competition very much. It was a great test for our opportunities. At the first stage (a written one), there were interesting questions that made me think and revise all my life. The second stage lasted a few hours online, but they seemed to have passed like an hour.

This day gave me a lot of emotions, meetings with new and interesting people. And I met the students from my university as well in some round. That was exciting!

Sources: www.fondpotanin.ru, krasnoyarsk.bezformata.com