“The best part of being in all these communities is that I’m getting to help so many students with key decisions” UCC Ambassador Anushree discusses the value of peer-to-peer connections
Anushree is a current student and CampusConnect Ambassador at University College Cork. Prior to embarking on her MSc in Ireland, she worked with Accenture for five years and lived in various cities in India. In her free time, she enjoys painting, poetry and singing, although her busy life in Ireland doesn’t leave much time for these. Still she is socially quite engaged and enjoying her time in Ireland.
Name: Anushree
From: India
University: University College Cork
Ask Anushree about: Making important decisions about university
Secretary at the UCC Indian Society…
“I love being a member of UCC Indian Society. I started off as the Social Media Manager looking after the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the society. Over the months I became very engaged in society activities and took over the responsibility of Secretary of the society. We celebrate festivals such as Holi & Diwali where we try to enjoy the festivals with the same fervour and local cuisines as we would do back in India. Many of us miss Indian music, so we do Bollywood nights where people come to enjoy, dance or give performances.
We also arrange trips to nearby sightseeing. We have received positive feedback that these trips were really enjoyable as we did a lot of fun stuff like playing games on the bus and just getting to know each other. We’re currently planning movie nights and have some more trips on the horizon. We try to organize events at a regular frequency so that people remain connected to elements of the Indian culture in Ireland, meaning they don’t miss home too much. What I love is that it’s not just restricted to Indian students – we want to share the experience with everybody who’d like to join us!”
The value of community…
“Community is really important to me, and it’s great to be a part of so many different ones. The best part of being in all these communities is that I’m getting to help so many students with key decisions: whether to come, what to study… It gives me a platform to help others and people are getting to know me. So many students reach out to me, whether through CampusConnect, LinkedIn or Instagram, and it’s really rewarding. Knowing I’m helping somebody gives me a sense of satisfaction, and even contributing just a small bit to somebody’s journey is an achievement for me. We all value the big achievements in life, but if somebody comes back to say thank you for my advice, that really means a lot to me.
Since UCC CampusConnect is designed for our university, it means that offer holders are helped by people who have been through the same journey. It’s really good because you can have niche groups, covering really specific topics that you can’t easily find information on. For me, the keys to a successful student community are: a focus on sharing; breaking communication barriers and exchanging a variety of knowledge. I think student communities should be without limitations such as course or country, just like UCC CampusConnect. For example, I did Masters of Computer Application in India but I never had exposure to so many social communities. Being part of local communities also helps us better understand and connect with Irish & international diaspora."
Keep your eyes peeled for part two of this feature, where Anushree tells us how she landed a job in Ireland with Version 1 and talks more about sharing advice with incoming students.
