Hello Everyone! Cheers for all, reading this amazing story! You will find about a brilliant opportunity in a couple of minutes, which I’m experiencing today!
How thing got started...
Sustainable Education Foundation(SEF), is a well-known organization established with the aim of uplifting Sri Lankan education. SEF has launched a number of programs to support the Sri Lankan Educational Community starting from school students to postgraduates and researchers.
As an undergraduate at the University of Kelaniya, It was my fortune to hear about SEF and their valuable programs and I had a keen interest in joining & volunteering. A few batchmates were already volunteering at SEF and their exposure and experience were really outstanding. In my second year of undergraduate life, I was privileged to become the chief coordinator of hackX 2019 Inter-University Startup Challenge, one of the most popular startup pre-accelerator in Sri Lanka organized by the University of Kelaniya. There I had a valuable opportunity to work with SEF, get their exposure & experience to drive the event through success.
The ScholarX
ScholarX, one of four flagship programs coordinated and executed by the Sustainable Education Foundation, provides a mentorship platform for undergraduate students in Sri Lanka. ScholarX allows students to connect with industry experts and academics from top universities in the world as well as globally impactful companies and start-ups.
— SEF
ScholarX is one of the brilliant opportunities I’ve been offered in my undergraduate life. As mentioned above it’s an Industrial Mentoring program, which creates an invaluable platform for undergraduates to get mentored by giant brains (and to mentor one day) in the industry, get to know them, expose to their experience, support & guidance towards the success.
I heard about ScholarX when it was first launched in 2019, A colleague of mine, had the opportunity to get selected to ScholarX class of 2019, and his experience throughout the program gave me the motivation to apply for this valuable opportunity. Today I was lucky enough to become a ScholarX mentee for class 2020, as one of the greatest achievements in my life.
Why ScholarX?
If you are planning to have a good mentorship, industrial guidance & support for your undergraduate life, projects, or academic researches and to contribute back to the community, ScholarX is the best opportunity for you.
ScholarX consist of a rich pool of mentors from various industries, researchers, winners all over the world. The most interesting fact is we are given the ability to choose mentors considering our preference in order to deliver the best experience with providing the ability to find the right match between the mentor and mentee to align our academic & professional goals through the program in a fruitful manner. ScholarX guarantees an amazing experience throughout the program which I’m experiencing today!
If you want to find out more, visit ScholarX at SEF Official web site or like their Facebook Page for continuous updates.
Why do you need a mentor?
Well, that’s an easy question to answer. As learners, having guidance from an expert will always help life to be easy, and will lead to think out of the box, get exposed to emerging knowledge & do better.
“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”
— John Crosby.
A good mentor can help you to shorten your learning curve, open your mind to new ideas and possibilities, identify opportunities, and advise on how to promote yourself.
My mentor: Mr.Ganindu Nanayakkara
In the SchoraX 2020 program, I was privileged to get mentorship from Mr. Ganindu Nanayakkara, one of the greatest innovators in the country, who is one of the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 in consumer tech, currently working as an assistant superintendent at Sri Lanka Customs. He had massive experience in the industry as a software engineer and has won many national as well as international awards for his outstanding innovations, like the iHelmet.
His story on Readme gave me the right motivation. For a person interested in experiencing new technologies, try to emerge new innovations, introduce them to the world through a budding startup, the exposure which can get from an invaluable mentor like Mr.Ganindu is priceless.
You don’t see the big picture at once. If you understand the fundementals, then it’s easy to build things.
— Ganindu Nanayakkara
The Discussions...
For the past few weeks, I had two mentoring sessions with Mr. Ganindu Nanayakkara, where I learned a lot. Since the first day, he encouraged me to ask more and more questions while expressing his thoughts and experience with his broad knowledge. Entrepreneurship was the major topic we discussed as his thoughts were priceless for a newbie to the Startup eco-system like me. He guided me on how to survive in the startup eco-system, being a blooming startup, how to face challenges, how to understand key concerns and apply them towards success.
There is no short path for anything, especially if it’s a startup. Being only a hard worker also not going to lead you up to the peak. You should understand the market requirement and build the right thing. You should be smart, a good planner as well as a forecaster. Opportunities don’t come following us. You should seek for opportunities, take opportunities, and drive your startup towards success. Understanding the groundwork, the fundamentals, and the basics will be a good foundation for a solid, stable future.
Especially for a startup, having the right business model, market fit, and a well-organized execution plan will be the key concerns of success.
These are only a few key aspects that I have learned from Mr. Ganindu. There is a lot more to share with you. I strongly believe the guidance & Support I receive would help you to fulfill your life goals. If you are an entrepreneur, a thinker out of the box, the upcoming blog articles I’m planning to write including the discussions about the Entrepreneurship & Startups, with Mr. Ganindu, would be really helpful for you. So I‘m planning to share the experience as well as the valuable knowledge & guidance I receive through the ScholarX program with you all through upcoming blog articles.
Important: Become a ScholarX mentee next time!
Now you have read my experience & thoughts in the ScholarX program. I’m still a newbie to the program, and I was able to learn a lot within the past couple of weeks. So If you are an undergraduate reading this, I highly recommend you give this opportunity a try next time.
ScholarX will take you towards the success day by day! Keep in touch with the Sustainable Education Foundation Official web site & the Facebook page for future updates. I wish all of you will be able to have this amazing opportunity which I’m experiencing today!
Have a Nice Day!