The adventure called Developer Students Club
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” -Helen Keller
The selection of New DSC Leads have started for the 2020–2021 session. I hope a lot of students from different colleges have started applying for it and preparing to ace it. What better chance could I get to discuss about my experience as a DSC Lead. So, here I go….
A little something about me:
I am Debanjona Bhattacharjya, an Engineering Undergraduate majoring in Electronics and Communication Engineering. I hail from a small town named Siliguri in West Bengal. I have always been fond of Mathematics since my childhood. This made me attracted towards programming and problem-solving. Currently, I am learning Machine Learning and Flutter and working on several projects. I am also active in several tech communities in my institute. My main goal is to involve as many people as possible in the tech domain and bring changes to the world for a better tomorrow.
Okay… Too much about me. Now, should we get back to the topic????
How did I get started with Developer Students Club?
So, I was discussing about my insights and plans with one of my college seniors. He introduced me to this opportunity and asked me to apply for it. At first, I was a bit intimidated, thinking if I can’t make it( I am a bit of an introvert ). But then I decided to give it a try since it has always been my goal to create an impact among the students. So, for applying, we had to submit a 60 secs of video of what we would do if selected as DSC Lead. After 40–50 takes, a decent video was made and was uploaded in my Youtube Channel. Then, I carefully jotted down all the future plannings I had done to grow the tech community in my college.
After applying, I started waiting for a reply as to whether I was selected in the second round or not. In the meantime, our semester exams were about to start. I was preparing for my exams in a full swing and one fine day, the notification buzzed and the mail said “You are selected for the second round”. I was happy but as the Interview date came near I got really tensed.
When I got the call, the interviewer asked me about myself, what insights I have in life, what projects I have been doing and what are my plans to run the Developer Students Club in my institute. I answered them all.
Finally, the D-day arrived. I was travelling and could not check my mails regularly. When I sat in the night to check all my mails, I saw the mail of selection.
Hurrah!!!!! My happiness knew no bounds. And this is how my journey started.
The Journey of 1 year which changed my life:
Soon after the DSC Summit( which I could not attend unfortunately), we got details of our activities. Now, since this was supposed to be the first Developer Students Club of our college, I had to gather up individuals who were to be part of the Core Team. The procedure started and selected individuals were onboarded. Then began the process of making our classmates and juniors aware of the Club. Thus, the info session. We organised a 2 hours info session for the 1st Year students in which we would give an introduction to what a DSC does and what the students can gain from it. It turned out to be an interactive session in which we saw even the attendees participate and share their ideas.
Then began the holidays. A community cannot stay inactive in a holiday. So, started the most hyped online event named “GCP Crash Course”. This went on for the entire month of October and we saw at-least 500 students participating. The students kept on working towards completing at-least 1 track, some of them completed 3 of them too.
The month of November saw the ExploreML session. In the beginner session, we discussed about pretty basic ML stuffs and to our wonder, the students could grab them quite easily(Intelligent people!!!). This followed by some sessions on Github, Tensorflow, Flutter etc.
In the month of January, in collaboration with Progate, we organised a 7-days long workshop on Web Development named Week of Learning. By the end of the workshop, we organised a Hackathon in which the attendees would make a Website based on the them provided to them. The websites were marvellous and I kind of consider this as an achievement.
Then we organised several other workshops on Machine Learning, Cryptography, Ethical Hacking and several other technologies which might help them shape their future.
We had several plans to organise many more sessions in the month of March and April but due to the on-going pandemic, that plan had to come to a halt.
Perks of being a DSC Lead:
The main perk of being in a large community as DSC is that you get to interact with lots and lots of like-minded people. The way you connect with them and interact with them is beyond words.
Another perk is you get to create an impact in the tech world. The fact that you could influence students to take up technology or work with it is great in itself.
Chance to attend Google I/O:
Google I/O is a dream come true for every engineering student across the world. If you are a DSC Lead, you get the chance to attend Google I/O with free ticket. Unfortunately, this year Google I/O was cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
Upskills Session:
As an appreciation to the efforts of DSC Leads, we got the opportunity to interact with many talented Googlers who gave us wonderful sessions.
Cons of being a DSC Lead:
You happen to experience a wonderful phase of your life .
“Ab zyada khusi jiban k liye hanikarak hain!!!!” -Debanjona Bhattacharjya
Lets end it……
In a nutshell, Developer Students Club in a wonderful initiative by Google Developers. This experience taught me that no matter how noob you are or from which college you belong to, if you are enthusiastic and determined enough to make a change ,you can definitely do it. I expect a lot of students to be enthusiastic and opt for it.
See our activities in our website as well as our Facebook Page:
Website: http://www.dscsit.co/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dscsitsiliguri/
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Feel free to connect with me over LinkedIn.
