Being a GHCI scholar!
GHCI (Grace Hopper Celebration India), Asia’s largest gathering of all Women in Technology. I can never forget the time that I’ve spent during those three days in Bangalore.
GHCI is hosted by AnitaB.org where all the women technologists connect, network and collaborate with each other. The most important and interesting parts of GHCI is the career fair, especially for students like me.
I have received the scholarship from AnitaB.org to attend GHCI for the three days which include amazing conferences and a career fair where many companies participate looking for eligible candidates.
So how did I apply for the GHCI scholarship?
I already applied for the scholarship in my third year of B.tech, but it was rejected at that time. Later this year in 2019, I applied for it again through their website and got selected :)
Candidates would be shortlisted based on the answers given by them and how passionate they are towards learning and achieving their goals.
This is one way to attend the conference, another way is through poster submissions like some of my friends did or one can always pay and register by yourself if they can afford.
GHCI’19 experience:
I reached Bangalore the same day on November 6th at 10 AM and we were provided accommodation in Holiday Inn which is thirty minutes far from BIEC where the conference is being held. They have provided travel reimbursement as well and all those reimbursement, check-in formalities were completed by 12 PM. We were also provided with shuttles from the hotel to conference.
The first day of GHCI is all about welcome, KeyNote sessions and a lot of networking at the conference as well as the hotel. My roommate was quite awesome and we have become good friends as if we have known each other since forever.
The second day had sessions on AI (Artificial Intelligence), Networking lunches, Mentoring sessions and many more. Some sessions required pre-registration and some didn’t. We were provided with an application specially made for GHCI which was quite helpful to know about our sessions, speakers and maintain our schedule. It had an notification alert option for every session which was very helpful for me. And most importantly PlugO team, my saviors has also provided a powerbank when I found my battery dead.
The third day is all about career fair. To be honest, there are so many companies where one can register themselves for career opportunities. Some companies like American Express, EY had on-spot interviews as well which I missed as I reached the conference center late that day and our shuttle has already left. But one can always inquire about the opportunities at their booths, they are always ready to help. I interacted with so many employees of different companies and got a lot of goodies as well for playing some games. I also got an opportunity from Microsoft, Google, Expedia and other companies after the event. So, the most important part for students in GHCI according to me is the career fair (make the most of it).
For the first time ever, GHCI is going to be virtual this year. Please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn (Pratyusha Thumiki), Twitter (ID: PratyushaRaj)or any other platform and I would be happy to provide more information about the event.