Bertelsmann Data Science Scholarship Program - A Ray Of Hope
Sometimes a ray of hope is all the sunshine you need.
Back to where it(My interest in Machine Learning and Data Science)all started. Two years back, when we were asked to present a technical topic of our choice in college, I started surfing. I happen to have come across Machine Learning which made me wonder what it is. I researched more on the topic and eventually, I fell in love with that in the process. I loved the idea to do a Masters in Data Science but keeping my economic status in mind, I had to drop the idea.
Fast forward to the time three months before the scholarship results. One fine day I’ve seen the message about Bertelsmann Data Science Scholarship on WhatsApp. I applied to it having no idea of how important it would be for me. I completely forgot about that after. Meanwhile, I was trying not to get carried away by other things and focus on my one true love(Data Science).
So I attended a workshop on Data Science along with few of my friends. There was a Hackathon at the end of the workshop. My friends stood out with top second and third positions among 50 teams where I was among the rest who failed to win. Later I attended an Interview for an Internship related to Data Science. Guess what? I failed again after reaching the final round. I joined a 7-day course also after this which was of not much use. They taught the content which I already knew from my surfing and stuff.
That was the time when I decided to break up with Data Science and start preparing for my campus placements(I’m in my final year of graduation). It was hard but I managed to start doing that. Only two days later something happened which changed my mind to patch up with my love. Yeah, You guessed that right. I got selected for Phase 1, My happiness was beyond limits. This scholarship came to me like a Ray of Hope.
Frankly speaking, I was a bit afraid that I wouldn’t make it up to the top 10% (who gets the actual scholarship) after joining the forum and private slack group. I was a Social Media Introvert then. I wondered how people could be so actively participating in discussions from the very first day. It took a week of time for me to start involving in these things. That introvertedness of mine got faded away from this journey of the past two and half months with the course.
Everything changed from then. I started doing things which I have never done before, which made me feel confident and gave me a push to go ahead. I started solving challenges on hackerrank after someone suggesting me from the course.
Coming to the community, I made some really cool friends who are just amazing. You know what, I got selected as Student Leader for the most active channel on the slack group(Proud Moment)! So much valuable information is being shared every day on these platforms. Many are out there from across the world ready to help, which is encouraging. Few of them share resources, while few others share motivating write-ups and YouTube videos.
I learned many things through this scholarship. These are the highlights. My communication skills got better. My coding skills are far better than when I started. I feel confident now. I started taking things which I don’t want to do as Challenges and getting better at them.
My entire experience with Udacity in short.
Udacity is Fun with Learning.
Yippee, I did it. I finished writing my first blog. I wanna end this with a Quotation.
A little Belief, a little Faith, a little Hope is sometimes all that is needed to see the light.
Do give a clap or two if you liked my story or if you want to support me.
