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have you been bullied have you failed
your tests do you feel like no one
understands you if you answered yes to
any of the above questions then let me
tell you in the next 10 minutes you are
going to discover why these can become
your biggest opportunities today I want
to take you through my own journey of
obstacles and how just beneath the
surface were also some of the biggest
opportunities that changed my life
the year was 2013 I was 20 and
volunteering one evening with a few
homeless children in Mumbai they were
about the same age of you so I asked one
of the kids what he wanted to be when he
grew up and he said he wanted to be a
pilot for a homeless boy without any
financial means growing up in a place
where I come from it's almost impossible
to achieve his dreams you see I was born
and brought up in India where I saw a
lot of poverty and kids who were forced
to beg on the streets and this made me
question my privileges a lot I started
wondering how I could make a difference
in their lives and how could more kids
like him go to school where we don't
have access to free education or free
higher education so I started
researching countries I could go to to
bring the best ways of making education
more accessible in India and this quest
brought me to the United Kingdom
specifically Glasgow where I enrolled
for a master's degree and where I
started learning more about the local
community being away from my parents in
a country where I didn't know anyone was
indeed difficult I had to manage to do
my coursework along with my own cooking
and my own laundry jokes aside it was a
challenging year mainly because of the
stress of not wanting to fail my exams
but also because I was running out of
time
to find a job that could sponsor my work
visa so that I could have more time in
this country to find solutions to make
education more accessible back in India
so I spent an entire year of constantly
applying for jobs whilst I was also
doing my master's degree a few months
after I finished my degree and with not
much luck with the job or visa
sponsorship I was booking my flights to
India just I was about to press book and
email popped up
it was a ten-minute web interview slot
with a company in London to see if they
could offer me an internship I got the
internship and due to hard work my
four-month internship turned into a
full-time job with a sponsored visa so
here I was straight out of university in
a city I didn't have any friends in
working at a technology company with no
background in computer science I was
also the youngest at that company the
next person who was young after me was
literally double my age and I was the
only female which is very common in
science engineering and technology
fields adding to the perception that
these are male only fields but as I
struggled to fit in I continued doing
one thing I always found hope in
volunteering it was through volunteering
that I was able to overcome some of my
biggest obstacles and also find some of
my biggest opportunities for example
because I was the only female at work I
decided to organize three public science
lectures inviting women scientists and
technologists to talk about their
research and so that I could also share
our experiences of working in a male led
sector so as I started reaching out to
scientists on Twitter the power of
social media if used correctly can be
worth changing I started coming across
various organizations in the UK
young people just like you to be able to
achieve and run their own projects for
example one such program was Otis think
big program aimed at 16 to 25 year olds
helping them with skills and finances I
got some funding to run my free public
science lectures and along the way I met
other young leaders that the program
also helped and I was amazed to see how
these young people used the barriers
they faced and turned them into
successful projects for example one of
the young people I met was in nineteen
year old from Leeds she was on the verge
of homelessness but because of this
program she started an organization that
ran creative writing workshops for the
homeless so what happened next I decided
to make a documentary to show off these
incredible young people one of the
people that I featured in my documentary
was an 11 year old from South London he
was a self-taught programmer but he had
also been diagnosed with Tourette's
syndrome
so he started organizing free coding
classes for his local community and his
coding classes were autism and
Tourette's friendly and after he was
spotted at my documentary screening he
went on to win the very first Princess
Diana Award for his work so due to my
volunteering and this documentary I was
invited to meet Prince Harry in April
twenty eighteen I had the chance to give
him advice on how he could empower young
people across the Commonwealth which was
pretty cool all this due to my
volunteering initiatives and just trying
to overcome my obstacles I was also
featured on the Forbes Asia 30 and 30
list the Financial Times top hundred
ethnic minorities in tech and I had an
invitation to speak at the European
Commission I now continue using these
owners to create more projects for young
people such as yourselves so that I can
also bring them these
but let me remind you as a young person
growing up in India I didn't have any
special connections in the UK all I did
was try and find ways to overcome my
obstacles from making short films to
contacting people on social media I
didn't know and this led to so many
opportunities coming my way
so do you do all of these volunteering
initiatives which I did outside of my
day job I was offered a new job at an
education technology company however a
year into my new role things seem to
work out and I had to leave that job but
now I had only two months left to be in
the UK to find a new company that could
sponsor my new work visa and if I didn't
I had to go back home so here I was
again day and night applying for jobs
being rejected again this time did more
experience on my CV but the same hurdle
of visa sponsorship so I had no hope
left until one day someone mentioned
that there was a new visa introduced in
the UK in 2015 it was called the
exceptional talent visa for people in
the digital field at first I thought
there was no way someone like me who has
barely three and a half years of work
experience was going to be a recipient
of this visa when you have no other
option your only option is to give it
your all so I spent the next month that
I had left in this country working on my
application I wrote a personal statement
basically stating what I wanted to do in
the UK I collected all the evidence that
I could of my work and my volunteering
experience in the digital field and I
reached out to all of my contacts which
I had built over the years as I was
volunteering so that they could write a
recommendation letter for me so I
submitted all of these documents and the
day after I left the UK not knowing if I
will ever be able to come back to this
country but the only thought I had was
that I failed to help those students in
India I wanted to because in the time
that I was here I couldn't
find any solutions to make education
more accessible back in India and that I
would have to rebuild my entire life in
India whilst losing the life work and
connections I built in the UK it was now
2019 a few days later I got an email
from the Home Office basically stating
the outcome of my submission my heart
was thinking as I opened that email and
it said that I had been endorsed in the
exceptional talent category so I started
my visa process and three weeks later I
was back in the UK this time with four
job offers and all this due to the power
of volunteering and the beyond the work
experience I had but the biggest gift
and surprise of all of it was that as
soon as I got back a few months later I
found an organization that gives
scholarships to underprivileged students
in India to go to university and the
founder happens to be based in London so
now I'm joining hands with them and
helping more students access education
opportunities in India after six years
of an emotional journey and hard work I
finally set out to do what I wanted to
but you might be sitting there wondering
I can't relate to her she's from the
other side of the world
she works in a big city she has a job
and you're right I don't wear your shoes
but I do know one thing that we all have
in common it's that no matter where you
come from live or go we all these
obstacles but if you just flipped the
coin you would notice that it's an
opportunity knocking on your door to
change yours and others lives so as I
help more students in India access
education I'm also helping and working
on projects that can empower young
people here for example last year I had
the chance to volunteer at Winchester
University with beast John Foundation
every year in March they invite Nobel
Peace Laureate to speak to young people
like you and you can also participate in
social action workshops
throughout the weekend now this is an
opportunity for you in the audience that
to start making links this is right at
your doorstep so go out and start
researching more and see if you can be
involved with this and I want you all to
know that sometimes when you feel like
the world around you is collapsing or
that every door is closing on you that's
when you should know that the region
universe is actually just preparing you
to take off for a life-changing
adventure because every challenge is an
opportunity every hurdle is a chance to
become better and every mistake helps
you grow and I just want to leave you
all with this one quote which really
inspires me and I hope that it can
inspire you as well and it says you will
always be too much of something for
someone too big too loud too soft too
edgy if you round out your edges you
lose your edge apologize for mistakes
apologize for hurting someone and
intentionally profusely but don't ever
apologize for being who you are thank
you
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