“I’m convinced that the only way to get ahead in this world is to live and sell dangerously. You’ve got to live beyond your means. You’ve got to commit yourself to an act or vision that pulls you further than you want to go and forces you to use your hidden strengths.” – John H. Johnson
It was during the mid of last October, during a very tired day after Prosthodontics Pre-clinics I came across the notification about AIUGC (All India Undergraduate Conference) by IDA, Chennai. As I always wanted to attend a scientific conference, reading this made me want to attend it but the dilemma was, I really had no idea how and what to present.
At that time my online ventures – My dental blog “Dental Dominion and the Facebook page both of which were created out of randomness were doing good and getting great response from students across the globe. This gave me an idea and I thought of making a report on it and came with this really lengthy title for my presentation “Use of Dental Informatics in general and internet and social networking sites in particular in gathering the dental students on a single platform and disseminating information among them – A report”.
I wasn’t so sure if my abstract would be allowed to sent by dean ma’m as mine was not a scientific paper at all but to my great surprise she read the entire abstract and gave me the green signal. Later on Abstract was accepted by the organisers and thus I was able to attend my very first national level dental conference from 2nd Dec – 4th Dec, 2011. Since it was HUES time in MCODS, so I had to go all alone, the time spent in Chennai was great and a memorable one. During interaction with many fellow dental students from different colleges I got to learn many things. During my presentation session I was amazed that most of the audience sitting there already knew me through my blog and page. It was a feeling of immense joy coming back to college with a certificate in my hands for the 1st place in paper presentation. When I prepared the abstract I was least expecting it be accepted by the panel but the confidence of my dean ma’m in me and the encouragement she gave me throughout made me want to do more, It is this little trust from my teachers and friends around me that motivates me to achieve more and never let them down.
Next reason to smile was to end up 3rd in the world among 2000 applicants from all around the world in the Campus Ambassador competition organised by iversity, a German academic website. It was yet another wonderful experience I was blessed with. Iversity is a German higher education course management platform which merges an online workplace and a social network. I started a dental study group in the website which soon attracted attention and thus I ended up being 3rd in the competition. Along with the prize money of 250 Euros, I was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation as well as a Recommendation letter from the CEOs of iversity. Details can be read on iversity’s blog.
Now recently in February I came to know about ESA (Elsevier Student Ambassador) Competition by the renowned publishers Elsevier. After clearing 3 round of a competitive online quiz (Based on Human Anatomy, Physiology and biochemistry), an essay and a 25 min interview over the phone, I was finally selected for the post, again I wasn’t expecting it, but I have a thing to go try out for everything without fearing the outcome. I read once that “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” and these lines are always on the back of mind. Right now I have little idea what Elsevier has in its bag for its ambassadors but I am really looking forward for another thrilling experience!
Here I must mention that these little achievements were impossible without the support of my batchmates,seniors, faculties and above all my Dean who was a constant source of inspiration for me throughout and has been guiding me in all my ventures. After coming to MCODS I have realized that some things are possible individually but sometimes we need the confidence and support of others around us to make us strive for more and MCODS has given me all that, without you all I would have been just a below average student sitting in the backbench doing practically nothing.
Long live MCODS, Manipal, my Alma matter, my newfound identity!
Kumar Anshul
2nd BDS
MCODS, Manipal
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