Hello everyone! My name is Praduman and I am going to share my first-week experience after becoming part of the Kalvium Community at LPU. As an average middle-class boy, I always had a dream to work in a big multinational company and get good placements with good packages in the field of Computer Science Engineering. During my search for undergraduate colleges and universities and researching their placement packages and quality of education. I came across Kalvium. I tried to research more about it and got to know that they are providing work experience along with academic education from the second year onwards. This, in turn, makes students adapt to work culture early in their careers. I also learnt that they have industry-experienced mentors who will be teaching the students. As a result, I became excited about becoming a part of this program!
As clearly seen in today’s era, most students don’t get to learn from experienced mentors and have an opportunity to get internships from the second year itself. So, I became very excited and registered myself for the Kalvium program. As part of the eligibility criteria, I had to clear the KQ Challenges. I believe this is for the mentors to check my skills and potential. It was for the first time that I experienced a test which checks time management, creativity, and coding skills rather than asking students questions which everyone just memorises for the sake of the test.
I never thought that I was giving an entrance test as it was fun and worth doing. The Draw the Turtle Challenge especially stood out for me as it checks our coding skills as well as one’s mental skills which require us to draw figures by just using commands. After a few days of submitting all the challenges, I got a call from a mentor at Kalvium and got to know that I had performed exceptionally well and was one of the 3% of the applicants that successfully cleared the Challenges!
After getting selected, I was frequently contacted by the Kalvium faculty so that I can get familiar with the faculty and mentors. They also organised various webinars and workshops so that the students can get familiar with the coding languages and get to meet the other students who will be studying and working together for the rest of the 4 years of the course. Fast forwarding to the day of the induction, I expected my daily schedule to be very hectic as we were expected to work hard to be skillfully ready to be worthy of the internship opportunities from the second year itself. However, I was proven wrong as the daily schedule was customised in a way that the student doesn’t feel tired and is involved in the active learning process.
On the first day, I met all my coursemates and Kalvium mentors. One thing I noticed was that all our mentors were as enthusiastic and excited about everything as the students; a rare sight in today’s education system. This helped me and many other students to adapt to the new part of our life with positive energy. In our traditional education system, we are made to rote learn everything instead of learning it by heart and implementing it. During our induction, our mentors cleared one thing, everyone will be calling them by their name rather than using “Sir/Mam”. This made us feel more open with them. We were told to start adapting to the work culture of the big MNCs. Our mentors told us more about the vision of Kalvium, about themselves, and the “Four Pillars of the Kalvium Community,” which are,
- Have a Growth Mindset
- Respect each other
- Improve the World
- Have Empathy for each other
From these four pillars, I learnt a lot about Kalvium and what are the qualities that I need to improve in myself. The induction concluded with students and mentors learning about each other. As I went to my hostel, I was satisfied with my decision to join Kalvium! And then came the first day of classes. I was really excited and also had mixed feelings about everything, but, after attending the sessions I felt completely involved in the learning process and interacting with the mentors as well as my classmates. I got so involved in the learning process that I forgot about the lunch break as it was the first time, I saw the uniqueness and the student-friendly schedule which increased our productivity and learning ability.
The program is divided into live classes and self-paced learning where you have to study by yourself. Our mentors had already provided us with all the study materials with very easy explanations and they went to each student to help them if they had any problems. As the day came to an end, our mentors asked for feedback from the students through which they can improve upon themselves and their way of teaching and how things are scheduled. This was helpful for the mentors as well as the students as we can interact with each other and solve problems together.
The next day, I slowly progressed from knowing nothing to having more than the basic knowledge of Front-End Web Development and designing a UI for the web as well as Android. Before joining the Kalvium program, I was a shy person that always used to stay away from people and avoid communicating with them in English. I never felt confident about the language. However, my mentors and friends have supported me on every step to stand up and speak confidently. It has helped boost my confidence which has been a key improvement in my social skills. The classes and assignments have been customised in a way which makes me improve my learning skills. The teaching methodology has helped me learn new skills and languages quickly and efficiently. Our mentors always provide us with feedback on every assignment which has helped me improve immensely.
As the classes went on and slowly the first week came to an end, it still feels like I joined the Kalvium program yesterday only! In the end, I want to thank all mentors from the Kalvium Community who have helped me from day one. I never regretted joining Kalvium as it continues to provide me with experience and skills. Thinking about the program, I and my parents are very confident that joining Kalvium has been the best decision and together we have a bright future ahead!
– Praduman Kachhwaha