This series highlights Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who achieved the Gold milestone and have recently graduated from university. Each blog features a different student and highlights their accomplishments, their experience with the Student Ambassadors community, and what they’re up to now.
Today we’d like to introduce Shadrack Inusah who is from Ghana and recently graduated from Dominion University College.
Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
When you joined the Student Ambassadors community in 2019, did you have specific goals you wanted to reach, such as a particular skill or quality? What were they? Did you achieve them? How has the community impacted you in general?
I had the specific goals to build my programming skills mostly on the Microsoft .NET framework and to build my communication, event organizing, and mentorship skills. I am excited I achieved them and more. In addition, my participation in the program has built my confidence in general, and I believe I am now a better lead in the community.
What are the accomplishments that you’re the proudest of and why?
I held virtual events at schools without any students in the Student Ambassadors community and was excited when it resulted in incremental Ghanaian student participation in the program. This year, I mentored students from 3 different schools. My approach was first to contact the student lead or president of the computer science or information technology department to talk to them briefly about the Student Ambassador community. They would introduce me to the faculty heads, and then I would pick it from there. I always made sure most of the students interested in the program applied immediately after my event with them. The events have each had 50+ attendees, and I have so far directly contributed to the addition of no fewer than 100+ students from my country to the community. To encourage communication and collaboration, I created a private channel for Ghanaian Student Ambassadors in Teams and a public Twitter platform.
Another accomplishment is the speaker opportunity I had during the .NET Conference 2020, a free, three-day, virtual developer event that celebrates the major releases of the .NET development platform. It is co-organized by the .NET community and Microsoft and sponsored by the .NET Foundation and ecosystem partners. I applied through a .NET community that I am a member of, and was privileged to be one of the 100+ speakers selected by the organizers. I was the only Student Ambassador among the other speakers. I spoke on the topic “Building NATIVE Android Applications with NET” and presented to 500+ attendees live. This was my first time speaking in a conference and to this huge number of attendees.
If you could redo your time with the Student Ambassadors community, is there anything you would have done differently?
I hosted many virtual events but would have hosted even more events to enable students from other institutions to participate, as well as those far from my local community. This is because “sharing is caring”, and I love to share what I learn with others.
What are you doing now that you’ve graduated?
I have been employed full-time at DreamOval Limited, a licensed West African fintech that processes and sends millions of transactions every day in different currencies (USD, EUR, GHS, ZWL) and across all payment channels. I am an IT/Compliance Assistance working with mostly Azure and Microsoft 365 services. I am putting my skills and lessons learned from the Student Ambassador community into my work while I look forward to greater opportunities in the future.
If you were to describe the community to a student who is interested in joining, what would you say about it to convince him or her to join?
I will tell any interested student that the community is a family that supports each other’s visions. There are mentorship opportunities for Student Ambassadors, as well as Learn TV and Microsoft Learn for students to upgrade their skills.
What advice would you give to new Student Ambassadors?
Remain focused on setting up your dream goals by joining League channels of your choice and getting certified by taking online courses on Microsoft Learn.
Do you have a motto in life, a guiding principle that drives you?
Determination and perseverance are what drive me in life. Growing up I had it in mind to become a software developer, and becoming a Student Ambassador is helping me move towards that dream.
What is one random fact few people know about you?
I am a good singer. I love to sing both Ghanaian and foreign songs. Here is my playlist: Hiplife/Hi-life/Gospel.
Best of luck to you, Shadrack!
Posted at https://sl.advdat.com/3AeJNfB