“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” – Nido Qubein
These words turned out to be meaningful for Hitesh Maurya when a sudden downfall in his health turned his life upside down. His continuous illness led him to shift his interest from Mechanical or Electrical Engineering to Biotechnology Engineering. This instance of his life laid the foundation stone of his new career beginning. Furthermore, his dedication and hard work turned fruitful for him in grabbing the AKANKSHA Scholarship that helped him to overcome the financial constraints.
Want to know more about his life experiences? Read below the excerpts from his interview with Buddy4Study, that will surely motivate you to stay positive in life and achieve the greatest heights of success.
Scholar Success Story – Hitesh Maurya, AKANKSHA Scholarship Winner
Buddy4Study: Share with us a brief background about your academic and professional journey (if any) until now.
Hitesh: I always dreamt of taking mechanical or electrical engineering in college, but I wasn’t sure about making it my career goal. Being a final year student of high school, all these courses seemed to me as a new domain. Due to certain health complications, I had to drop a year after high school. During that time, I realised the pain of chronic health issues. All these things led me to choose Biology as a career subject. I joined the course of Biotechnology Engineering at Maharishi Dayanand University in August 2017. Since it was a big change for me to move from a non-medical stream to medical stream, I did take time to accept it. However, I believe that sometimes a change can work out good for you.
Buddy4Study: What motivated you to pursue a course in Biotechnology Engineering?
Hitesh: The continuous suffering that I have been through during my illness became my motivation in choosing this career path.
Buddy4Study: What were the key challenges faced by you during the course of your journey to reach here?
Hitesh: One of the major challenges that I faced at the beginning of my journey was to find a path that I can follow with passion. Thereafter, it became very difficult for me to accept the drastic change of moving from non-medical stream to medical stream. Adding to this, my father had to quit his well-paying job due to his deteriorating health when I joined college. Since he was the only earning member of the family, we also had to face a financial crisis at that time.
Buddy4Study: Who has been your source of inspiration?
Hitesh: There are two people who inspire me – my father and Elon Musk. My father, being an underprivileged man from a village, having no higher education, managed to achieve so much in his life. Having an aspiration for growth & learning in daily life, he aims at making small improvements daily. Even though he had to quit his job, he did not give up completely. He is still trying his best as a LIC agent.
Elon Musk is a renowned technology entrepreneur. Everything about him inspires me.
Buddy4Study: How has your family supported you in your venture to pursue this course?
Hitesh: My family was highly supportive, especially my father. Despite the financial constraints that prevailed in my family, they never let me give up on my ambitions in life.
Buddy4Study: How did you come to know about the Akanksha Scholarship? What were the steps followed to avail the scholarship?
Hitesh: I came to know about Akanksha Scholarship by a student in my hostel. Then eventually, I applied for it through Buddy4Study website. After that, I appeared for a telephonic interview that resulted in my final selection for the scholarship.
Buddy4Study: What are your ambitions in the future and how do you plan to execute them?
Hitesh: My ambition for the future is to start my own company in the field of Biotechnology. Recently, I came to know about a government-run programme called Bioentrepreneurship which helps the aspirants to start their own company related to biotechnology.
Buddy4Study: Any piece of advice that you would like to impart to other potential aspirants who are constrained by various challenges towards pursuing higher education.
Hitesh: My advice to all other potential aspirants is that they should stay calm and patient in tough times. Whenever you come across any challenge, despite feeling lost, you should deal with it with the best that you can do and leave the rest on time. I believe, the problems that we face today, make us stronger and a better person for tomorrow.
Feeling motivated after reading the scholar success story of Hitesh Maurya? If yes, then start your search for a suitable scholarship on Buddy4Study and apply. There is a possibility that you can be the next successful scholar.