Squirrel’s world; My ScholarX journey #1
By: Sachini Senevirathne
Tags: Sustainable Education, Scholarx2021, Journey, Şef, Mentoring

The squirrel in me recognizes the squirrel in you!

Photo by pixabay

Hi there, I am a squirrel lover. Whenever I see them I think of myself as a little squirrel, looks for ways to save something up for tomorrow.🐿️Currently, I am a second-year undergraduate at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, pursuing my BSc Special degree in the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

This is the first article I’m going to share with you guys on my ScholarX journey so far.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Sustainable Education Foundation for giving me this amazing opportunity to explore the Academia Iceberg.

Source: SEF

What is ScholarX?

Founded by Sustainable Education Foundation, ScholarX is a 6-month program for Sri-Lankan undergraduates who would like to get free premium mentoring during their study period. Successful undergraduates will gain access to mentoring from some of the foremost experts and outstanding talent from around the world in both Industry and Academia. The ScholarX program also helps connect Sri Lankans across the globe and creates a platform that allows those living abroad to contribute directly to students and the Sri Lankan education system. The aim is to create a sustainable flow of knowledge back into Sri Lanka and help fill some of the void left by the country’s brain drain. (Source, SEF)

How did I get this opportunity?

Source: SEF

I am a person, would love to play with ideas.🩺Due to the current pandemic situation as everyone else, I was at home searching for ways to get out of my monotonous life.

💡One day, something happened that I had been searching for a long time. Guess what!? A path to broaden my horizons! Thanks to someone who is keeping an ear to the ground, Sankalpa Fernando. A few weeks later an email appeared “We have a Match!”😃💃

A chance happened once in a blue moon. I just felt incredibly lucky to be a mentee under leading experts around the world in academia and Industry. And here I am!

Who is my mentor?

☘️My mentor is Dr. Jayeni Hiti Bandaralage, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland Australia. She is a plant biotechnologist specialized in plant tissue culture and microbiology. She has developed the World's first meristem tissue culture platform for Avocado rootstocks. Moreover, She engages in commercial protocol development of Cacao, Duboisia species, and Cannabis.

What have I gained so far?

✨I was really excited and had been preparing for the meeting for a few days since it was a great opportunity that an undergraduate can experience once in their lifetime.

I think I learned more than I expected from the first meeting with my mentor. And that’s when I got to know my other three mentees. I would like to take this chance to appreciate her commitment to back us up with her busy schedule.

📌In the meeting, there were some interesting topics that I believe every undergraduate should keep on the table. Research communication is one of them. Most of us don’t pay more attention to those areas due to a lack of proper communication platform setup. Moreover, she explained the things we should consider more when we tackle international stuff.

📌Question the right thing at the right time. Sometimes it is a major weakness that I still try to get rid of. Search for more opportunities and try to understand where we have gone wrong. Because we are repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

As Dr. Jayeni advised, Sankhanie, Manura, Sakunthala, and I started to work as a team and hope to tell you more about it in my next chapters.

Even in the second meeting, I realized how much I was blinded by my own thoughts and expectations. Some of them were not even measurable and I was like running around in circles. I felt a little bit disappointed in myself and wanted to correct those things because it is not the world I have imagined 10 years ago.

Stay tuned for my next post!

Cheers!!