Experience at Anant Fellowship- The Interview

You must have learnt about me in the last post and the application process for Anant Fellowship...

The process rolled on as I cleared the technical interview round which was rather a confidence check on how I will be able to work under pressure, the hectic class schedule and the assignments to manage the grades. Next, I had to clear the personal interview round. This was the time when I had to let them know face to face about who I am and why I want to join the fellowship. The panel probed what would keep me going in the fellowship, how I would work in various situations, inquired about my projects, my family background,.etc.

The interview was held in the University itself. I took advantage of the fact to have a look at the class and what goes on there. It was impressive with the informal class structure and the teaching method. A diverse cohort sitting together understanding and discussing what Plato and Aristotle did for the built environment, perhaps. Though I didn’t understand a bit of what was going on, I appreciated the way it was conducted.

Speaking to the batch of 2019, to be honest, I was confused if they were happy or not. Many faces weren’t happy, which made me pause and think that something didn’t seem to go well with the programme. I was on my personal search of whether this is exactly what I am looking for or not. So I took the chance of reaching out to the fellows to inquire more. They shared how the programme has led them to self reflect and question everything around them with all perspectives, leaving them in thoughts. It has made them realize the necessity to delve deeper into the challenge and work on it.

It was experiential to be at the first design university though I didn’t admire the protruding orange steal framework everywhere. Nevertheless, having completed all the processes I returned to Dehradun.

Dehradun

It was probably within 2 weeks I received a response. It stated they would further like to know about me. I was disappointed initially not being able to make it but relieved of being able to get another opportunity. I would thank the ex- fellows at Anant for this because of the sense of friendly connections I developed with them. Hence I went through another round of an interview through skype.

The result was informed with a congratulatory and an acceptance letter in February. It was a moment of celebration for being able to get through such a programme. Having cleared all the rounds I soon applied for the 100% need-based scholarship as well. All this was a quick process. Meanwhile, I kept on communicating with a few ex-fellows to know about their journeys.

The fellowship programme commenced in the year 2017 and is a fairly new programme. I didn’t want to be a sample for them. So I continued the background research which involved speaking to the people associated with the similar domain and checking the faculty profile, linked universities with progamme and all. This must-have gone on and on for a few months until I was rejected for the 100% scholarship. Though I received an 80% scholarship I still had to pay 20% which amounted to 2 lakhs. This took me aback as I didn’t want to bother my family spending more money on my education. I had to chart out a different way or otherwise drop the course.

It was in August ( a month before the fellowship began) I started with the crowdfunding campaign on Ketto’s platform. A one month campaign aimed to raise two lakhs. The campaign itself felt like a fellowship to me. It was then I perhaps understood what the programme could be like. With the help of my sister, friends, and awesome supporters I continued running the campaign for a month. This campaign brought me closer to an audience who are new to the built environment. I explained to them what is a fellowship, what is a built environment and why am I doing it (all about being a solutionary). People on seeing my work came forward and supported me full-heartedly. Their support helped me raise INR 73,786 within a month and this makes me always thankful to them.

Woof! Finally, the day to start the course came and the journey began on September 3, 2019.

Did the programme match my expectations? Did I make the right choice? I will surely share more about that in my next post.

Feel free to drop me a Hi or connect with me to share your fellowship experience. :)