Alumni
Sidhant Sharma
Alumnus, International College of Manitoba
Sidhant Sharma is an alumnus of the International College of Manitoba (ICM) in Canada who graduated from ICM in 2016 before completing his undergraduate degree with our university partner, the University of Manitoba.
“Honestly, my life would not have been the same had I not come to ICM. ICM helped set me up for success the moment I got to university, and after. I was confident going into university, I felt settled into the Canadian society and I knew I’d formed a circle that I could continue to grow with within the university world and the outside world.”
Transcript
ICM helped set me up for success the moment I got to university and after.
My name is Sidhant Sharma. The Navitas’ college that I chose was the International College in Manitoba and I graduated from the UTP Stage Two program in 2016.
What is one of your favourite memories during your time at Navitas?
Honestly, there are so many memories to choose. One of my favourite memories is celebrating Holi with the entire student council. We had food, we had colours, a lot of people had never seen the Indian celebration earlier and all of them came. There was music, there was dancing, and I got to have a good time with so many of my good friends and I am friends with them to this date. And I always hold that memory close to my heart.
How has studying at Navitas made an impact on your life and that of your family?
Honestly, my life wouldn’t have been the same had I not come to ICM, and I know that sounds like a cliche. ICM helped set me up for success the moment I got to university and after. I was confident going into university, I felt settled into the Canadian society and I knew I’d formed a circle that I could continue to grow with within the university world and outside. And especially coming here as an international student, my parents were concerned about whether I’ll be able to settle in society all alone. And knowing that I had the support systems here that I’d formed myself gave them a lot of confidence and allowed me to expose myself to new scenarios.
What have you achieved in your life and career since graduating?
I’m someone who always likes to expose myself to new challenges. The moment I graduated, the one thing I was certain about was I knew I wanted to go for a job within technology, but I didn’t want to hit the job boards and I didn’t want to apply to LinkedIn, Indeed, none of that. I had created a good professional circle for myself, and I said ‘I will reach out to those people’ and I want someone to say ‘I trust you’ and I have the opportunity to prove that trust for them.
That’s exactly what I did. One of the companies I had formed a good connection with during my time at the Business School here, I reached out to them, let them know I’m looking for a job. We had one phone call. Four days after I had a job offer. That’s to say, I was very happy with how the entire university experience had shaped me. And I still continue to work within that role today. I’ve been very privileged to grow into a leadership role since then, and that was something I’d always wanted to do.
So I’m just about three years out of my undergrad career. I have a leadership experience now within the corporate world. I have led a national not-for-profit that focuses on business students across Canada and I’m also currently doing an MBA from Queen’s University at the moment.
What advice would you have for new students entering a Navitas program?
The advice I would give any new student that’s entering the Navitas program is: believe in yourself. Another one of those cliches. But that’s something I find international students do well, which is discount themselves because they know they have a lot of challenges when they move to this country.
Quite frankly, there are a lot of challenges, but the sheer amount of resilience international students have, considering they move to a new country – they have so much to offer and what they should be doing is exposing themselves to each and everything that they can potentially do. You might realise you fail at something, you might realise you’re not good at something, but that experience plays an integral role in shaping who you are. That was something I personally tried and I did everything I possibly wanted to: exchange, co-op, debate, anything I could set my eyes on, I said I wanted to do it. You never know who else is looking at you and you might be someone else’s inspiration.
So anything you see and even if it crosses your mind, you might be scared, you might be nervous. Go do it. You will eventually learn something from it and it’s going to come in handy later down in life.