Life in a Foreign University:

From a Haryana village to pursuing PhD in Poland, student shares how he evolved

Ankit belongs to a small village in Haryana. He decided to do a PhD and started looking for opons in India and abroad. He came across the University of Wroclaw, Poland which provides a spend to students pursuing PhD from the university He shares his journey and tells us why Poland is an underratedcountry. Being from a small village named Surjanwas, in the Mahendragarh district of Haryana to Wroclaw in Poland, I underwent a huge transformaon both on a personal front and academically From trying to fit in during college to making a place for myself, it has been a long but worthwhile journey.

I was a district topper in Class 12 and like most meritorious students, I was ecstac to join a well-reputed college for my undergraduate studies. It was 2011, and I got admission to BSc Mathemacs (Hons) at Hansraj College at Delhi University However,myexperience in college did not turn out how I imagined it would. I was finding it difficult to adapt to city life, make friends and focus on my studies. As a result in my final year, I failed twice so instead of graduang in 2014, I graduated in2016.

Aer graduang in 2016, I was geng admission to two colleges —

A z i m P r e m j i U n i ve rs i t y i n Bengaluru and Tata Instute of Social Science, Mumbai. I chose to study in the former. During that period, I understood the concept of mental health and my doctors helped me idenfy that I was dealing with anxiety I was finally able to understand the problem andworktowardsit.

Lifeaergraduaon

In 2018, aer compleng my post graduaon, I got placed in Kerala

State Poverty Eradicaon Mission

— Kudumbashree on a contractual basis It helped me a lot in improving my communicaon skills as my job was to spread awareness about the funconing of the panchayat system in Kerala to panchayatmembersinTripura.Ile my job in March 2020 due to the Covid-19pandemic.

During my sabbacal, I pondered over what else I could do. I started preparing for UGC-NET and gave the exam for social work and fortunately,IclearedJRF However,I wanted to pursue a PhD Inially, I thought of pursuing higher studies in India but a PhD in Social Work does not hold much value in this country It is similar to a Master's in SocialWork.

I searched for PhD opportunies in Europe as the USA was beyond my budgetandanywhereinAsiawould have been similar to India. During