After receiving his undergraduate degree and having such a rewarding experience at Angelo State University,Shivam Pandey says it made sense to him to continue his educational development and pursue another degree right at the same university.“Well you know initially when I came here this was the first time that I came here to start my undergrad as a Computer Science major in August of 2001 and that was the first time I had ever come to the United States,” he says.
“So I was
kind of nervous about things as you would expect from anybody, but Texas West
Texas was a very welcoming community so I kind of felt right at home and just
basically work my way through and decided to get some business courses in as
well so I changed my major to MIS later on that way I got both sides you know
the technical and the business aspect of things,” he says.
“So that was pretty good and the professors
here they are pretty knowledgeable and the class sizes are small so you get
more one-on-one attention from the professors, so I really enjoyed my
undergraduate experience here which is why I figured that let’s just go for my
MBA as well.”
Shivam is from India.As he works towards his Masters Business Administration degree, he also has involved himself in campus activities, some related to his major and some that aren't technology related.“The university has a lot of different activities curriculum activities that students can join in specifically I have been involved with our international students association over here done that very closely and assisting in cultural programs and things like that,” he says.
“Also, took part in our computer science chapter over here association of computing machinery chapter here and the association of information technology local chapter over here.”
One experience like none other for Shivam since being at Angelo State
University is the one of college fraternities and sororities. “One of the
things I was kind of surprise to see when I came here was the whole fraternity
and sorority concept because we do not have anything like that back in
India.Not that I ever got involved in
one, but there are a couple of fraternities on campus that do excellent work in
the community,” he says.
“ I just happened to be tied up with Pi Mu Epsilon Association for Recent Technology Professionals and other student groups to never really get involved with a fraternity, but that was something that was new to me I haven’t really seen anything like that back home.”
Throughout his life, Shivam says his parents have always put education first which is what he is now doing for himself.“My mother is a college professor and my dad is a doctor. So our family places a lot of emphasis on education and just keep getting knowledge and keep learning throughout one’s life,” he says.“So it was kind of expected from me to take my education very seriously which I did and it was important enough for me to make a decision that I needed to leave my home country and study here so that I could get the kind of education that I really wanted for myself.”
Shivam
has one more semester left before he graduates.
He says that when it comes to receiving an education, there is no other
country that compares to studying in the United States.“I so firmly believe that the United States
doesn’t really have any other, basically what I am saying is that I don’t think
any other country comes even close as far as the college level and beyond, the education
system in the United States is concerned,” he says.
“The funding the opportunities you get, the kind of one-to-one attention you
can get from professors and also with all of the projects that we get assigned
here that have real life applications I don’t think any other country comes
even close.Some people have said the UK
(United Kingdom), but I really doubt that because I have applied to some
universities in the UK as well but I didn’t quite like them as much so I don’t
really think any other country comes close to the United States.