Stories from the Road: “The Journey”

By Satyajit Dattagupta

Going back home and recruiting for the University of Rochester has been a great learning experience for me. I was in India and Nepal on the “CIS India Tour” during the month of October and met some outstanding students. University of Rochester attracts some of the best and brightest students in the country. Traveling across the country, from Mumbai to Kolkata and Chennai to New Delhi, I met over six-hundred students and had many interesting conversations.

One of those interesting conversations happened with a student who had traveled all the way from a small village in Tamil Nadu to meet me in Mumbai. He took a bus from his village to a nearby town, a train from the town to the city and then flew in to Mumbai. The combined journey was over 24 hours. An ambitious student, he told me about his years spent in the village and the resources (or the lack of) at his disposal. He wants to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering and come back to India to help his father with his business by writing software, eventually creating jobs in his village. We had a long discussion about my journey as an international student in the United States. His desire to study at an esteemed university has kept him motivated and he has not taken no for an answer. In this world where technology is a given, it was refreshing to meet a student who checks email once a week and is making it happen without the luxuries that we all take for granted. His passion for learning and positive attitude made this conversation memorable; one that I will always remember.

The University of Rochester is a place for students like him who want to pursue their passion for learning. I look forward to meeting such students during my travels in the future.

Satyajit Dattagupta
Director of Enrollment Communications