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Why apply to The Knowledge Society?

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 //This post was a part of my 2022 Application for The Knowledge Society for its Global Virtual Program 

 Why do you want to be in TKS?


I want to interact with people who are directing their actions towards solving problems and coming up with solutions. It is important for me to be surrounded with people who have a similar mindset because growing up in a lower middle class family, it was expected from me to accept the financial problems that my family had to face with my father being unemployed a majority of my childhood. To not let despair creep in, I turned my mind away from such distressing situations in which I felt helpless, to devote myself to my school curriculum. Though it helped me to work rigorously for academic growth, I had developed the habit of living in denial whenever a problem cropped up that was not related to my academics, a problem that could not be solved through submitting a paper.  I had labelled my role in society strictly as a student, keeping my head kept down towards books. But lately I have begun questioning that strict stereotype I have molded myself around. I have started questioning what it truly means to be a student. I do not want to become a person that shrugs when they see a logical problem, expecting the authorities to clear the way. If I do grow into the mindset, I would always be walking the way others have cleared for me as I would be too scared to pave my own. Though lack of financial stability puts pressure on me to work towards a stable job in a competitive world, I don’t want to lose my inquisitive mindset so that I can build a home and focus on sole survival. I want to nurture a strong mindset for taking challenges so that I do not shy away from what life has to offer, positive or negative. I want to keep my quest for knowledge alive because it truly is the most liberating process that I have ever been a part of. The knowledge society is modeled after the learning environment of Silicon Valley. The skills I could learn through the program would help transfer them to my future workplace, so that my present drive for innovation can shape my career. Thus, my dreams as a student would transform to goals for my future self. With a majority of my peers working towards their careers because it is expected by their families, it is important that I am surrounded with peers of my own age working towards innovation, so that in times when I feel stuck at a difficult problem, I am aware that I am not alone in working towards a better future.



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