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SIU leader: Grab opportunities and challenge yourself

Saturday, October 11, 2008 11:03 PM CDT

The most important lesson that Shrivatsa Anand learned was from his father, a physician in India. That lesson: Grab every opportunity that you can, and make as much of each opportunity as possible.

"However, it took me a long time to learn this lesson," says Anand, president of the International Student Council at Southern Illinois University. He hails from Bangalore, India, and he is working on a double major in journalism advertising and economics since his SIU arrival in 2006.

In addition, he and a friend run a small business developing marketing campaigns, Websites, graphic design posters, and other advertising materials for businesses and campaigns. "When I graduate, I would like to do something in the global markets and international business," he says. "I may also pursue a master's degree in Europe."

For Anand, learning the importance of utilitizing opportunities was a gradual process. However, the lesson really "hit home" when he first set foot in America and came to SIU.

"That changed everything - my character, my intellectual grasp, and my purpose in life," he says. "It was at that moment that I realized I should have adopted this lesson even earlier in my life, when I was growing up in India."

Upon arriving at SIU, Anand saw all of the parties and other things that could potentially distract him from academics. However, he committed himself to serious study. One reason was that, while attending boarding school in India, he admits that he had a lot of fun.

"Bangalore is a city of almost seven million people, larger than Chicago," he says. "It has every modern attraction, including the clubs and the pubs." The boarding school was an international one, and he made friends with students from around the world. As such, by the time he came to SIU, Anand had most of the "partying" out of his system. "I was ready to get serious," he says.

These days, Anand utilizes his "opportunity philosophy" in his academic endeavors, his entrepreneurial activities, and his extracurricular activities. For example, if he is assigned a project in class, he wants to do more than just get a grade.

"I want to learn as much as I can while doing the project," he says. "Some students pick the easiest projects they can in order to get the 'easy A.'" Anand, on the other hand, often selects projects that are above his current intellectual ability so that is he forced to challenge himself.

"I think that, if I had learned this lesson as a child, I would probably be at Harvard University right now," he says.

However, Anand believes, it was probably a good thing that he didn't learn this lesson earlier. The reason: He actually prefers being at SIU. "I don't think I would have been exposed anywhere else in the world to the opportunities I have here," he says.

"At SIU, I am able to get the most out of my college experience." This is because of the very open environment that allows students to get as involved as they want, even in terms of being a part of how the university is run.

"There isn't the hierarchy here that there is in other places," he says. "That is the beauty of SIU. I don't think Harvard would let a freshman undergraduate from India participate in how the university was run. For this reason, SIU is my Harvard."

Bill Atkinson has been a full-time freelance business writer since 1976. He is also the author of seven books. His most recent is "Eliminate Stress From Your Life Forever." Contact him at 985-4486.