Churning butter from the ocean of information for Youth
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From this article, any enthusiastic young can explore his/her world. The founder of Youth Opportunities, who is Osama Bin Noor, was my inspiration for this article. Previously, I searched for this kind of opportunities but not as in an organized way. I was in “Tarunnor Joyutsob Bootcamp” which was a two days program and which was organized by Prothom-alo. There was a thirty-minute session on “Searching Opportunities through the internet” where Osama bhai was the speaker. I will cover most of the topics which are needed to be explored by any young people. This was not a one day work for me. It’s a thousand days works. No need to worry! Just through working, you will learn more and more.
I will divide this blog into some points. From where anyone can understand what his/her need is.
Embassy Website: Let’s start with my example, I am from Bangladesh. I follow U.S. Embassy — Dhaka page. On their page, every day they update new events which is held in The American Center. They have free session on how to study in the US. They have SUSI, CCI, YES program.
On German Embassy Dhaka page, they always share new internship opportunity in German. Or any job opportunity in German Embassy. On Denmark — Dhaka, they have a program for shadow ambassador. Every year they take application for it. British Council is one of the prominent organization. They always share different kinds of opportunities.
I gave this example to explore those active embassies which are in your country. Also, you can search your own country embassies which are in abroad. Some embassy has several exchange programs for youth.
Follow some websites: Youth can visit different kinds of websites as a regular basis. Youth Opportunities, Oportunities for youth, oyaop are one of the main sites to search for youth opportunities. If you are an open source enthusiastic you can visit here events.linuxfoundation.org. Also if you search as open source event you will get lots of events at Google. Besides these, there are several facebook groups where some people regularly post opportunities. I always give them a “See First” option on Facebook. And I follow their twitter handle.
Ministry site: Every country has different kinds of ministry and organization for youth. Like as India has the University Grants Commission (UGC). You can check their scholarship section.
Summer School: In undergrad stage, Summer schools are a wonderful opportunity to gain knowledge. There are lots of summer school program which are normally occurred in Turkey, Thailand, China, US, Canada, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Chili, Vietnam. Some summer camps give full fund to cover participant’s accommodation, meal, and airfare. And some offer partial fund where they cover as example accommodation and meal. And Some have participation fee. There are many kinds of summer schools. I think every student should attend any summer camp if he/she tries but can’t get full fund. He/she should attend with partial funding. There are lots of opportunities to expose, to globalize and NETWORKING!
Research Related Conference: We normally know this as a real conference. Every student should find out own field related conference. By doing this, anyone can increase own research experience. You can create a network with lots of professors which you can’t do while staying in a dorm.
Person Follow: To do this, you have to search Facebook, Linkedin. Twitter. You have to notice which people give opportunity related post. You can do this by the only networking. You have to talk to lots of people. If you any people who post useless, you should not block or unfriend him if you know him very well virtually or in real life. One day, that blocked person will give you an opportunity.
Programming Related Conference: Those who are from Computer Science background. They can attend lots of programming related conference. Mozilla All Hands, Word Camp, Joomla World Conference, JS Conference, Docker Conference, PyCon, ruby conference, PHPConf.Asia, FOSSASIA, droidcon, Google I/O, Microsoft Ignite are some of the examples of the conference. If anyone search through own field he/she can get lots of conference list. Some conference offers a discount for student.
Cultural Exchange Program: Cultural Exchange Programs / Youth Exchange programs are one of the lucrative opportunities for youth. You can Google it. You can get lots of opportunity in various related websites.
Soft Skill Development Workshop: Here I’m mentioning these conferences as an example. Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, Glocal International Teen Conference, International Youth Committee, Future City Summit, Social Business Youth Alliance, Yunus Centre , BYLC, IYC organize lots of conference for youth. Most of them have a participation fee. By participating in these, You can develop your networking, communication, leadership skill. You can attend some renowned Model United Nation. You can also check International student week, International Student Festival, International Youth festival. There are lots of similar names. You can check those at Google.
Professor Knocking for Ph.D. or Masters: This is diamond mine for higher study lover. Anyone can search “Professors” by appearing for IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT or only Language Test. You can check chea.org where you can get state wise university list. EducationUSA is one of the prominent places to search for scholarship. You can check collegeboard to know about cost to study at any university in the US. Common Wealth is a good site for students. Here you can get lots of information about the higher study.
Travel abroad through Volunteer Work: By working as a volunteer, you can join lots of conference or workshop. As an example, I’m working with Mozilla as a volunteer since 2014. Google Developer Group, Facebook Developer Circle, Google Local guide, Wikipedia, Open Access are the example of organization. Every year, Mozilla, Wikipedia gives full fund to join their event.
Moral of the story is, if you wish to develop yourself — SEARCH > FOLLOW > EXPLORE and GRAB. You will succeed, stay well, stay focused.
S M Sarwar Nobin
Student, CSE(Senior)
Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
N.B.: You can share this article anywhere but please give my name as a credit.
