Top of the Class

#39 How a TED Talk Unlocked Anagha's Potential

• Season 1 • Episode 39

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How many times have you watched a TED Talk and felt that it had the potential to change your life? 

That's exactly what happened for Anagha who  always wanted to do more but felt like she should specialise in one thing. It wasn’t until she saw a TED talk about 'multipotentialites’ that she realised there’s nothing wrong with having a broad array of interests and talents!

She has gone on to found a mental health organisation, be one of 50 global advocates for women in STEM, intern for an AI company and more!

We chat about everything from Women's History Month to LinkedIn profiles and even her response to a rather awkward introduction to public speaking.


Podcast Host  00:17

Hello, and welcome to the top of the class podcast. I'm your host, Alex Cole. And in today's episode, I chat with STEM advocate, feminist and founder, Anagha Rajesh. We chat about a TED talk that helped unlock an obvious potential been involved in a program with the UN, the significance of Women's History Month, and how she aims to bring mental health awareness to students around the globe. Let's chat with Anagha Rajesh. Hi, Anagha, welcome to the Top of the Class podcast. It's fantastic to have you on the show. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?


Anagha  00:48

Hello, first of all, thank you so much for having me on board. It's such an honor to be featured here. So my name is Anagha Rajesh. I am a student of Integrated Science at the Birla Institute of Technology in India. I am also the co founder and CEO of mine chance, which is a youth led organization for mental health awareness. I am super passionate about reading public speaking. And I'm currently interning with a California based AI startup called Mark Tech post as a content intern. In addition, I am pursuing an introductory course in quantum computing. And yeah, that's about me.


Podcast Host  01:30

Wow. Okay, so a lot to talk about. But one of the other things that I know about you is that you're involved in the UN in some way. Can you tell us a bit about that?


Anagha  01:38

Yes, definitely. I am an advocate for the girls in science platform, which comes under the umbrella of the United Nations. And so this is an initiative that is aimed at making science more accessible to girls across the world. So we are a group of around 50 girls from across the globe. And we get into advocacy programs. And we are mentored by Her Royal Highness Prince is chemistry. Yeah, we get we recently launched a Braille in science campaign to make science more accessible to a visually challenged people. And we're working on several other projects as well.


Podcast Host  02:20

Yeah, so a lot going on. And it's a fantastic group to be a part of, did you get nominated for that? Or did you apply for it? Like, how did you come across an opportunity like that?


Anagha  02:30

Okay, so I was a part of a mentorship program called 1000 girls 1000 futures program of the New York Academy of Science. And while I was at this program, or one of my friends in this program, told me that she was a part of the girl science platform. And she asked me if I would like to join in. And that was back in 2019. And during that time, the platform was just starting. And we were just in the initial stages. So the application process mainly comprises of, you've got to write a sort of introductory statement or a personal statement, talking about why you want to be a part of the program. And the second part is to get one of your science teachers to nominate you for it.


Podcast Host  03:14

Right. And it's been a fantastic thing to include in your resume and include as part of your profile, and to really give yourself the platform alongside the UN must be fantastic, but you are part of a lot of different things. Can I ask what is your general approach to new opportunities? Like how do you decide which things to pursue, and which things not to pursue?


Anagha  03:38

So I will start by giving you a small background about myself, and how I discovered that I'm someone who can do a lot of things at once. Sure. So I was in school, and I studied in an Indian School in the UAE. So in the Indian education system, generally, the focus is on being focused on one thing, so you've got to either focus on academics, if you're good at sports, focus on sports, if you're good at arts, focus on arts, and so on. So the priority is focusing on one thing and doing it you know, giving it your best. Yeah, when I came into high school, I really didn't want to give up a lot of activities that I was doing as a middle schooler. But I was expected to do that because the perception was that to be good at academics, you've got to do all of your extracurriculars. And I was in a very confused and scared state of mind, because I didn't want to leave anything. And I also wanted to be good at academics. And I thought there was something wrong with me because I wanted to do a lot of things. That was when I came across a TED talk by Emily watersnake. And she spoke about this personality trait called multi potential lights. So I discovered that I'm a multi potential light, which means that I am someone who can survive only if I'm putting my hand into multiple things at once. So that's what motivated me to keep going and keep taking up opportunities along the way, and not limiting myself to just academics, or just one activity


Podcast Host  05:06

with the TED Talk, that kind of mindset thing, right? where you're like, oh, okay, I'm a multi potential life in kind of understanding how you might fit or how you might label your multiple interests. Did that help to expand your reach further? Did that kind of free you from judging how many interests you had? Because I think a lot of students would say, gosh, you know, I shouldn't be doing so many things. Like I should just be focusing on school and getting good school. But once you kind of saw that Ted Talk, it gave you that freedom to go and chase as many different things as you wanted. Because you realize that that's the personality that you have.


Anagha  05:43

Yes, absolutely. There are a lot of students out there who are scared of taking up multiple things, because they're scared it will affect their performance in something else. Yes. So yeah, this step Doc, and also subsequently went on to join this multi potential ad community, I subscribe to the newsletter and all of that, and that keeps me going, it still keeps me pretty motivated.


Podcast Host  06:05

I'm still interested in how you kind of place value on on an opportunity and how you decide which ones to follow, and which ones not to.


Anagha  06:12

Okay, so one thing that I look for in an opportunity is that it gives me a dimension to improve myself. So I'm currently a part of I'm interning with Mark tech post writing articles about AI. I've never written a single article about AI until I started off with this internship. So the reason I picked this up is because it gave me an opportunity to widen my horizons and learn about AI, which is an emerging technology. So I always look out for an opportunity, which is capable of helping me grow as a person. In addition, I also look out for the working environment. So have we got a very stringent working environment that you cannot sort of, you know, be flexible with your work schedules, I don't do such opportunities. Because I believe that flexibility is one of the most important parts of MVNO, multi potential items, being able to do a lot of things. I also look at the sort of individuals who are involved, and how passionate they are about it, you know, the intent of them doing it. So if somebody is doing a project just for the sake of being portrayed as a social service person on media, that doesn't really interest me, if someone is doing it with a good intention, I think that's really important that I always make sure I try and find out how passionate they are about what they are doing before I joined them.


Podcast Host  07:33

I love it. That's a good way of saying if you are a good fit for them as well, right? Because if they're genuinely passionate, then it kind of motivates you to be more part of that organization. But I'd love to know more about how you got the internship. So can you take us through how you came across it and what you had to do to get that internship?


Anagha  07:53

Okay, does internship was actually offered to me as a part of a competition that I won. It was an article writing competition. And I was a first prize winner. So as a part of my prize, I was offered an internship. But in general, like considering all the other opportunities that I've come across, I believe that having a strong LinkedIn profile is one of the key elements to land a good internship, because I've landed a couple of wonderful opportunities through LinkedIn. And I think it's important to build your profile. And in addition, or when you build your profile, make sure that you connect not just to your friends in high school, but to people across the world and be open to connections and be open to networks. And, you know, I think that perhaps you land a lot of opportunities.


Podcast Host  08:42

What do you think some of the elements of a strong profile are,


Anagha  08:46

I think the most important part of a strong profile is to be authentic. So everything that you mentioned on your profile has got to be obviously it has got to be correct. But also, it shouldn't be something that just highlights all of your achievements. Of course, you've got to highlight your achievements. But a lot of high schoolers tend to focus on wanting to just highlight the prizes that they have won. But that doesn't add a lot of value when it comes to opportunities. What adds value is your experience and your journey. So if you say that I have done x y Zed internship, don't just say what you did during the internship, but also say what you learnt in the process and how that internship changed you as a person. Maybe you also talk about the challenges that you face as an intern and how you overcame them. I think these are the things that a lot of people are looking out for when they want to get you on their team. So they want people who are honest about their experiences. And they also want people who can work well within a team and most importantly, have a human connection. So when you talk about the challenges you faced, there is an instant human Connect.


Podcast Host  09:57

Yeah, I definitely agree that the LinkedIn files that just have a whole lot of different competitions, I've won, etc, etc. Like, if I've never heard of those competitions, I'm like, Okay, I'm assuming that's impressive, but I don't really know much about it, I don't really get much of a sense of the person, if all I'm saying is the competitions they've won, but if they write in their about section, who they are, what they've learned what they're wanting to do next, or in their posts, you know, they post regularly. And you can see some kind of depth of thought they're a little bit of that kind of genuine personality coming through in their posts, that they're not trying to be this professional that they think LinkedIn wants to say, but they really just being themselves. I think that's super important. And I think, you know, high school is definitely getting on the platform a lot more and contributing in a lot of different ways, which is awesome to say. I'd love to talk about mind champs, though, because that's an organization that I think super important, obviously addressing mental health. Can you talk to us about why you started that organization, and how it's progressed from starting to where it is today.


Anagha  11:02

Mind champs is a youth led organization that focuses on making conversations about mental health more inclusive, and making these services more accessible. This started off in 2019, when I was a part of again, the mentorship program that I mentioned earlier, 1000 1000 features program. And during one of our conversations on this platform with other girls, we were talking about mental health, and I sort of spoke about how mental health is such a taboo in the community that I come from. And surprisingly, everyone came up and said the same thing. And we realize that mental health is a taboo beyond geographical borders. So it's a taboo in almost all societies across the world. As someone who's seen close friends suffering from breakdowns, who has seen my uncle suffering from schizophrenia, and not being able to access treatment, because it's considered a taboo. I've sort of seen it firsthand. And I've also heard about experiences from others. And so we decided to get on board and start off an organization. Of course, it wasn't easy, because none of us had any experience starting an organization from scratch, we've had to work through a lot of things. So initially, we started off as a project to do an E magazine on mental health. That was our first focus. We weren't even an organization in the starting, we were just a group, of course, working on E magazine, and mental health. And when we launched our first e magazine, The response was amazing. And so we decided to stick on to it and keep going. And it is in 2020, actually, towards the latter half of 2020, that we actually became much more established and started taking in more people other than the initial set of founding members, we started opening up applications and getting members on board. We've been growing our social media outreach, we are doing our own podcast series, we're doing a training program for students to create content about mental health. We are launching student competitions, and we're doing blogging. So we're doing a lot of different activities. And our main focus is not just to D stigmatize mental health, but also to empower youngsters with the skills that they would need to help achieve this mission.


Podcast Host  13:26

Yeah, I love that you started out as like an a magazine. And then grew it from there, like the magazine, I guess, was the testing platform for the interest in this mind champs and what you were doing. And then once you realize that there was a lot of interest, that's when you said, Okay, what else can we do to support students in the very difficult time of high school and and the mental health challenges that students encounter along the way? In terms of the different elements that you've continued to add on? Has there been anything that's particularly more successful or less successful? Like? Is the podcast going really well? Or is the blog going really well? Or do they all kind of complement each other?


Anagha  14:10

I think when you talk about going well, I think that's a very subjective thing. Because what I think is going well might not be what somebody else thinks is going well. But I think as a whole, all of these activities are pretty much complimentary to each other. And a very, very exciting opportunity that I want to talk about is a contest that we launched very recently. It's called, it's all in the mind speech challenge. So it's a speech challenge that is open to students aged nine to 18 across the world, and we're looking out for speech videos, which are just 60 to 90 seconds in length, but it's explaining our mental health concept in as creative a manner as possible. So that's an exciting thing that we have launched very recently. And all we are hoping to reach out to more students. And to get a lot of participation.


Podcast Host  15:03

That's great. I actually saw you post about that on LinkedIn. And I was going to ask you to bring that up. So I'm glad you've done that already, which is awesome. But is there any kind of end goal for the organization now? Or is it just increasing awareness about mental health? Helping students be more prepared about mental health? Like, is there any guiding principle that you have for the organization that you can kind of make all your focus and all your work and build around that one principle? Or is it like that general awareness and general preparedness that students have in mental health?


Anagha  15:34

Actually, I personally don't believe in end goals, because I think excellence is a journey and not a destination. But when you talk about mind champs, it started off with a focus on awareness. But now we're slowly shifting away from that, and we're trying to get more realistic. Because I mean, awareness is not the only thing that you need about mental health, you need to equip youngsters with the sort of resources that can help them become more, you know, accepting of mental health conditions when they face them, or when their friends or loved ones face them. Or what we're trying to do at present is to reach out to students and youngsters in the remotest parts of the world, and to take mental health to them. I really can't point out a particular project because they're still in the pipeline, we're still working and figuring things out. But our focus is currently on taking mental health from just the students in our circle, and to take them to say, religious in rural India, or certain economically backward sections in say, Africa or South America. That's the sort of thing that we're working on at the moment. And yeah, we really hope to, you know, come up with something exciting.


Podcast Host  16:50

Yeah, that is exciting. Even just like the thought of that is exciting, which is, which is very, very cool. But based on your experience, what would you say are some of the fundamental lessons that you've learned that other students could potentially learn from your experience? So setting up student organizations is a very popular thing to do. But looking back on the growth and development of mind champs, are there any kind of advice or tips that you would give for students who are interested in starting their own organization in whatever topic or interest area that they may have?


Anagha  17:23

Oh, one fundamental thing that I've learned in the process is that there's no right time to do anything. If you want to do something, just do it, because things will fall into place as you go along. Because when mind Sam started, it was a pretty small space. And none of us knew how to actually work on it, none of us had the experience. But we still tried out different strategies with we tried out various aspects of the program. Of course, there were a lot of things that failed. So the point is that if you want to do something, to go out and do it, and as you go along, you will automatically learn. And you will also gain access to resources as you go along. When you For instance, if I'm talking to someone, and I say that I'm a part of mind champs, maybe they have something exciting to offer me, because their networks are different from mine. So the focus is on just starting off, even if you have no idea about what that is just start off and let the process teach you. I think another important aspect of maybe starting an organization or are doing something of your own is to be as authentic as possible. Let yourself make mistakes, let your team make mistakes. And don't judge yourself based on that. But keep going. And then good communication skills are operating important aspect of it as well. Again, it's something you learn along the way, but it's something I think you need to put some cautious effort into being able to do because when you lead cross cultural teams like mine champs, so my chapters members from across the world, so the way you communicate, it should be respectful of cultural aspects and their cultural identities. And you should also be mindful of time zones. So when you communicate across cultures and across geographical boundaries again, so your communication skills are really, really important, and you need to be really empathetic towards people. So yeah, that's what I think.


Podcast Host  19:20

I think that's very good points and letting the process teach you rather than feeling that you need to know everything before you start the process, which I think a lot of students try and do. And I guess that's the paralysis by analysis, I think is what they tend to call that side of things. But I'm interested in how you have brought up authenticity again, and there was a post on LinkedIn by a high school student that's gone somewhat viral, and it was opposed by a guy named Stephanie Sue. And


Anagha  19:50

that I remember reading it and you know, resonating a lot with it.


Podcast Host  19:53

Right, right. And it basically goes on the lines of, you know, she sometimes sees high school students on LinkedIn. They have like these amazing profiles. And like it can be a little bit daunting and intimidating seeing these amazing profiles and can make you not feel like you're doing much or not doing enough and these kinds of things, yet, I find that a lot of the time LinkedIn or any kind of social media platform, really, it's sometimes difficult to stay authentic on that platform, when there is I guess, that social pressure to hype up yourself, right? Like you're trying to put your best foot forward, you're trying to make any experience sound impressive. And you really want to try and make sure that you are giving people a view that you're amazing, right? So how does that kind of fit with the authenticity side of things? Like how can you make yourself sound authentic? and amazing, at the same time without them necessarily clashing?


Anagha  20:51

Okay, that's, that's a tough question to answer. But I'll try and take a go at it. Yeah, I think one thing that I believe is that every one of us is amazing, in a different sort of way. So the problem is with the fact that we've sort of categorized amazing into a closed box and just let it stay there and, you know, show everyone that this is the sort of amazing thing that you need to do. So you've sort of set a template for being amazing, which I think really needs to change. And I think the change comes from within you. So I, I totally agree with the fact that a lot of student profiles on LinkedIn, especially if students who are younger than you, and who are achieving more than you, sort of makes you tense at times. But I think the key is to sort of let your authenticity shine again, you need to get rid of the notion that being authentic cannot be amazing. So there are certain aspects of every single person's personality, that is amazing. And you need to put that out there. So don't let others notions of amazing personalities or amazing achievements, sort of, you know, take away your enthusiasm, show what you're enthusiastic about, and write about what you're enthusiastic about, share your ideas. And I mean, even if other people have got better ideas, it's absolutely fine. And a podcast by Mark Randolph, who was one of the founding members of Netflix, he keeps talking about how most ideas that people come up with are always bad, and good ideas are actually not a fixed thing. So you know, good, certain ideas can be good, at certain points in time. So the fact is to believe in yourself, even when times are challenging, and to let the amazing aspects of you shine out and people will gradually recognize it.


Podcast Host  22:49

Well, I think you've done a really good job in answering a tough question. It's always interesting to kind of think about, you know, that pointy end of high school achievement, right, and how competitive it is. But you're right, everyone's amazing in their own way. And I think if people are just authentic and writing about what they're passionate about, it will it will shine through and don't try and blow everybody away with your profile. But it's there's some people who would just not get what you're doing or not understand what you're interested in. But there will definitely be people out there who do appreciate and do see your talent for what it genuinely is, which is


Anagha  23:21

awesome. Absolutely. Another thing I'd like to add on is, I mean, when you are authentic, you will automatically be connected to opportunities that genuinely interest you. So if you're going to build a profile based on somebody else's template, you will only get opportunities that somebody else gets, which might not be what interests you. So all the more reason to be authentic.


Podcast Host  23:42

Yeah, absolutely. Now, it's also an interesting time to be chatting with you. Because, you know, obviously, it's Women's History Month in the US and it was International Women's Day, not long ago as well. On March 8, you yourself are part of the young women in STEM ambassador program with the UN. What does Women's History Month or International Women's Day? What is this whole month mean to you?


Anagha  24:08

I believe that every day should be women's day, every day should be everyone's day, actually. But then it's really, really important that when you have a Women's History Month, you have the Women's Day, it's time to look back at the challenges that women have overcome across generations. And I think in the recent years, things have become more open for women. At least when I stepped into university for the first time this year. I was shocked to realize that out of 900 freshmen students, only 60 are women. So this was a shocking revelation because until then, I've grown up in UAE and I studied in our own English High School Sharjah, which is a gold school and all our faculty, all our senior leaders Strip members, everyone is a woman, I've never really felt the real gap. In, you know, women's representation. I used to say my entire school is made up of girls and we're still running really well. So I never really understood what under representation of women in STEM means until I stepped into university in November last year. So as someone who has just recently realized how Stark the underrepresentation is, this month is really, really important to me to highlight the achievements of women, and also to talk about how women can support each other, to go forward in their careers to achieve their dreams, and not to set a template for successful women again, so what does success mean to you as a woman is different for different people. And it's also about appreciating the wonderful women in your life for me, it's my mom, the lovely teachers and my principal at our own Sharjah, my lovely friends, who keep supporting each other and keep growing and the lovely team at mind champs which is mostly girls. So it's, it's about recognizing a lot of things. And it's also about getting allies, getting men and other members of the community to accept the fact that that is under representation and to become staunch allies of women in this fight.


Podcast Host  26:20

I was going to ask what can people do to continue to support women and I guess, being an ally is an important thing. But for you at like that high school university level, what does it mean for men to be an ally of women to help them continue to push forward and to, you know, as you say, like, break that crazy difference in 900 men you said and 60 girls or class of 990 60 girls, like that's crazy.


Anagha  26:50

Yeah, class of 960 girls, which is pretty shocking. So tell me what allies, I think one thing that men could possibly do is to sort of get away from this general trend of micro aggression. So micro aggression is when you are making, you know, sexist jokes, or sort of mansplaining things all the time. You know, it, a lot of men do it very subconsciously, because it's a part of, you know, their entertainment process. So I think that should stop. And as allies, that is one thing that men could do to stand up to other men and call them out for making a sexist or a racist remark, and get them to sort of apologize and to understand their mistake. I think at a fundamental individual level, this is something that everyone can do to really make women feel like they are a part of the organization, not the institution, not a group, or whatever you're talking about.


Podcast Host  27:51

Yeah, and I think, you know, getting involved in organizations like 1000, girls, 1000, futures, and the UN organization as well, fantastic opportunities for young women to add their voice, not just as a single person, but add their voice to an organization and to like a global organization at that. So hopefully, you know, there's some girls there who are inspired by your story. And what's next for you, future wise, you're very busy, your first year university, can you talk us through, I guess that experience what that has taught you so far? And has that kind of reaffirmed what you want to do in the future?


Anagha  28:32

Okay, so again, as a multipotentialite, I have too many ideas in my bucket list. And so definitely, I'm still working on figuring out a real future plan. But on a certain extent, I'm really, really excited to be working on the intersection of STEM and public policy. And I'm looking at again, a lot of times what happens is, you are putting people into silos, you're saying, Okay, I'm a science person, I'm going to do science, or I'm a humanities person, I'm going to do public policy, I really want to bridge that gap as well. And to sort of work at the intersection of science and public policy. And again, I want to take along with me my identities of being a mental health advocate of being a feminist, of being someone who's passionate about public speaking about writing. So I'm going to take all my passions forward and sort of carve out a niche for myself at the intersection of science and public policy.


Podcast Host  29:34

Yeah, that sounds like a very, very good fit for you. And I'm sure that you'll continue to do that. Now. If students wanted to follow along with your journey. There's so many different things going on with you. There's the mind champs competition, which we'll put a link to in the show notes. And, you know, obviously, there's a lot of different other things that you're doing with the AI internship and the content you're writing there, but what are some of the main ways that students could get in contact with you have course there's LinkedIn. And we can put that in the show notes as well. But is there any any other way that students can come across your story and your content?


Anagha  30:07

It would be great if you could, I mean, if you wanted to reach out to me personally, then definitely my email, or my Instagram profile, which is where I usually share all the fun aspects of my life and my views. So yeah, following me on instagram would be great as well.


Podcast Host  30:26

I can put those in the show notes, too. So people can come across your story. But before you go, I'm interested in two more questions. Number one is, you know, final advice. But number two, can you tell us a little bit about failures that you're most proud of? I mean, in saying that post that we were talking about on LinkedIn, I think in terms of mental health as well, we need to get better at students celebrating the failures as well, and seeing them as a positive rather than a negative. So are there anything in your life that you can reflect on and say, hey, yeah, that didn't work out. But I'm really glad I gave it a go.


Anagha  31:01

I would say that one of the first times that I went up on stage to speak, I was really excited about it, and I go up on stage, and then I'm blanked out, because I cannot say anything. I mean, there's no, they're not what's coming into my mind. And I'm, I'm just frozen on stage. And that too, like in front of a pretty large audience, which is, which can get really, really scary. So that was one very, very defining moment in my life, because that's when I really, really decided that I need to go and become a public speaker, and I joined Toastmasters. I'm now a certified competent communicator with Toastmasters. So I used to keep getting blanked out on stages and not being able to speak because I thought that whenever I spoke, I always had to, you know, make an impact, I always had to appear as the most knowledgeable person in the crowd. That was what was stopping me from speaking my mind out. And so during the process, what I've learned is that I've got to focus less on how the audience perceive me, and instead focus more on the message that I want to take to them. And it doesn't need to be something that people don't know about, it can be just something very simple or sharing your own life experiences. So I think this is a very, very big learning process. Another thing has been about when I was the president of the Student Council at my school, and my school is a pretty big one. So we've got around 7000 students, to be able to carry out initiatives in our school have such a large crowd, it sort of gets very, very difficult. So to get people with different ideas on board. So there are so many projects, which we've had to give up because the planning was not right, or because we couldn't get all the stakeholders on board. But then causes projects fail, I've learned so much about how to be a better leader, how to be better at planning how to be better at organization, how to be better at transparent communication. And I think that's so so important to me, and what my position as student council president has taught me is really, really invaluable.


Podcast Host  33:12

Can I just say that I love the story of the public speaking, you said you got up on stage, you froze, it was in front of a large crowd. And after that experience, you're like, I need to be a better public speaker. And I think that's so indicative of a lot of the students that I've chatted with on top of the class, it's like, failure doesn't mean that that's not for you. Failure just means that that's something I need to work on, right. And like, you know, you join Toastmasters, you've been in the program for a little while now. And you know, been a part of TED talks and these kinds of things as well, which is awesome. And also on that whole kind of thing of the way the crowd perceives you versus the way you know, you might be kind of concerned about how the crowd perceives you, etc. I've done a lot of public speaking as well. And my general thought on that is the crowd is probably more scared of public speaking than you are right? Or like, generally speaking, a lot of people are quite fearful of public speaking. So the mere fact that you're up there on stage, you have already earned their respect, right? I think a lot of people get up on stage and feel like they're starting from, you know, behind the eight ball type of thing. Like they need to earn people's respect that they're already, you know, looking at a crowd thinking, why are you up there, etc. But that's not the case. Like I always get up on stage and think most of the crowd is really scared of public speaking. So the fact that I'm up here, they're already kind of cheering for me, they already want to see me do well. And it already kind of starts off with a positive relationship that I have with the audience. So there's a little tip that kind of helps me when I'm up on stage doing a


34:47

think of it


Podcast Host  34:47

Yeah, like the majority of time. If you're watching someone talk, you're like, Don't stuff up. I'm cheering for you. Like, I wish you all the best when I'm watching someone speak I have no ill will towards them. Like I'm sending good vibes and I'm sending Good luck to them. And I'm like, just willing them to do well. And that's the vast majority of the audience. They're all kind of cheering for you. And I think that's a great positive intention to start with if you ever get up on stage. But before you go as well, final advice for students in any areas that we've covered today, whether that be setting up organizations being emotionally potential i'd, what would be your final advice for students,


Anagha  35:25

I would say, or one thing is always be yourself and always do what you really wanted to make sure that you detox your social networks very often. So people who put you down people who discourage you very often keep a distance from them. That's what I call detoxing your social networks love it. The second thing is, I would say, keep learning. So make sure that you are exploring something new every day, regardless of what field you are in what interests you. Listen to resources, read up resources, every day, make sure that you learn something new so that you can keep updating yourself about what's happening around the world. And thirdly, enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy. I mean, of course, there are a lot of times social constraints, you've got academic constraints, but you know, a take time out sort of prioritize your work, plan things out in such a way that you can do what you love, and you can, you know, be happy and make others around you happy.


Podcast Host  36:30

I love it. Thank you so much for joining us on the top of the class podcast. It's been fantastic to catch up and to hear about your story and I look forward to sharing the episode far and wide.