Learning Without Borders: My Story of Self-Taught Success by Saksham

Learning Without Borders: My Story of Self-Taught Success by Saksham - June 2024 Scholarship Essay

Life is all about learning, and I have a learner's heart. For me, there is no clear line between formal and informal education. As an international student studying in the US, I come from a place where learning was often self-driven and informal. Even in formal school settings, our teachers often lacked the necessary knowledge, which turned out to be a blessing. It forced me to teach myself everything, igniting a passion for self-learning that has shaped my entire academic journey.

Throughout my academic journey, I've applied this self-driven approach to various subjects. For instance, I had to study foreign languages in school and struggled with Spanish in the formal classroom. However, interacting with foreigners outside of school sparked my interest, and now I am fluent in four languages. Similarly, learning to read Sanskrit became enjoyable once I understood its spiritual value, even though I disliked the formal religious study group my father enrolled me in.

Teaching myself has taught me to tackle the frustrations that come with not knowing something and learning to resolve it through the right sources. It has instilled in me self-discipline and the belief that I can achieve or learn anything I set my mind to. I realized that greatness comes from within, not from teachers. This mindset allowed me to master coding and other skills even from a small village in Nepal.

I've learned to be resourceful and not limit myself to one book. I ask the right people for help and embrace YouTube and online tutorials as my gurus. I've never had a favorite teacher because I couldn't resonate with them or learn at their pace. For instance, I struggled with math in the formal education system, which was considered bad. But I was slow only because I needed more time to understand the concepts, and that's completely fine. Self-learning helped me embrace this fact.

Coming from a small town in eastern Nepal, which is almost invisible on the map, I've reached a point where I'm studying in the US on a scholarship, primarily due to the power of self-learning. Nowadays, I am learning to code in Python and understand machine learning models solely with the help of YouTube and Twitter. This self-driven learning will help me later in my formal classes and overall life.

I've learned to ask questions, even the dumb ones, to the smartest people, and this helps me learn. Networking with knowledgeable, like-minded people has been invaluable. Additionally, projects have changed my life. I view every chapter of a textbook as a sub-project, exams as projects, and various subjects as different projects. This project management mindset stemmed from an informal course on LinkedIn, and I love it.

In summary, my academic success has been heavily influenced by self-learning, which has allowed me to excel in ways that traditional schooling could not. The self-discipline, critical thinking, adaptability, and resourcefulness gained through self-learning have been instrumental in my journey from a small town in Nepal to studying in the US on a scholarship.