Shubhneet Singh
NEW ZEALAND
Having twice witnessed devastating flooding in my hometown and the plight of people affected by it, I am inspired to pursue research to address water problems now and in the future. With that motivation, and Georgia Tech’s rigorous training, I secured an internship at my dream company, DHI Water and Environment, one of the pioneering companies in the field. And best of all, it was based in New Zealand, one of the most picturesque countries on the planet. I went there with a goal of augmenting my technical skills in hydraulic modelling and GIS techniques and to getting exposure to real-world water resource challenges. During my Internship, I worked to model catchments, river hydrology and hydraulics as well as flood hazard assessments — including model development, options assessment, flood map production, and river flood forecasting for regional authorities in New Zealand. I also was exposed to other domains like urban pipe modeling, water quality and marine projects. While this internship helped me to grow professionally and learn new technical skills, it also helped me grow personally in soft skills like communication and developing interpersonal relationships. But my main accomplishment through this internship was getting exposure to community challenges in the water industry and learning that there is more to the corporate setting than just having learned your lessons in hydraulics. One has to develop a network and human connections to find work and to be able to contribute to society. I also feel fortunate to have had the chance to live and travel in New Zealand, which was an amazing opportunity to get to know the Maori and Kiwi cultures. I really liked watching the haka performances before rugby matches and came to understand that rugby is to Kiwi people what cricket is to India: Everything stops when there is big match. Six months of living abroad has fanned the fire in me to explore more, because you realize there’s so much to be seen. DHI’s Auckland office was really a melting pot of cultures: my boss was Serbian, our managing director was from Croatia, and I had peers from France, Singapore, Sudan, New Caledonia, Zambia and Portugal. I never thought there could be such a diverse crowd in one office in such a small country. It proved to be a blessing; it has helped me better understand people from different cultures, encouraged me try cuisines from around the world, and even taught me a bit of French! I want to earnestly thank the Higginbotham family for supporting my internship. My experience working at DHI has supplemented my training as an engineer, but it also made me realize that regardless of different native languages, food, or cultures, fundamentally, every human has similar aspirations, and this has made me more empathetic to diverse diaspora.
Singh at Three Sisters and Elephant Rock Beach in New Zealand.
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