WIN Alumni Connect

This new column is inspired by Winchester’s legacy of almost 20 years. Thousands of students have taken successful strides out of the Winchester gates and into every corner of the world. These alumni have carved out their own niche in the world and to know their stories would be a source of inspiration to the students who are currently studying at Winchester. This will be a window into the future for young students and will be a source of hope, as well as a way of incrementing a sense of positivity and wellbeing. To hear from people who have been in your shoes, have shared similar experiences, and are now living their dreams is an inspiration, and WIN Alumni Connect would endeavour to capture amazing tales of resilience, perseverance, challenges, and achievements.

Aakanksha Mathur, Class of 2019, is one of the most illustrious alumni of The Winchester School, Jebel Ali. The walls of Winchester bear proud testimonies of Aakanksha’s endeavours and achievements. Just to name a few, Aakanksha was the Head Girl in the academic year 2017-2018, Secretary General for Winchester MUN 2019, as well as the recipient of the H.H. Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Excellence in 2019. After graduating from Winchester, Aakanksha went on to study at McGill University, which has been ranked as the 46th best university in the world. WIN Times is grateful to Aakanksha for this insightful interview conducted by her equally exceptional younger sister, Tamanna Mathur (pictured below) of Year 10. Read on to get inspired.

My time at Winchester was full of learning opportunities and experiences that built the person I am. Whether in the classroom in terms of how I approached different academic settings or in extracurriculars that I was encouraged to take, it truly taught me the skills I needed to prepare myself for university life and the workplace.

My most memorable moment (or moments rather) at Winchester were the planning weeks right before an MUN. Particularly in 2019 when I was the Secretary-General for WINMUN as it was going to be my last MUN in Winchester, and we wanted to end things with a bang! It was the largest delegation or outcome of students that we had come to, as well as the addition of international schools from Jaipur that I helped initiate. Just sitting around and planning together and organizing the lanyards and stuff like that was such an experience as, at the moment, it was difficult and challenging, but looking back, it truly prepared me for what life in university or the workplace would be like; in terms of having organizational skills, team building, keeping your team happy, collaborating and making sure things are done most efficiently. These are all transferable skills that I use now and really talk about in resumes and interviews that were shaped by those experiences.

Transferable skills that I took, like organization and team building, were important and were easily taken for granted. Working in a group, for instance, whether it's people who you're friends with or complete strangers, is a big deal when coming to university because you're working on a lot of group projects. So being involved with extracurriculars in school and training for debate, and being able to talk to people who I don't know and make them feel comfortable, as well as being able to take the initiative to lead a team when it felt like the team needed guidance, or to also being able to step back and delegate work are really important steps. Another thing was truly realizing how important teachers are in every facet, not just teaching you the content but also emotional support. I was very close to my teachers at Winchester, and the ability to gain personal relationships was super important coming into the university because it meant I wasn't afraid to talk to my professors and ask them for help when I needed it because I was so used to doing that in school.

If I could go back and tell myself anything, it would be, “Just try it out.” Try out for competitions or go for debate even if I wasn't prepared for them. What do you have to lose? I feel like in school I stuck to my strengths and activities I knew I was good at, but looking back, I think that maybe I should've tried out robotics, for example. Especially in the changing dynamics of education and opportunities for different university programs and skills that are required from employers now, it's super important to show that you’re a jack of all trades and can adapt to your environment. Just really try out everything. You don't have to be the best at it, which is something that I would also tell myself. Even if you know you’re not good at something, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it out.

My experience in university during my undergraduate was great. Unfortunately, a lot of it was tainted by the pandemic, but I tried to make the most of it through zoom. We are fortunate to have that kind of technology available to us. University was full of meeting new people, adapting to my surroundings, and learning skills I developed in school came out during this time. One of the biggest changes was just the scale of it. There are so many people from diverse backgrounds that even coming from a multicultural city like Dubai, and you realize what diversity really means. It's not just cultural diversity but different mindsets and thought processes that you might never experience in Dubai. So it's interesting being part of a team and class who come from all over the world and professors, for that matter, who have different areas of research and expertise that you have access to.

I wish I had known before that it is okay not to be at the top as soon as you get into university because that was one of the biggest changes and adjustment periods. Especially when you go abroad to a big university, it's like everyone around you is brilliant in their own way. You might not necessarily always be a topper the way you might be in school, and it's quite normal. Even in your first semester, if you don't do as you anticipated or not doing the same level of performance, it's completely normal for everyone to have an adjustment period with different expectations of the kind of work you have to present and you do have to modify your learning strategies and styles to adapt to university life but to get that and for it to click- that “Aha” moment, can only be achieved if you go and talk to your professors and peers and ask for criticism how you can strive further in class. Just talking to them and attending office hours is loved by them and helpful for you. It'll be rough initially, but that's just because it's an adjustment period and nothing more.