The student mentor

For Ahmed Kareem Uddin Naseer, a fourth-year student at Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, juggling between being a student and an entrepreneur is easy. With his own start-up, Excelsior Education and Development Society, Ahmed today is a known name in the start-up circuit in the city.

In his second-year of engineering, Ahmed would always wonder about the shortage of events in colleges. Tired of waiting for things to happen, he took matters on his own hands and organised a workshop for his batchmates. Since then, there has been no looking back.

“We have so many engineering students passing out every year but not everyone is employed. I did my research and found that for most of them, their communication skills were weak or they didn’t have proper resumes. So I decided to start these events or workshops to hone their organisational and communication skills,” says Ahmed.

In two years, Ahmed has organised 57 workshops in various colleges, calling in industry experts. “We help students find internships, jobs… We organise communication workshops, robotic workshops, debates etc.,” he says.

But when he started in his second year, many of his friends told him, “First concentrate on engineering”, but Ahmed was adamant. “I didn’t want to wait and thus started organising these events. I saw the enthusiasm of students while attending these workshops. Now, we have 220 campus icons across India to help us organise events in colleges, keep us updated on what’s happening and more.”

While till now Ahmed has not yet looked at the funding aspect, flowing back whatever money he used to get from colleges in organising more events, he wants to take it up full-time soon. “I want to collaborate with colleges, not just in Hyderabad but across India,” he says.