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Stoa Digest #40: From strangers to friends,

6 months, and multiple friends later!

Mar 21, 2022

To one of the most enthu cohorts we’ve had at Stoa.

Last night we celebrated with Cohort 4 everything that they’ve experienced in the last 6 months.
Whether that meant attending/missing classes, winning Case Weekends, being sleep deprived on Sessions or even just learning how to use Discord.

The last 24 weeks were a journey, that culminated in an emotional high that was Grad Night for the fellows of Cohort 4.

For the first time in Stoan history, we had Grad hosted by two members of the cohort themselves.

Kritika Jain & Sriram Nataraj.

If you’ve ever had the need to learn how to MC a Grad Night - hit these two up, because what a phenomenal job! 👏🏼🎊

It featured

In the words of a very reminiscent Kritika:
”I cant believe that we all have got through these last 6 months.
We went from late night café sessions,
to waking up early for learning sessions -
some of us appearing half asleep and groggy the next morning.

We went from strangers who couldn’t work together,
to team players, as Shyam would say.

Some of us are taking away friendships, some are taking away learnings, but we all have something MAJOR to take away from the last 6 months -

that Stoa isn’t just a place where we have found opportunities, It’s also a place where we have found ourselves and very, very dear friends - It’s given us a sense of belonging.”

One Vignesh Kannan, who is the only person ever to come join Stoa’s Discord and tell Nicaia he was more enthu than she was - only to go on to excel at being one of our community’s best enthucutlets & hypemen & online documenters of the Stoa journey.

”6 months ago, I would definitely have not pictured what I have become now. With the kind of people I have, and the kind of people I will always be around.” - VK.

They even gave away some awards, if you haven’t already we’ll leave you a small little note about each of those that won awards here.

We’ll make the note column by column, left to right.

If you ever run sessions, know that Aashutosh will be the first person in the waiting room, and no matter what time of day/night it is(mostly day) - he will look fresh as ever. His pro tip: bathe to wake yourself up.

When it comes to Community & networking, there is absolutely no-one who did it like Sneha, along with having a very interesting conversation with you - she will also definitely leave you with value if the conversation is something she has knowledge on. A gem, really! 💎

It’s hard to not tip your hat to Abhishek Pandey for his memes, all you’ve ever got to do is ask, and as soon as you do, promptly you will have an extremely apt meme to describe the situation. Bonus points if he’s on the session you’re attending or participating in the conversation then those just happen naturally. (Sujeet Birajdar, Nikhil Daswani & Rishabh Sonker are favourable mentions here too)

You’ve probably interacted with Vignesh Kannan in one some way or another if you’ve been active in the Community. Not only is he the most enthu, enthucutlet, but he is also the man that hops on in to conversations and leaves you in the wake of his mic drop quips.

There is only one other person that is as adamant about threads as Nicaia, and that my friends is Divya Haritwal. Somehow she’s omnipresent, and is always happy to reach out to tell you to make a thread just in case, you know, you forgot. :P But if you ever have any Discord queries - she’s the person to reach out to!

Aayush is one of the most active members of the community, holding the title for fellow who has sent the most messages on our server. Crazy isn't it? You’ll also find him dedicating that amount of perseverance even to learning new things & just being curious about understanding a subject completely.

Not going to give away too much about Utpal but “Did you workout today?”

Mohit’s a lurker, but an active one. He’s also a moonlighter of knowledge, so he knows far more than he exhibits, all you have to do is ask.

And last but not ever in the slightest way, the least, we have the Most Valuable Fellow of Cohort 4, and that is Mirnalini Venkatraman. In case it confuses you, her name’s pronounced ‘Mrinalini’ only, but she’s one of the most dedicated, open, empathetic, but also super hardworking fellows from this cohort.

Announcements

On Tuesday we host Jay Joshi for a Kaksha on hiring talent. If you want to get an insight on what HR professionals look for in a perfect candidate or even if you’re looking to hire yourself, then this session is a must-attend!
On Thursday we have a Gup Shup night organised. If you’ve been wondering how to start networking within the Stoa Community - this is great starting ground. Come and get a chance to interact with other fellows in the community.

AND

On Friday, Azeem & Rahul are going to overtake the radio waves to indulge you in some of their favourite music. It involves a very contentious border and a very famous soft drink. Definitely is going to be something you want to attend.

All these event announcements exist on the Discord Events Calendar that you can RSVP to if you’re interested in the event!