Sumit Singh, a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Shivsinghpur who once had to fight societal pressure and poverty to get admission to a school, has now become a local celebrity. The 22-year-old has done what was beyond the dreams of many in the remote village – he is now a resident of the United States of America and is working as a Systems Innovator in a Pennsylvania-based firm.
Singh grew up in a family of six including his three siblings and two parents. His family was dependent on agriculture for generations and limited resources. “There is a common belief in villages that it is not worthwhile for the children of farmers to spend time with books when they could use their hands tilling the soil. People think that it is futile to pursue education as children will eventually need to come back and cultivate the land and not do any other job. Being a son of a farmer, I grew up on the borderline of poverty and was supposed to toe the line but I tried not to succumb to the societal stereotypes prevalent in my village,” recalls Sumit.
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Sumit’s father, who has never been to a school himself was determined to offer education to his kids. “It was fortunate for me that my father, though illiterate, had a wise and progressive outlook. My father was dismayed at cultivating leased land and he did not want me to follow in his footsteps,” said Sumit. His father got him enrolled in a government-run primary school in the local area. After completing his primary education, Singh was determined to study further. Due to limited resources, he applied for admission at VidyaGyan Bulandshahar which offers free education to students from low-income families.
After cracking the entrance test, Sumit completed his schooling in 2017. Driven to “free the family from the shackles of poverty”, Sumit wanted to study further. He reached out to career counsellors at his school and went through a series of tests to get selected for the programme run by the school to offer free coaching for SAT — entrance test for several foreign varsities. Sumit had applied to around 10 universities and got selected in five of them. He decided to study at Penn State University, US.
He graduated recently with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science along with a minor in security and risk analysis and landed a job at Gournay Consulting, a company based in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
The selection process consisted of four rounds of interviews. “The first interview was a basic behavioural interview where the questions were mainly around my personality and various experiences listed on my resume. The second and third interviews were a bit technical as there were questions specific to the job and my skills. The last interview was the HR interview which was basically about my expectations in the company and they apprised me about the various benefits that the company provides to their employees. I received an offer letter post the interview,” he told News18.com. Sumit is currently working as a systems innovator at the company and is responsible for designing custom software.
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To students from low-income families, Sumit said, “Dream big and work hard to make them come true. You will find a hundred excuses not to work but if you make up your mind, you will come up with a plan to make your dreams come true.”
Sumit has an elder and a younger brother and a twin sister. His mother is a homemaker. His elder brother and sister are waiting to finish their graduation as examinations were postponed because of the pandemic. His elder brother too had studied from the same school. His younger brother is in high school and he is keen to join the Indian Armed forces in the future.
He now aims at working in the industry for around 4-5 years and to provide for the family. He also aims at a postgraduate degree and PhD in Cybersecurity.
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