R10 STUDENT PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH – SAI DIVYA NALLAPANENI

Hyderabad Section

“Growth and Comfort will not come together!” – A quote that always motivates and makes to drive forward despite many hindrances.

Ms. Sai Divya Nallapaneni is an undergraduate final year student pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering as major and Computer Science as a minor at G. Pulla Reddy Engineering College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India. She has been an IEEE member since 2017 and has been contributing to various events at the Student Branch, Section and Regional levels as a pro-active volunteer. Currently, she is serving as the Scholarships Outreach Initiative Lead at IEEE CS SYP, Regional Student Ambassador at IEEE Computer Society, Zonal Student Representative of IEEE Ananthapur Sub-section, and Chairperson at IEEE CS GPREC SB. Previously, she has served as the Section Lead at IEEE Xtreme 14.0, Section Ambassador at IEEE PES Day 2020, IEEE Brand Ambassador, IEEE PES Day 2019 Ambassador and IEEE Xtreme 13.0 Ambassador.

Acknowledging her works related to the tech community, and her vision in uplifting women, she received the IEEE R10 WIE Outstanding Student Volunteer Award for the year 2020. She was also awarded IEEE CS Richard E Merwin Scholar 2019 for her exemplary contributions to IEEE Computer Society at Student Branch and Section Levels. Being meritorious in studies, she has been granted with Grace Hopper Celebration India Scholarship for the year 2019 and also been awarded with the Best Girl Student of the GPREC award for the academic year 2019-2020. She has also been one of the Finalists for Shri Pralhad P Chhabria Award 2021 given by H.O.P.E Foundation in association with IEEE India Council and IEEE WIE AG – Pune Section.

Divya says that she started her quest to learn and explore new things from the first year of her undergraduate studies that made her be part of many organizations and NGOs like IEEE, ISTE, IE (India), Aasya Foundation and She Empowers. She is a promising individual who always loves to create an impact with her unique approach in dealing with things. Talking about her IEEE journey and involvement, she has been an IEEE member since 2018. She mentions that she was inspired and motivated by her senior, Mr. Ajay Kumar Machani (PES Day Chair 2020).

With the support and encouragement from her student branch, she started her journey as a delegate to the college events and in time she started volunteering and served in various roles for major events like All Hyderabad Power and Energy Student Congress 2018, All India Computer Society Student and Young Professional Congress 2019, All Hyderabad Computer Society Student Congress 2020 and All Hyderabad Women in Engineering Student Congress 2020. Her zeal to encourage, energize and empower Women made her to work for IEEE Women in Engineering AG, where she led many initiatives at college level, specifically mentoring educated school children from underprivileged schools regarding their careers in STEM fields. She adds, “Nothing comes in our way until we start grabbing up”. She has attended many conferences and met many people whose actions continuously invigorated her thoughts and made her part of this learning journey despite many hurdles at the start. Her enthusiasm in traversing about opportunities made her learn new things and became part of them.

To the young dynamic leaders, who are reading this, her suggestion is to start grabbing whatever comes on one’s way, because one can learn something out of every experience and believe that success beckons only the ones who accept the challenges and move forward despite struggles.