I am Rohit, a final year student pursuing dual majors in Biological Sciences and Electrical and Electronics Engineering at BITS Pilani, India.

I have joined Hiroshima University as a semester exchange student through the AGILE Entrepreneurship Development program. This program strongly aligns with my interest in pursuing research for social good and work on solving global issues. I want to learn more about these areas from a Japanese perspective and meet with a lot of interesting people from different cultures along the way.

In my free time I love playing badminton and watching movies. I am currently learning Japanese so that I can also start watching anime. I am very happy to be in Hiroshima University and excited for the journey ahead!

To me, the main benefits of studying abroad is like getting the sort of exposure that you won’t be able to get in your own university or your own country.

For example, you get to meet a lot of people from different backgrounds, from different majors and be introduced to a lot of different cultures that you won’t normally be able to get in your own country.

I would just say be open to the idea of it.
It’s normal to get nervous about it, it’s normal to not know what you’re in for.

But try to be open to the idea and try to get as many opportunities you can to get more exposure and experience that can maybe open up different doors in your future for either your academics or your professional lives.

So through the agile program, I got to work with a lot of people from different circles in the university.

One of the events was that we worked in for the university festival where I got the unique opportunity to work in a food stall and they were also kind enough to invite me to the dinner and I made a lot of good friends in that.

Another thing is that through this program, I did a lot of courses in the university and in one of the courses they took us to a couple of Japanese companies. I got to learn about how Japan does things differently than other companies in different areas, different industries.

So this was something very unique and something that’s very memorable for me.

I believe the experiences I get through this AGILE program would help me in my academic endeavors.
For example, I want to do research, you know, learn about different technologies and try to create an impact in the society.

So while I’m still deciding on what kind of research I want to do, being in this environment and learning about different cultures, different industries certainly gives me a wider perspective on what I would like to work on and hopefully will also help me in my future academic goals.