Student Spotlight: Ankita, Nepal
12 Feb 2021
Student Spotlight: Ankita on blazing a business and technology trail
Words by Ankita Ranjitkar
My name is Ankita Ranjitkar and I recently completed a Master of Technology (Enterprise Systems and Business Analytics) course at Federation University in Brisbane. I am originally from Nepal and have been studying in Queensland for 2 years.
My hometown is a village on the border of Nepal and India, but I completed my high school and university studies in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
I completed a Bachelor of Business at Kathmandu University, but I wanted to learn more about technology. I did some online research about post-graduate business degrees in Australia and decided on Federation University’s Brisbane campus for the next chapter of my studies in 2019.
Before I came to Australia, I didn’t know much about Queensland. My sister has been studying and living in Sydney for 6 years, so I knew Australia was a good place for study and work opportunities.
When I did my research about Australia, I learnt about the diversity and mix of cultures, but what surprised me was how kind and humble the people are in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland. I’ve found Brisbane to be a really amazing place to study, work and live and I’ve learnt a lot about the people, culture and work ethics during my time here.
Brisbane is peaceful and not too crowded. You can easily make your way around by public transport and I had some friends here who helped me arrange a place to rent. I found a part-time job and started to make some money, which also helped me feel settled in Brisbane. I love the beach and have visited the Gold and Sunshine coasts.
Brisbane is quite a social city but I manage to maintain my focus on my studies, part-time work and attending events (my friends call me a ‘hustler’).
I’ve made the most of the opportunities available through Federation University via their connections with companies such as River City Labs and Arc Hardware Incubator, including internships, hackathons and networking events.
Most recently, I had the opportunity to intern as a junior business analyst with Smilo.ai, an oral health start-up at River City Labs. In that project I was able to network with Smilo.ai founder Dr Padma Gadiyar and provide consultation on what ERP (enterprise research planning) was available for her to use. I also did market analysis and competitor research to help her find the right software. These internship opportunities, hackathons and events to meet start-up founders and learn about their projects have been invaluable.
I definitely think studying in Queensland has given me an edge in my future career. Federation University is genuinely an amazing place for international students because it provides lots of events and platforms to understand what’s going on in Brisbane and the opportunities available to us as well as what local employers are looking for.
Through my part-time retail job, I’ve been successful in applying for a data administration role in the business’ Brisbane warehouse, which will make use of my business technology studies and will be a great opportunity to gain local experience. This is the next step in my career and towards my dream of having my own event planning business one day.
Studying in Queensland and the exposure to all the great opportunities available has been the best decision for me.
Posted by: Study Queensland