My journey as a Microsoft Student Partner

Have you ever wondered what is it like to work as a campus ambassador with Microsoft? Are you passionate about tech but also love helping fellow peers? Microsoft Student Partner Program may be the right fit for you!

Who are Microsoft Student Partners?

MSPs are on-campus ambassadors that work with Microsoft and the resources provided by it to organize tech events such as hackathons, workshops and info sessions.

Opportunities to engage with MSFT employees

I applied to the program in July and got the offer on September 4, 2019. It's been four months since I joined the program, and I have already conducted two workshops on Machine Learning and programming and an info session on Microsoft Internships, where UC Alumni Tessa Weidemann and Mansi Patel, who are now full-time employees at Microsoft, joined us on Teams from Seattle. One of the many perks of being an MSP is that it allows you to network with MSFT employees and MVPs.

Invitation to MSP Regional Summit!

Three weeks back I got an email where I learned I was among the 30 selected MSPs from the Asia-Pacific region who are invited to Singapore for a 4-day event full funded by Microsoft! The events include MSP Regional Summit, Imagine Cup 2020 Finals and The Ignite Tour starting from Feb 17 to Feb 21, 2020. Article on it coming soon!

First Workshop on campus

I conducted my first workshop on Machine Learning on Nov 3, 2019. The workshop was open to all UC students regardless of their major. Most of us, when we hear coding, we immediately get terrified. I believe that if the projects in the workshops are fun and interesting, it makes it easier to learn new skills. Keeping that in mind, I chose the Titanic project where we were going to use machine learning to predict our survival rate if we were stuck on it. Moreover, instead of just me showing PowerPoint slides, I made it a live coding workshop where attendees would code along with me.

Bringing everyone together!

One of my goals as an MSP is to develop a thriving tech community at the University of Cincinnati. Conducting a beginner-friendly workshop gave me an opportunity to bring students from all majors in a single room. The workshop was a major success with over 50+ students from all college years. In fact, due to the massive turnout, I had to conduct a second workshop a week later. This time again we had 40+ students from 11 different majors varying from Computer Science to Biomedical engineering. Moreover, it was a great learning experience for me as well. It was my first time speaking in front of a large audience at UC. At first, I was really nervous but as time went by it got easier. On the other side, I wanted to address how important are tech skills in today no matter what field are you in. I hope that my workshop inspired all the attendees to think of how technology can be helpful in real-life like the Titanic project.

What’s next?

Currently, I’m on my internship in Singapore but I’ll be back in summer for classes. I plan to host two events - AI Gaming competition and a workshop on Microsoft Cognitive Services. I believe this will further increase tech engagement on the UC campus and strengthen its community.

Tips for new MSPs

• Try to get in touch with students who were MSPs in the past for your campus. However, if you are the very first one from your college, congratulations! That’s amazing.

• Partner with on-campus student clubs to host your events because it's a win-win for both sides. One, they have all the experience and outreach that you need, and two, student clubs will be ready to help MSPs as its associated Microsoft tag. For instance, I partnered with ACM - Women for the first two events that I conducted on campus.

• Make sure that the projects you choose for your workshops are beginner-friendly and fun. I chose the Titanic project for my workshop and everyone loved it. The fact that it was a 3-hour long workshop and still everyone stayed till the end says it all. So don’t take it too seriously and have fun!

• Reach out to fellow MSPs on Teams channels for any support you need. People love to help as they have been in your shoes in the past. P.S. reach out to me anytime:)

• Event Ideas for new MSPs: Programming workshops, ML/AI workshops, MLH, AI Gaming, and Hackathons.