When it comes to the stories of how our Fellows chose VFA, no two are the same. Each morning at Fellow Training Camp, we ask one Fellow to choose one of Venture for America’s “credos” that really speaks to them, and tell the story of why.
Swad Komanduri, a Cal Tech engineer and 2014 VFA Fellow, tells his story below.
My career is a choice that indicates my values
From a young age, I was told, in true millennial fashion, that I am unique. In fact, this notion was instilled in me from the day I was named. My name, Swadhruth, in Sanskrit, breaks down into two parts: sva, meaning “self,” and dhrutha, meaning “reliant.” So my name literally translates to self-reliant or independent. The uniqueness and meaning of my name really instilled in me a belief that I could significantly better the world around me, a notion that was reinforced not only by my parents, who gave me the self-confidence to believe that I can do anything I set my mind to, but also by my schools, which consistently labeled me as “gifted and talented.” Through this reinforcement, my belief blossomed into an ideal, a core tenet of my being, that I could do something to benefit society. This ideal was reinforced when I got into one of the most highly selective educational institutions in the world. I was confident that I would learn how to use my knowledge to improve the day-to-day lives of everyday people. As I got closer to graduation, I started to ask my older friends, who were working at the most prestigious companies (Facebook, Google, Consulting) what sort of work they were doing once they graduated. The answers I got were shocking.
One of my friends told me that his role was to make sure that when you clicked something in your email, it actually does what it’s supposed to do. Another told me that his job was to make sure that the notifications on your mobile app updated at the right time. And a third told me that his job was essentially a glorified way of moving data from one storage source to another. This was horrifying. I had been a full time student for almost 18 years at this point. 18 years of hard work and learning everything that was thrown at me culminates in this?! My education and training from arguably the best institution in the world leads to this?! It was extremely frustrating and disheartening to learn that this is where the path led. That the most prestigious and impactful use of my skills was to move data from one place to another was something I refused to accept. This was not the impact that I sought.
So I asked myself what the impact I sought truly was. Because of my background as a third-world emigrant growing up with first-world privilege, I knew that I wanted to uplift the lives of underprivileged communities. So that’s what I did. I met with the dean of my school and several of my professors and told them that this is the work I wanted to do and if they knew of any opportunities for me. Through their referrals, I was connected with the founder of a pre-launch startup focused on improving housing conditions in slums and rural parts of India through an innovative use of recycled waste. So after graduation, I packed my bags and joined him on what ended up being the greatest learning experience of my life. I learned firsthand that in order to actually solve a problem at scale and deliver the impact that I sought, I needed to create scalable sustainable value adding institutions, and that I had a lot to learn before I could be successful at doing so. It is this realization that led me to join Venture for America to learn the skills I need to maybe someday be worthy of my name.