Ibrahim's blog

                                                     Getting to know my mentor Sri

            Srivatsan, who I’ll be referring to as Sri (Shree) throughout my blog, is my mentor at the Bio design institute who is a graduate student for the SWETTE center for environmental biotechnology at ASU Tempe. This interview took place at his workstation located at the corner of the first floor of the laboratory near the lobby of Bio-design building A. Sri is your ordinary “Indian looking” guy with a brown skin, smooth long hair, standing at almost 5’8 with body weight approximately 165 pounds, and big eyes that can look straight in to your soul (I’m not kidding).

Sri is from south India. First, before meeting Sri, I thought all Indians had the same language and somewhat similar culture. I was shocked when I found out how almost every part of India have different languages and culture depending on which region they reside. For example, a common language for almost all Indians is Hindi. But, that’s not the case for South India, Tamil, pronounced Tamir. South Indians, Tamilians, have their own language and culture. The way I found out about this was kind of a funny story, and I would like to share it with you. The first couple of weeks I met Sri and his colleagues from all around India, and They were all speaking English. Due to my curiosity, I asked Sri, “Why do you guys always speak English? Why not speak your own language?” Sri, with his soul seeking eyes, gave me a look followed by a smile and explained how they only speak English because they can’t understand each other’s native language. Of course, I demanded a lunch with him to explain this diversity, but that’s going to be another blog discussion, so bottom line is not all Indians have the same language and culture, which kind of makes sense due to their population.

Sri was born to be a researcher (his own words). He did his bachelor’s in civil engineering at his hometown Tamil. He did his master’s in environmental engineering, and now is doing his Ph.D. in environmental biology/engineering here at ASU Tempe. He has been at the SWETTE center for almost four years now. Sri’s life seems successful from the surface. Honestly, for a thirty-minute interview knowing everything about him would be hard, but to my advantage, I’ve known him for a while, which makes this a little easier. Sri’s dedication and hard work are his best attributes. I can say he is a man whose talent is not to quit. His professionalism is out of this world. When it’s time to work or be serious, I haven’t met anyone so disciplined. Whenever it’s time to mentor me about life he always tells me to love what you do, especially in graduate school. “Don’t come here for the money; chances are you won’t be a millionaire in grad-school unless you find the biggest breakthrough of the century. But, at least you get to travel non-stop.” He always keeps repeating these wise words because he hears a lot of undergrads say they’re here for the money.

The path from college to career isn’t easily accessible; if it were easy everyone would do it, according to Sri. No graduate student wants to spend 50 plus hours in the lab, “You want it? You go get it.” But, one thing he emphasizes is to not complicate things. One of Sri’s best pieces of advice is to work on the little things. He always tells me to work on the little details in work, school, even in labs. I mean with those eyes I’m not surprised about his attention to details ha-ha. “If you’re worried about an assignment, worry while doing it. If You’re worried about bad grades, study while being worried. If you want a job, don’t sit down, and wait for it to come to you, start talking to everyone you know in the field you’re interested.” These are the few specific things required in the real world. When Sri resided to the United States, he talked to almost all the Principal Investigators for a research opportunity in masters in environmental engineering. He swore he talked to 17 PI’s and only 4 accepted him. Little did all the remaining 13 PI’s knew about his work ethic and professionalism. He never used his “poor economical” status as an excuse. As to most international students, education is the way out.

 Being an international student has also given Sri an edge in the workplace due to exposure of different environments. This also means that as an international student, you also have to fit in the “Right way.” Dressing well for presentations, industry partners meetings, and even meeting PI’s to show data. “Your attire is key during meetings. Whether you like it or not, people will judge you when they get the first glimpse of you, conscious or unconscious doesn’t matter. Your first impression is your last one, USE IT WISELY.” I have seen Sri wear a suit only once, and God damn he rocked it. 

Overall, I think the interview was a success. I’ve always wanted to surround myself with people who want more in everything. Sri’s story and work ethic will always help me get through hard times. One thing I like about working with Sri is that I always play that “Catch up” game with him. As an undergraduate student, of course, I feel a little insecure about my education level working with all these grad-students, including Sri. I mean every time I ask a question that’s fairly obvious, but I’m not a hundred percent on, I pray to everything holy out there to not get a soul check (Sri’s eyes) from Sri. This encourages me to read a lot and not depend on him throughout my time at the center.