Speech 1: Icebreaker Speech - How I got here

Hello Everyone. My name is Chandra Sekhar Devavarapu. 

I was born – Graduated – Made it to the US (Living my Dream) – Did my Masters – Got a Job.

Somewhere along the way – I got married (Still living my Dream  J )

Allow me take you to different time lines of my Life in no particular order.

It was spring of 2007. I landed in the United States of America.  The place I have always dreamt to live. Cleveland, Ohio was the first place I lived in the US. I still remember how I felt experiencing the low 40s for the first time.

I lived in a Small Studio - Study and campus job during the weekdays – part time job over the weekend – 2 years fast forward – Graduated from Cleveland State University with a GPA of 3.84. Master of Science in Information systems.

Since we are talking about educational qualifications let us go back to my undergrad days.

I am a chemical engineer from JNT University from Hyderabad.  Graduated with 79.8 % in 2006. I love chemistry which made me choose chemical engineering among many other fields. It did not take much time to realize chemistry has nothing to do with chemical engineering. My engineering degree lead to this job many young engineers’ chemical engineers aspire in one of the leading Oil refineries in India called Reliance Industries. It was world’s largest refinery at a single location.  I worked there for close to one year. I realized my dream of higher studies in the US and I pursued it.

I had a wonderful childhood.  I hail from a middle class family from a small village in south India. My father is a farmer and my mom is a house keeper. We have a coconut farm.  I am always grateful to my parents for all the hard ships and sacrifices they made for me and my elder sisters upbringing.

Eight years in the US. I’ve worked with several clients as a Business Intelligence Consultant. I have lived in many places. (East coast, West coast, Mid-west and South). SD is the best places I have ever lived.  

My Interests and hobbies:

I love food. I love photography. Not just photography, I like working with HDR imaging. Photo editing software’s like Light room, Photoshop.  I love traveling, going to places experiencing different cultures. Traveling to the UK seeing some places of England and Scotland got me a travel bug. I want to see other parts of Europe.

I like running. I am not fast but got some endurance.  I ran about 1000 miles did 8 half marathons so far. Am doing another half in March and will do a marathon this year. There is a growing optimism that I will be an ultra-marathoner soon. 

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