I'm Here for a Reason, and I'll Live Up to It: My Journey from Coimbatore to Italy

As an Aeronautical Engineering graduate from Nehru Institute of Engineering and Technology in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, I never really planned to study abroad.

- Savitha Ponnusamy

s an Aeronautical Engineering graduate from Nehru Institute of Engineering and Technology in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, I never really planned to study abroad. Yet here I am, pursuing a Joint Master's in Hydrogen Systems and Enabling Technologies at Politecnico di Torino, Italy, with plans to continue at NTNU, Norway.

My program is a collaborative effort between multiple European universities, including Politecnico di Milano, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Universitat Politecnica di Catalunya.

Everything happened like magic. I wanted to study a very specific course, which was available only here, so I applied and got the offer. Still, I can't believe it. The path to securing my place wasn't easy, though. Since our universities were very strict, it was very hard for me to gather the documents. I had to run to and fro to get them from my university.

While my Italian visa came through quickly thanks to help from my university in Italy, collecting the apostilles and attestations from my university in India was terrible. I had to wait for more than three months to get the approval. I almost lost my enrolment for Italy.