{"id":19023,"date":"2014-08-28T14:52:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T14:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/?p=19023"},"modified":"2025-01-28T21:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T02:58:14","slug":"alumnus-govindan-giving-back-to-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/08\/alumnus-govindan-giving-back-to-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Govindan Giving Back To UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharavan Govindan’s financial gift\u00a0to UConn’s School of Engineering\u00a0isn\u2019t just a way to give back for the opportunities he received as an engineering student. It\u2019s also a friendly challenge to others who have similarly benefitted from scholarships. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"shar-govindan[1]\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019d like to inspire other alumni into giving and scale up opportunities for students as a result,\u201d said Govindan, whose recent gift provides the funds for the annual <\/span>Govindan Family Fellowship.\u00a0 \u201cThe giving back should go beyond monetary assistance, including mentoring, sharing experiences through virtual or <\/span>live<\/span> presentations and discussions, partnering through their employer,\u00a0suggesting industry-relevant course curriculum to faculty, so students are better trained when they enter the workforce, and\u00a0contributing articles to the newsletter and maintaining ties.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the benefits work both ways, said Govindan, who received his Master\u2019s degree from UConn in 2003. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiving without any expectation in return, is a <\/span>unique and amazing form of happiness that can only be experienced when you do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe feeling cannot be fully expressed in words and I really hope many others get to experience this, and help others. I am grateful for the full scholarship that UConn had provided me when I was a graduate student, and this is one of the many ways I am giving back and expressing gratitude.\u00a0\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

To be eligible for the \u201cGovindan Family Fellowship\u201d fund, candidates must be an incoming or continuing graduate student enrolled full time in the School of Engineering, exhibit academic achievement and\u00a0financial need, and demonstrate an interest in environmental engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience at UConn was unique in many ways,\u201d he said. \u201cI was the webmaster for multiple departments and research centers, I was also wiring computer networks for the\u00a0Booth Research Center, while pursuing research in water and soil remediation. I was also a voluntary webmaster for the Connecticut Invention Convention for many years and was engaged in multiple<\/span> social activities.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Govindan said his experience at UConn was great preparation for his current position as director of social learning for Bentley Systems, a Pennsylvania-based software company. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmazingly, I was able to pursue a career that combines my computer and engineering skills and passions I had at UConn,\u201d he said. \u201cMy employer, Bentley Systems, offered complimentary training to UConn\u2019s students and faculty on water engineering software. Years later, when I was <\/span>looking for a career change from research, I applied\u00a0because of\u00a0the wonderful experience I had had with Bentley as a student. The rest as they say, is history. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharavan Govindan’s sees his financial gift as a friendly challenge to his fellow alumni.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":224174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57],"class_list":["post-19023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 12:13:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224181,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023\/revisions\/224181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/224174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19023"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=19023"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}