These Centurion University students are on their way to ace the IndiaSkills 2021 competition

Eight students from Centurion University are just one step away from the much-talked-about WorldSkills Competitions, a challenge where youngsters compete to establish the supremacy of their skills globally. That one step is the national level they need to sail through, which is IndiaSkills 2021, the challenge they qualified for after winning the IndiaSkills 2021 Regional Skill Competitions (East Zone) held in Patna from October 21 to 23. They are jubilant, and okay, a little nervous as well, for IndiaSkills 2021 in December.

Out of the eager eight, two students won the gold medal in Patna, much to their delight. Though if it was up to a very self-critical J Lavanya, a BSc student of Clinical Microbiology, she wouldn't have awarded herself the gold, she says candidly. But her attention to detail earned her praise from the jury as well. The third-year student bagged the gold in the health and social care category by battling through five modules like planning, hands-on, communication and reflective, and demonstrated her skills in caring for patients in a hospital and home setting as well. "The one compliment I received that stands out for me is that the jury called my dressing of the wound very neat and effective," she says. But the 21-year-old has her eyes on the future already as she hopes to train in a few hospitals of Odisha so that she can ace it at the national level as well. "I am anxious yet confident," she expressed.

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Then there is Hritik Patra, a student of Mechanical Engineering who bagged the gold medal in the area of joinery (woodwork). "It is my dream to be an entrepreneur, to have my own start-up with regards to furniture and wood. So winning the regional round and bagging the gold medal is a dream come true for me,” he exclaims. In fact, this 20-year-old was so confident of his performance by the second day of the competition that he was seen jumping up and down in his room. He almost jinxed it on the second day though, when one testy joint wasn't sitting particularly well. We are told he spent an hour despairing, but picked himself and dusted himself off just in time. "I hope that soon, I will get the required permissions to travel to other cities and practice for the next level," he says hopefully.

Computer Science and Engineering student Saurav Dhali bagged the silver medal for his prowess in 3D game art and Satya Ranjan Mohanty bagged silver in CNC turning. Pranab and Srinibas won gold in the category of cyber security while Abhigyan and Rohan clinched the silver in the same category. Chinmaya qualified in the area of cloud computing.