Promising young Mongolian programmers will soon have unique opportunities in America and elsewhere
Shagai Nyamdorj is taking what he learned in MIU’s ComPro MSCS program, and giving back to his home country of Mongolia by teaching middle and high school students the skills they need to kickstart a future career in IT.
“For the last three years, we have built our Nest Academy. Now we have more than one hundred kids learning coding and UX design,” says Shagai. “Our mission is to coach 10K young talents to become world class software engineers. Once we have perfected the plan and the setup, we hope to expand to other countries as well.”
By 2022, Nest Academy’s partner company, Nest Solutions, will start matching these talented young developers from Mongolia with startup companies in the U.S. and other nations to create the team necessary for a startup to thrive and grow into a well-established success. First they will focus on startups in Mongolia, and then expand operations to include projects in the U.S., Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Shagai knows well from personal experience that good ideas alone are not enough to make a startup into a successful company:
“It’s vital to have a good team and good leadership–it’s very obvious that all the tech giants open their offices in big cities with good talent pools. And with most of the successful companies, there is a good team with more than 100 engineers with good leadership that can turn any simple idea into a successful venture,” Shagai points out.
When Shagai first applied for the ComPro program in 2011, he submitted an essay with his application that said, “My main goal for increasing my knowledge base is to make a difference in the lives of others.”
This is a goal he still holds to this day.
“I want to teach our young generation to improve their lives, pursue their dreams and make a difference in our country and the world,” says Shagai.
He has found his education at MIU to be the perfect bridge to achieving this goal.
The full time, paid Curricular Practical Training aspect of the ComPro program has been especially valuable for Shagai, because it allowed him to gain real-world experience with a U.S. company while continuing to take computer science classes via distance education.
After completing his on-campus studies, Shagai was hired for an internship at well-known financial services company Shazam, and later worked as a senior software engineer at Amazon before starting his own company.
How did he hear about the ComPro program?
“In 2010, I was fortunate that I had a chance to work with top talents in Mongolia, and one of my co-workers decided to apply to MIU. For me it was a great chance to challenge myself to pursue my MSCS in the United States as well. I had never seen such a good program in the U.S. I had researched similar programs, but realized MIU is far more valuable compared to other programs,” Shagai says.
In October 2011, he left his friends, family and career in Mongolia, and set off for America. He arrived on the campus of MIU, a few hours’ drive from Chicago, to find a very welcoming environment:
“The MIU campus and town of Fairfield, Iowa is such a pleasant and convenient place, and everyone at the school and in the community are so friendly,” he says.
Transcendental Meditation
Shagai quickly settled into his new routine at MIU, which included regular practice of the benefit-rich Transcendental Meditation® technique (TM). TM is the cornerstone of the Consciousness-based education at MIU, where all students practice TM as part of the curriculum.
It soon became clear to Shagai that TM was having a positive effect:
“TM improves my sleep quality and makes me calmer in stressful situations. I think it also helps us become more joyful and happy,” he says.
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