Sishir Garemella SISHIR GAREMELLA India Young Graduate Going Places The value of the University of Windsor resonated with Sishir Garemella during his graduation ceremony. The keynote speaker was none other than Sergio Marchionne, C.E.O. of Fiat S.p.A. The man who makes decisions for the company that controls Maserati and Ferrari graduated from the University of Windsor (BComm 1979, MBA 1985) and came back to inspire the graduating class of 2005. Sishir Garemella (B.A.Sc 2005) reflected back on the people he met during the course of his studies. "I have seen people from University of Windsor go places. I have seen them go to Wall Street, Bay Street, [Toronto's financial hub] and Stanford. I have seen the best students from India come here and study," said Sishir, a Controls Engineer at Nemak. Sishir, who is only 23 years old, was hired by Nemak to implement a 2.1 million dollar project. "I essentially work with Robots," explained Sishir. "This is one of the biggest projects Nemak has had recently and it makes me feel really nice that they have given me this responsibility." So how did Sishir land this job? He majored in Electrical Engineering with Coop. During his coop work terms he worked for Suzuki and General Motors. The combined coop work placements enabled Sishir to have 16 months of work experience in Engineering while still in school. At GM, Sishir who was only 19 years old at the time worked with four GM brands and led a team of 55 employees, most old enough to be his own father. But Sishir never let his age get in the way of getting the job done. He understood that the experience he was getting is intangible and couldn't be taught to him as C++ is taught in schools. "When 42 second downtime means one car, which is $20,000 and if the line is down five minutes, guess who is accountable for that, me! I couldn't then just go to my boss and say sorry, I couldn't do it because am a young guy," explained Sishir. Sishir Garemella was only 17 years old when he came from Delhi, India and started his studies at the University of Windsor. Through the course of his studies, Sishir worked hard, gained fantastic job experiences and got on the Dean's list for academic achievement during the last three semesters of his Engineering Program. "At the end of the day, when you have faced so many challenges, confidence comes to you naturally. You are an international student you have come a long way, you have faced hardships, you have learned the way to do things. It has just been a fantastic experience." What does the future hold for Sishir? He would like to get a Masters degree in the field of finance and subsequently work in the sales and trading division of a leading investment bank.