Student Spotlight: Hemkesh Agrawal

Academic achievement was always valued in my life growing up. I knew that higher education was important to my success. What I never imagined was how the friendships I built would shape my understanding of science and my future as an entrepreneur. College wasn’t just a place to learn — it was where I found my community, honed my ideas, and turned my passion into action.

I grew up surrounded by science in a way that felt normal to me back then, though looking back, I realize it was incredibly special. I remember going to work with my parents in elementary school, where I learned how to build electrical circuits and saw some of India’s earliest computers at work. I used any avenue available to me to learn more about engineering: one of my favorite pastimes was breaking my toys into parts and trying to construct new ones.

My high school education nurtured my love of science. I participated in competitive programming events, served as president of the computer club, and helped build a STEM robotics lab in my school. Maybe most rewardingly, I was able to patent my first invention — a dialable glove for visually impaired people that I built at 17, which I presented at a startup convention my senior year. That’s where my passion for engineering expanded to entrepreneurship.

But it was college that gave me the opportunity to grow my love of science into something more. I knew that if I wanted to immerse myself in cutting-edge research and surround myself with like-minded people, I’d have to go where those opportunities were more accessible. For me, that meant coming to America to attend Michigan State University.

College let me pursue both my passions — engineering and entrepreneurship — while building community with people who shared my interests. In my first year, I joined a fraternity and got involved with Spartan Hackers — now the biggest computer science club at Michigan State. Later on, I became a peer leader at the College of Engineering, where I worked hard to help freshmen find their footing both academically and socially. The community I built helped me succeed in school — and gave me a home away from home, while my family was an ocean away.

With the guidance of my professors and peers, I found the perfect intersection for my interests: app development. My sophomore year, I created an app for the College of Engineering that encouraged students to attend online events during the COVID pandemic. It was so successful that I had to hire students to manage it after I graduated. Later, the Department of Linguistics asked me to create a data collection app for their virtual COVID research in East Lansing. It meant everything to me to give back to the community that had given so much to me in its time of need.

But the most important venture I undertook in college was my own start-up. I worked with a friend to create an app that marketed odd jobs, like shoveling snow or walking dogs, to local college students. I knew that my heart is entrepreneurial. I worked so hard to build the connections I needed to pursue my dream of building my own business, and after graduation I knew that my dream was finally a possibility.

I worked incredibly hard academically, but none of my accomplishments could’ve been achieved without the help of the people around me. It’s thanks to university faculty who supported me that I was able to raise $250,000 for my first start-up and attend major technology conventions across the country. Graduating college put me in the position to stand side by side with people who helped me get where I always wanted to be.