Ambitious, motivated, excellent at time management, passionate about business, and excited about creating opportunities for other students to express themselves, Ishant Mithrani goes above and beyond just attending classes here at Fraser Valley India. Ishant is in the 2nd year of his Business Administration program and is on the path to starting his future career in business. Ishant was the marketing manager of the Student Company Program 2019; he has started his own stationery company; is the founder and president of the Narrative Club, and volunteers for the Rotaract Club, TedX and Model United Nations Conference. Ishant still finds time to do all this while being a student on the road to go to Canada.

Ishant possesses skills that are crucial to all business students: to see where there is a need and fill it. Ishant noticed that Fraser Valley India lacked a platform for students to be able to express themselves and present their art in their native language. As a member of the Toastmasters club, Ishant observed that while that particular club developed student’s speaking skills, it did not give them much room for creativity. So Ishant and his friend Aditya Setya proposed their plan to the Student Life department, and the Narrative Club formed in September 2019.

The Narrative Club is a safe environment in which people can express themselves in their language, be it English, Hindi or Punjabi. Ishant’s goal in creating the club was also to create a greater sense of community within Fraser Valley India. One does not need to get up and share their poetry; if they do not want to, everyone can show up, support other students by listening to their work and have a good time. They also invite other artists from the Tri-City with more experience in writing and art to perform their work and to be an inspiration to the students. The Narrative Club will expand to be open to all University students of the Tricity area and will allow the entire community to attend their events.

A significant challenge that Ishant has faced while being the club’s president is securing venues that will allow them to use their space for free on weekends, the busiest days of the week for these businesses. Thankfully, through the skills he learned from the Student Company Program and his other ventures, he has managed to build contacts and the necessary communication skills to be able to secure a venue for each event.

From his old role as the marketing manager of the student-run company La BlesEnce, Ishant has learned how to manage his busy schedule outside of school, organize events, delegate people to perform particular tasks and invite people to come to and perform at events. This exposure has also helped him as a volunteer at TedX Chandigarh and the Model United Nations Conference, as he learned how to invite a variety of performers to attend these events and how to make them feel comfortable on stage.

As if Ishant was not doing enough previously, he started his own stationery company, Carnet, in order to gain more experience going into a business venture all by himself. He observed that although the Student Company Program taught him a lot about working as a team and how to run a start-up, it was also tremendously facilitated by a lot of different faculty and staff of the Student Life department who wanted the students to succeed. Teachers were there to guide the students through the process, which was extremely helpful, but also made it hard to understand all the different outcomes and externalities that come into play when one starts their own business. He wanted to be able to take risks, make failures and learn from his mistakes. So he founded Carnet, a company that provides a variety of customized stationery products in 2019.

From his widespread involvement at UFV and in the community, Ishant will be better prepared to start even bigger business ventures in the future. After he graduates with a major in International Business, Ishant wants to establish his family’s machinery manufacturing business in different countries.

Ishant is a model student when it comes to using his free time outside of class wisely. To not waste time on social media, but instead to engage in different fruitful activities that will allow him to gain experience in the field and help him build his portfolio for his future career pathway.