Nivedita "Nive" Punayur Rajasekaran came to Full Sail from India to pursue her dream of working in the video game industry. Now, only a year after graduation, Nive has landed a role as an Esports Strategist at Microsoft.

Nive grew both personally and professionally in her time as a Game Design master's student, seeking mentorship at every turn and consistently pursuing ways to further her knowledge. In fact, the grad familiarized herself with gaming engines like Unreal and Unity before her first day of classes even arrived. And, through the relationships she built on campus, Nive found something special at Full Sail.

"Everybody welcomed me like it was my home," says Nive. "Being an international student, I always had that worry inside. But whenever I reached out for help, everybody was ready to lend in that hand and teach me new stuff."

Serving as Vice President of the International Student Society and fostering relationships with grads and faculty outside or her degree program, Nive became a master of networking.

"I didn't know the meaning of 'network' back then," she says of her first few months at school. "But I could see so many successful grads shining out there in their own way."

Nive may have attended Full Sail because she wanted to create games, but the grad quickly found her passion for leadership.

"I want to change the lives of differently abled kids, make new devices or games, and put in a lot of creative ideas," she says. "I need to be in that leadership role to communicate [those things] to people."

Microsoft was not only impressed with Nive's technical prowess and leadership skills, but also with her overall demeanor.

"All of these skills made me more bold and outgoing in my interview," she recalls. "My boss was like, ‘I knew it. I knew you were that bad-ass woman.'"