It was raining heavily in Melbourne and some parts reported a hailstorm on Sunday when Devarshi Desai and Jocelyn Wardle were making last minute arrangements for their first-ever meetup event organized by their start-up ‘Melbourne Vibe’ which works towards enhancing experiences of international students in Australia.
Despite the cold and wet weather, over 80 international students turned up for the two-hour meetup event in Melbourne.
“This was our first event since we launched nine months ago in December 2017,” Desai tells SBS Hindi.
Twenty-five-year-old Desai, an Indian international student from Monash University joined hands with an Australian content maker, Jocelyn Wardle to launch their social media channel, Melbourne Vibe, in December 2017.
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“I arrived in Australia in June 2017 to pursue Master of Business at Monash University," says Desai. "I had so many questions - about finding accommodation, jobs, making new friends, networking in my industry and that is when I thought of making videos to answer these questions aimed specifically towards international students.
“I met Jocelyn, who is a local and has a lot of experience working in management, business training and human resources. She is a freelance photographer and a video editor. We joined hands and started making videos."
From a video on finding rental accommodation in Australia to an explainer video on the public transport system, the duo claims to have answered over 10,000 questions from international students on their social media channels – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram in nine months.
“Our total video views have exceeded 600,000 and students not just from Australia but across the world have viewed it,” he says.
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“One question which comes up, again and again, is that of accommodation. That is the first and most basic need of an international student when they set foot in Australia. So we came up with an idea to establish a platform to connect international students with short-term accommodation and mentors from whom they can learn about life in Australia – from jobs, industries, networking to visas.”
The duo pitched this as a start-up idea at Monash University’s entrepreneurship program – . They were among nine teams recently selected, receiving a seed funding to grow their idea.
Their start-up organised their first event in Melbourne on Sunday.
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“We wanted to connect international students with each other and locals, answer their questions and interact with them, and provide a platform to them to make new friends and network.
“Over two hours, they were able to connect with each other and locals who work in multiple different fields, including medical, engineers, business management, hospitality, workforce recruitment, human resources and more.
“We also organised a brief 30-minute session with a migration agent to talk about visa options for international students who wish to stay in Australia long term as part of the mentoring program.
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“And then, there were games and pizzas,” Desai says.
