BY RAEJHON JOHNSON
Ganesh Neelanjanmath is the founder of iCent, an innovative app for international students. In this edition of Life after Sheridan, we cover the 2011 Sheridan grad who found success from Sheridan’s Project Management program.
Neelanjanmath was born and raised in India and decided he would pursue Computer Science and Engineering. He attended Visvesvaraya Technological University in 2001 and received his bachelor’s degree in 2005. Neelanjanmath spent a few years working at businesses including INSZoom Software, Bloom Consulting Services and more as a lead project analyst.
Neelanjanmath, who founded his own business in 2008 called Neel-Tech, discovered Sheridan would give him the perfect opportunity to bring his business to North America.
In 2010, Neelanjanmath made the move to Canada to attend classes at Trafalgar Campus. He remembers how confused and challenging it was trying to figure his way from Pearson Airport, only with an email about how to get to Campus.
He told Sheridan he was lost. However, Neelanjanmath was a great problem solver and would credit that moment as one of his biggest inspirations.
“I spent the majority of the year working with teams on different projects,” said Neelanjanmath. “Sheridan definitely taught me a lot, techniques on how to execute a project to perfection, just all-around sharpening my skills. I came here in a daze after my eight-hour flight and found a lot of guidance.”
After Neelanjanmath graduated he wondered what he should do. He told Sheridan that he wanted something he would enjoy for many years to come.
His first day in Toronto, Neelanjanmath tried to find a job at Sheridan’s Campus cafeteria. He found out he would need a social insurance number and ended up having to back and forth between Sheridan and Service Canada because they told him he couldn’t get a SIN without a job offer. Once again, this gave Neelanjanmath the inspiration to help students who face the same challenges.
“There were other international students asking me questions, how I figured my way around and if I had a good experience,” said Neelanjanmath. “I remembered how I felt when I got here, I realized I wanted to help other international students receive the education they deserved.”
Neelanjanmath began his vision of the iCent app in 2013, but also contributed his talents at other places while working on his own idea. After some research, Neelanjanmath hasn’t spent very long at a company besides his own. He’s worked in the same field but at a wide variety of businesses. It shows how not every job has to be a permanent position, but an opportunity to help you develop and put your skills to use. His most notable jobs before his idea took off would be at Rogers, Bell, and even working at Sheridan for six months helping create their own mobile app.
“Since nowadays everybody is on their phone when they need to find some information, I made iCent an app for smartphones,” said Neelanjanmath.
Neelanjanmath’s iCent app was made for international students to help get them familiar with the community, academic systems, and life in Canada. The app has been downloaded over 11,000 times since 2017. It’s helped tons of international students—as reported by Sheridan, about 90 percent of students that come from outside the country use the iCent app.
Neelanjanmath has made a huge impact in Sheridan, Canada, and international students lives. You can check him out on his social media or his website. If you are interested in checking out the iCent app, you can find it here.