Growing up, Sai Kanishk Bathina moved around a lot. He was born in India, and his family moved to the United States when he was about 4 years old. By age 13, he had lived in eight different U.S. states. He started high school in Illinois but completed his junior and senior years in Issaquah, Washington.
Now a senior at the University of Washington Bothell majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis on Leadership & Strategic Innovation, he said he is grateful to call Washington state and the campus in Bothell his home.
Although Bathina has lived in the Pacific Northwest longer than anywhere else, he is still on the move with a busy schedule and a desire to make the most out of his education — even as he prepares to graduate in the spring.
His parting advice to other students is to squeeze as much from their college experience as possible: “If you are interested in something, even slightly, it’s better to just do it and try it out. The stakes are never so high that you can’t drop something and pursue another opportunity later,” Bathina said. “Building your professional career starts on campus first, and you can really set yourself up to succeed and to grow if you’re open to that and get involved as much as you can.”
Given his engagement in clubs, student government, internships and consulting, his advice is backed by personal (and professional) experience.
An interest sparked
In high school, Bathina found himself drawn to business classes, and he explored this further by joining DECA, formerly known as Distributive Education Clubs of America, a global organization that helps prepare students for business-related careers.
“I really like the idea of solving strategic problems and understanding how businesses function — not just at an operational level,” he said, “but also at an executive level and the decision-making and strategy aspects of business.”
His parents both have careers in business, and that, too, was an influence, he added.
As Bathina began looking at colleges, he found just what he was looking for in UW Bothell — a tight-knit community with small class sizes that was close to home. He enrolled in autumn 2021 and immediately hit the ground running, seeking out extracurricular opportunities.
In his first year, he was a finance officer for the UW Blockchain Society, a tri-campus organization that provides education and engagement opportunities on all things blockchain. He also served as a campus peer coach but discovered he wanted to pursue other opportunities.
“I’m so grateful that I got to be involved in peer coaching though, because I met some of my closest friends and connected with people across different majors. Emily Leonard and the rest of the Orientation & Transition Program staff provided me the opportunity to grow and learn, especially when it came to finding a passion for helping other students find their place both on campus and beyond.”
“If you are interested in something, even slightly, it’s better to just do it and try it out. Building your professional career starts on campus first, and you can really set yourself up to succeed and to grow if you’re open to that and get involved as much as you can.”
Sai Kanishk Bathina, senior, Business Administration
A niche discovered
By his sophomore year, Bathina had discovered consulting as his desired niche in business. Together with two friends and recent graduates, he co-founded the Bothell Consulting Association, an on-campus organization aimed at introducing students to consulting as a career option and preparing them for it through an extracurricular curriculum focused on case studies, theoretical knowledge and real-world applications.
“We really just wanted to bring the industry of consulting forward,” he said. “It’s such an incredible opportunity to learn, grow and develop. There’s no other industry that really has you working across different projects on these high-level strategic problems. The breadth of experience and learning you get is unparalleled across industries. We wanted to bring to light the different pathways that consulting can provide as a career.”
During his senior year, Bathina also joined the Associated Students of the University of Washington Bothell as a senator for the School of Business.
“ASUWB has been an eye-opening and transformative experience,” he said. “It’s helped me understand not just the strategic efforts and roles that different offices and departments play but also the actual measurable and tangible impacts you see in the lives of students that these different groups are impacting.”
Emily Park, ASUWB director of senate and a junior majoring in Law, Economics & Public Policy, describes Bathina as an active member who has served on several committees and passionately advocated for student support.
“I have worked with Sai through the Bothell Consulting Association, as I am a member, and I noticed his initiative and how his passion for what he does shone through — especially during our first senate interview I hosted,” Park said. “Sai was an incredible speaker, and I believe he has the ability to go above and beyond with his experience and work ethic.”
Real-world experience
Among his other extracurriculars, Bathina was a member of the School of Business Dean’s Student Advisory Board and the campus’ Student Technology Fund Committee. Some of his most impactful experiences during his time at UW Bothell, however, were the off-campus internships he pursued.
His sophomore year, he interned as an innovation analyst in Costco’s IT department, where he gained insight into how new technologies for the retail space are assessed and implemented. Last year, he started a second internship as a corporate citizen intern at Avanade, a company headquartered in Seattle that provides global IT consulting and other services.
“Sai is plugged into all facets of corporate citizenship on a global level,” said Margaret Doheny, USA & Canada corporate citizenship lead for Avanade. “He contributes to our strategy, providing us with a great lens into the world of students and their perspectives.”
This perspective, she added, was instrumental in bridging the partnership between UW Bothell and Avanade to sponsor last year’s hackathon event. “Sai is our direct connection to UW Bothell and one of our junior project managers for the hackathon program. Last year, he played a crucial role in facilitating and managing logistics for Avanade’s first involvement in the AI Husky Hackathon,” she said. “He introduced new perspectives by connecting the business school and enabling more clubs on campus to participate. His efforts contributed to making it the largest AI Husky Hackathon ever.”
Bathina has also been involved in multiple, high-level projects during his internship, including the Fuel Conference, a global networking and hackathon event hosted by Avanade. While engaging with executives as an intern has at times felt intimidating, he said, the internship has given him the growth and industry exposure he wanted to prepare him for life after graduation.
One of his biggest contributions was his work on sustainability reporting that placed Avanade in the 97th percentile for its sustainability work, Doheny noted. “He was responsible for developing and submitting our entire EcoVadis report, which achieved gold status this year thanks to his hard work and diligence.”
“Sai’s internship has provided him with a unique advantage among his peers,” she said. “He has demonstrated resilience and agility in the fast-paced tech world and has absorbed valuable lessons from connecting with Avanade leadership and working with a diverse team. His future in the industry looks exceptionally bright — and I have no doubt he will achieve great success in his career.”
The next steps
Bathina is currently focused on preparing for this year’s hackathon and is again serving on the UWB Hacks executive planning board, representing both UW Bothell and Avanade. He hopes this year’s event will break last year’s record attendance. The hackathon is entirely student-led, with more than 40 students active on the planning team.
As he prepares for life post-graduation, he is also actively looking for the next opportunity that will launch his career. He’s keeping his options open and interested in anything from finance and consulting to business development and strategy.
“Getting to be part of a small community like UW Bothell has opened up so many opportunities for me,” Bathina said. “STF, the ASUWB Senate, the dean’s advisory board, starting my own club and doing all these things — I don’t think I would have been able to do all of it at a bigger university. It also wouldn’t have been possible without the support of so many individuals, including my peers, professors and advisers.
“Being on a smaller campus has really given me a way to impact the campus community at a larger scale where I can have a personal impact and hand in problem solving,” he said. “It’s shown me how we as a community can change things, and that’s been a truly transformative experience.”
