Mumbai boy Aryan Trehan bags bronze in Microsoft Office Olympics

Mumbai boy Aryan Trehan bags bronze in Microsoft Office Olympics
Mumbai boy Aryan Trehan bags bronze in Microsoft Office Olympics
Aryan Trehan, a 13-year-old ICSE student ranked third in a competition in NYC, against 850,000 participants, aged 13 to 22, from 119 countries

A few months ago, when Aryan Trehan’s mother Chetna kept reminding him to put in his daily two-and-a-half hours towards practicing Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Trehan (13), remembers, he had almost had enough.

“Along with school work, it was quite a lot to handle on some days,” said Trehan, speaking to Mirror, from a hotel in NYC’s Time Square.

“At one point, I almost gave up, but in hindsight, I’m so grateful that my mother made sure I went the distance,” said a delighted Trehan, the only child of Chetna Trehan, a qualified lawyer who dapples in the property market and in financial products, and Ashok, who owns a printing press. The family lives in Andheri West.

Mumbai boy Aryan Trehan bags bronze in Microsoft Office Olympics
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Mumbai boy Aryan Trehan bags bronze in Microsoft Office Olympics
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On July 31, Trehan beat competitors aged 13 to 22, from 119 countries to bag the bronze award in the annual Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship – a 17-year-old Microsoft-endorsed property that’s hosted by Certiport, a provider of performance-based IT certification exams. Along with a certificate acknowledging his superlative skills, Trehan, a grade IX-student from Juhu’s Jamnabai Narsee School, received a cash award of $1,500 (about Rs 1,07,000).

In first place was Adrian Boier of Romania, who received a cash prize of $7,000, and Pou Leng Ho, from Macau, bagged the silver, with a cash prize of $3500.


"There were three others competitors from India, but I was the only 13-year-old,” said Trehan. He told Mirror, the participants received some learning materials from the organisers, but that he perfected his skills by referring to various other resources online -- "and with two-and-a-half hours of practice, every day, for over seven months." The certificate, Trehan believes, will set him apart from peers. “Almost everyone can use Microsoft, but the award establishes just how proficiently we are able to use these products to achieve specific outcomes,” he said.