Fresh Off The Boat

After dropping out of law school, Payal took a gap year to start her own company. Soon after, she majored in Psychology and Computer Science and became part of Yale-NUS College's first graduating class. Although the program was small, it was extremely personal focused and enabled her to develop a new way of thinking. 

Currently, Payal is working with a team at Linkedin to create equal opportunity for every member in the workforce. She specifically works with potential Linkedin Learning or Talent Solutions clients who are used to upskilling employees and finding new talent. Her strong entrepreneurial interest is evident from the three companies she has founded as well as her time working in a higher learning tech start up. Her previous experiences have provided her with the necessary skills to be successful at what she does. 

Originally from Kathmandu, Yash is currently attending the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and plans to double major in Economics and Computer Science with a concentration in Business. Initially, he was apprehensive about a large public university but he has found that through the course structure and advisors, the university still excels at focusing and giving attention to individual students.

Although he is in his first years, Yash has been sure of all his interests and priorities. As he talked about his courses, he emphasizes a need to take art and graphic design courses for anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur so that they can be better prepared ahead. In the future, Yash plans to diversify and take more computer science and business classes while still solidifying his interest in entrepreneurship and athletic activities. 

Lavanya is currently pursuing a double major in Economics and Data Science & Analytics from Singapore Management University. She recalls the big change in her life as she moved to a new country and how the freshman programs at SMU allowed her to meet diverse groups of people and ease her into her new undergraduate life. 

To supplement all her academic coursework, she interned at Absolute Data which solidified her interest in data analytics. She was able to create a R Shiny app that helped her colleagues visualize the trends in the hospitality sector. Ultimately, Lavanya has also been able to participate in various co-curricular activity clubs at SMU to not only hone her academic skills but also gain a variety of vital soft skills that she would need in the future. 

Hrishi completed high school at the Anglo Chinese School in Singapore and graduated in computer science from Yale-NUS, the newly built campus of the National University of Singapore. As part of the first few graduating batches from this campus, he was fortunate to be part of the budget allocation early on. The access to good resources along with the required additional courses in liberal arts allowed for his holistic development. 

Currently, Hrishi works as the Chief Technology Officer for Greywing which specializes in risk assessment and analysis related to maritime vessels. He works to aggregate data at large scales and run algorithms on it to find ways for efficient movement. During these times, he helped in redirecting resources to help deal with the issues caused by the pandemic. 

Ruhani moved from Chandigarh to Ithaca alone to get her chemical engineering degree and a business minor from Cornell University. She recalls how her professors, group of friends, and family helped her through the rigorous academic environment at Cornell. All her undergraduate experiences allowed her to explore her interests and go into the business consulting space with a focus on engineering. 

For some years, she worked at Arconic not only as a consultant but also in the growth and market strategy team. She decided to get a MBA to further her interest in finance and accounting. After completing her courses and internship, she decided to focus on investment banking. Now after completing her MBA from the coveted MIT Sloan School of Management, she is going on to work in the investment banking sphere at the Bank of America.

Vedika moved from an urban bustling environment to a small town in Iowa where she graduated with a degree in Economics and a concentration in Global Development Studies from Grinnell College. This quiet small liberal arts program with rigorous academic classes allowed her to explore a lot of her interests. 

Throughout her undergraduate journey she was keen to work in the social impact space. Not only did she gain experience as social coordinator for the international student organization but also worked as an elected senator in her university student government. However, during all this she also ensured to explore the creative industry through her renewed interest in film, theatre and writing. Ultimately, her college accomplishments ranged from interning at Vogue Conde Nast to working for Save the Children.  

Nirvik finished high school in Singapore where he was able to complete as many college prerequisites as he could and participated in rigorous extra curricular activities related to his interest in computer science. He is currently completing his double degree in Computer Science and Classical Languages from Stanford University. His high school experiences allowed him to get placed into advanced sequence classes freshman year. 

Continuing on, he was also able to work as a teaching assistant for beginner comp sci classes. He is currently working as a researcher for TockOS. Additionally, he is also a research assistant for the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign where he is creating an advanced care planning platform for the Stanford Hospital system. He hopes to continue on to academia in the future. 

Saurabh graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after completing a double degree in Business Management and Biomedical Engineering. Although he initially started as a mechanical engineer, he moved to biomedical engineering to have an impact on society. He used his experience as an undergraduate researcher at a renowned surgical robotics lab to progress on to complete his doctoral research project in the same field. Eventually, he moved away from pure sciences and into the interdisciplinary space of science and business. 

He worked for several years in the management consultancy field until he transitioned on to his current role at Pfizer. Saurabh also gives advice about different subspecialties and career tracks in biotech and emphasizes the importance of having a solid fundamental education. Ultimately, he reflects on the future of biotech and its role in society. 

Prateek started on a predetermined path to be around his family in Houston. Initially, he attended Austin Community College for a few semesters and maintained a good GPA but transferred to Texas A&M University and majored in Economics after. He fulfilled his general electives at Austin Community college taking advantage of the cheaper and smaller classes. Ultimately after completing his degree he joined the family hospitality business.

He has now transitioned into being the Director of Operations and is in-charge of heading a chain of franchise hotels. He works closely with General Managers to supervise daily operations for all the active hotels. He fondly recalls how he started his journey at the bottom as a fresh graduate and worked his way to the top through training, learning, networking and hard work.

Aneesh progressed from DPS R.K. Puram to Furman University, a liberal arts college and graduated with three separate majors; IT, Studio Art and Design and Asian Studies, which helped him step out of the traditional design process and approach problem-solving in a different way. He recalls his journey where he switched to IT from Computer Science and completed a study abroad in Japan as well.

After graduating, Aneesh worked in print design at Penguin Random House on well known brands like Marvel and Disney. He is currently working at Pega in Boston where he is a UX/UI graphic designer as part of a team working towards Pega academy. In the future, he hopes to work as an independent designer without having concerns for immigration policies and plans to teach design through his videos and share his experiences with a larger crowd.