Profiles of Class of 2022 graduates

Class of 2022, Singapore
Rhodes Scholar and MSc candidate at the University of Oxford

Nur Hazeem Abdul Nasser is a 2022 Singapore Rhodes Scholar pursuing an MSc in Sociology at the University of Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship is an international scholarship programme established at Oxford University in 1903, which aims to select creative young leaders with a commitment to serving others. Singapore resumed the conferment of one Rhodes Scholar per year in 2018, after a 14-year hiatus.

Hazeem credits his time as a Philosophy, Politics and Economics student at Yale-NUS College for challenging him to take an interdisciplinary approach to address pressing social issues. For example, in some of his courses, he had to evaluate public policies through a quantitative economic lens, yet such policies also required principled philosophical thinking of good governance to determine which public policies should be implemented.

“The Rhodes Scholarship emphasises my commitment to serve others and Yale-NUS provided the ideal environment for me to learn from a diverse range of students who had a passion to make an impact. Importantly, Yale-NUS challenged my own thinking, pushing me to constantly think of different perspectives and solutions to a single issue.”

Class of 2022, Singapore
Software Engineer at Google

Bernard Boey majored in Mathematical, Computational, and Statistical Sciences (MSC), with a focus in Computer Science, and joined Google as a Software Engineer after graduating. Apart from writing code, he spends a lot of time thinking about product design, writing software documentation, analysing data, and collaborating with engineers and cross-functional partners.

Besides the software engineering skills gained through his major, Bernard has benefited greatly from the broad-based liberal arts and science curriculum at Yale-NUS College. For example, the emphasis on clear writing and speaking in Philosophy courses combined with his peer tutoring experiences have honed his ability to communicate effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences. Additionally, Quantitative Reasoning and Psychology courses have prepared him for his current work where he conducts software experimentation.

Bernard credits Yale-NUS for providing extensive opportunities and resources for participating in student organisations and activities on campus. He took on leadership positions in Brewhouse (a student-run coffee cart), Ballroom Dance, and Student Government, which enabled him to grow his leadership, project management, and problem-solving skills.

“Who I am as a person today is the culmination of all my experiences at Yale-NUS College – from the immersive residential experience to the rigorous liberal arts and sciences curriculum, and to the amazing and diverse community. These experiences have immensely contributed to my growth as a person, allowing me to thrive in my workplace and beyond. I am deeply grateful for my time at Yale-NUS and I cherish the memories and friendships I have made.”

Class of 2022, Austria and Bulgaria
Associate at Alton Aviation Consultancy, Dubai, UAE

Chris Dimitrov is an Associate at Alton Aviation Consultancy in Dubai, UAE. There he researches trends in the aviation industry, supports data analyses, and presents findings to the firm’s global client base.

During his time at Yale-NUS College, Chris served as a Residential College Advisor, worked in the Admissions & Financial Aid Office, and organised ballroom classes. Chris believes that the leadership experience gained during his undergraduate years has benefited him greatly in his current role, allowing him to contribute to new initiatives in the company.

Chris added that spending four years in Yale-NUS’ close-knit multicultural residential community has made it easier for him to adapt to an international office environment and helped facilitate his move to a new region.

“My four years at Yale-NUS have prepared me for life after graduation in significant ways. A large part of my job consists of problem-solving in ambiguous situations, which I credit the Common Curriculum for teaching me. By getting exposed to texts from different schools of thought, I learnt to be comfortable with material that I initially had little to no background knowledge of. Lastly, the life-long friends whom I have made during my time in College, have remained an important pillar of support after graduation, and we regularly catch up during the weekends.”

Class of 2022, Singapore
Analyst at ENGIE Impact

Coco Oan is an analyst at ENGIE Impact, which provides sustainability consulting services as part of the larger ENGIE Group. Her current work is a result of the two disciplines she pursued at Yale-NUS College — Environmental Studies and Economics — as well as her internship opportunities and her semester abroad at Yale University.

The courses that Coco took at Yale-NUS exposed her to the wide-ranging nature of sustainability. In particular, it piqued her interest in the interactions between economics and the environment. This inspired her to take more specialised and professional courses in sustainable business, finance and technology at her semester at Yale, which then helped her to land a series of green finance-related internships. Together with her capstone project on green finance, these internships helped her realise that the type of sustainability consulting done at ENGIE Impact would be her ideal first job.

The emphasis on critical and interdisciplinary thinking in the Yale-NUS education has been key to helping Coco navigate the complex world of corporate sustainability, where making positive change is anything but linear. The values that Yale-NUS has inculcated in her, such as empathy, diversity and inclusivity, continue to guide her actions and anchor her.

“Yale-NUS College has delivered a comprehensive ‘package’ of an educational experience that I never imagined was possible. Not only has its courses pulled me in multiple directions and pushed me to formulate my own stances, its culture and values have inspired me to be a better human being in very intentional ways. Its embrace of complexities and balance between the theoretical and the practical have also helped prepare me for the working world.”

Class of 2022, India
Associate Consultant at Bain & Company, Bangkok, Thailand

Tejas Pal joined Bain & Company as an associate consultant after graduating from Yale-NUS College.

Tejas has had a passion for investing and starting business ventures since high school. Naturally, Tejas pursued Economics to develop a strong foundation in understanding how businesses function and help him to add value to the companies he works with.

The interdisciplinary coursework — comprising the Common Curriculum and the broad range of classes across different majors — encouraged him to approach business problems from diverse perspectives, developing an essential skillset for a role in consulting.

Furthermore, Yale-NUS’ entrepreneurial culture enabled Tejas to kickstart different start-ups during his college stint and apply his learnings from his seminars in a real-world setting.

“I entered Yale-NUS being sceptical about the Common Curriculum experience, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was exposed to ideas that I would never have encountered if I had purely pursued Economics at other universities. My time at the College was nothing short of amazing, thanks to my peers and faculty. Yale-NUS provided me with the right environment to pursue my passion and the right mindset to excel in my future endeavours.”

Class of 2022, Bulgaria
Analyst at Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong

Upon graduating from Yale-NUS College, Manuela Uzunova joined Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong.

The liberal arts and science education at Yale-NUS College imbued Manuela both with the necessary knowledge, flexibility and confidence essential to her future job. As a Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) major, Manuela learnt how to appreciate the nuances of current affairs, a skill that will help her understand movements in global markets.

“During my first years at Yale-NUS, I frequently found myself in uncharted territories. For a lot of my Common Curriculum courses, I had to spend long nights understanding unfamiliar concepts and ideas. The persistence that I cultivated in the process played a crucial role in my professional development.”

Class of 2022, Singapore
Currently pursuing doctoral studies in Applied Mathematics at Princeton University, USA

During her time at Yale-NUS College, Zhang Liu studied Mathematical, Computational, Statistical Sciences (MCS) while exploring her interests in languages (Sanskrit and Arabic), astronomy, and philosophy. Upon graduation, Liu went on to start her doctoral studies in Applied Mathematics at Princeton University in the United States.

At Yale-NUS, Liu worked on a range of topics in applied mathematics, specifically on high-dimensional data analysis, numerical analysis, and applied algebraic topology. She aspires to pursue a career in academia and contribute to research in applied mathematics.

Her research endeavours were generously supported by the College through various opportunities, including Yale Dean’s Research Fellowship, Yale-NUS Summer Research Programme, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme, and Research Experiences for Undergraduates. She has presented her undergraduate research at international conferences such as Joint Mathematics Meetings, Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), and Bernstein Conference. In addition to mathematical research, she also interned at the Yale Digital Humanities Lab during her first year as part of the college’s summer internship programme.

“The highlight of my Yale-NUS experience is the supportive faculty. They have inspired me and patiently nurtured me on the path towards a research career in applied mathematics. One suggestion for fellow women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM): it’s good to scale your perception of your own potential by at least a factor of 1.5, regardless of what others are making you believe.”