Yale-NUS seniors enter diverse industries after graduating

While the Yale-NUS Class of 2024 started college life with social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they still completed their four years of education with strong connections within the community. Building not just skills but also resilience, three students from the Class of 2024 reflect upon their experiences in Yale-NUS as they prepare for the journey ahead of them.

Sean Low (Class of 2024) will be joining Oliver Wyman as a management consultant. Image provided by Sean Low.

Sean Low (Class of 2024), a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) major, will be joining Oliver Wyman in Singapore as a Management Consultant after graduating. During his four years at Yale-NUS, he took on various internships and met professionals in the industry who further inspired his passion for consulting. From the managers he worked with during his internships, Sean developed a keen interest in consulting after he learned more about the different types of tasks and projects they have worked on and the skills they honed.

At Yale-NUS, Sean took a variety of courses, which have better prepared him for a career in consulting as the field requires one to be multidisciplinary and resourceful. Sean said, “The diversity present in the topics studied and the community at Yale-NUS helps me solve problems that span across various industries and geographies.”

Dineshram Sukumar (Class of 2024) will be a secondary school history teacher. Image provided by Dineshram Sukumar.

Dineshram (Dinesh) Sukumar (Class of 2024) will be teaching history to secondary school students in Singapore. When asked why he was interested in teaching, he cited the many teachers and educators who have inspired and supported him throughout his education. He said, “I see this as a humble opportunity to pay forward in some measure the care and wisdom imparted to me by my teachers.”

Dinesh, who is majoring in History, is attracted to the subject as “it is incredibly useful in illuminating why the present moment is the way it is, if one asks the right questions.” At Yale-NUS, he was able to work closely with professors in seminars and during office hours, where he sharpened his ability to ask specific questions regarding the material, allowing him to better comprehend different topics and come up with further lines of inquiry. Besides seminars, Dinesh attended writing workshops conducted by the Writers’ Centre. In these workshops, students respond to comments from their peers with questions, which requires them to think quickly and be flexible. Dinesh feels that question-asking is an important skill, as questions can improve or impede one’s comprehension of the material. He shared, “Practising with different types and structures of questions during peer discussions gave me some much-needed preparation to do the same in the classroom!” Given the importance of question-asking in his life, Dinesh hopes to impart the skill of question-asking to his students in the future.

Cathy Choo (Class of 2024) will be joining Mastercard’s Strategy and Sales team. Image provided by Cathy Choo.

Heading back home to New York City after graduating, Cathy Choo (Class of 2024) will be joining Mastercard as a part of its Strategy and Sales team. There, she will be analysing sales data and drive the firm’s merger and acquisitions strategies.

As the role requires a mix of both technical skills and creativity, Cathy appreciates how her liberal arts education has prepared her for the work that she will be doing. As a Mathematical, Computational, and Statistical Sciences (MCS) major, Cathy has taken classes that have further improved her analytical and programming skills, such as Applied Data Science and Machine Learning. These classes gave her the opportunity to apply her programming knowledge to specific scenarios and various industries. Cathy also took Economics classes at the College. She said, “The mix of the MCS and Economics classes I have taken, allow me to apply my knowledge of current macroeconomic trends to the patterns I see in the revenue forecast, and ultimately offer analytical insights for senior leaders as they decide on their investment strategy.”

As the Class of 2024 embark on their respective paths, they retain the spirit of curiosity and lifelong learning. While they will venture into different industries and settle in different cities, they all share the desire to create impact in this complex world.

In this series of stories celebrating the Class of 2024, we will be showcasing the diverse pathways that the graduating students will be embarking on. Watch this space for more.