One to Watch
My award from P&Q [Best & Brightest Business Major] was a benefit, but not a must. I’m not hanging my goals on external recognition. Like, in high school, I barely got any awards, but I’m still the same person.
I can give you the story as to why I chose venture capital if you like?
I grew up in mostly developing countries. I moved 16 times between Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America ... And one of the things that never made sense to me was just general inequality. Why was I allowed to take a shower in an actual shower? And other children my age were showering in a puddle? So, from a young age, I was like: I will change the world! This is what I’m here for.
I think venture capital is the perfect way to get a high-level understanding of many different industries and meet the leaders at the forefront.
In the non-profit space, you’re always dependent on someone else for money. It slows you down because you’re always waiting on other people. I’ve experienced that with Makergirl, a non-profit I’ve been volunteering with to reduce the gender gap within STEM. We teach 3D printing and so on to girls aged 7-12, and we just hit our halfway mark in our goal to educate 10,000 girls by 2023, which is huge. That’s why I came back to Hult to do my MBAN, because I realized that I can’t be preaching to young girls about getting into STEM if I don’t know enough about it myself. I don’t particularly enjoy coding, but I’ve always been someone who sets out to do the hardest thing possible. I mean, I wasn’t great with numbers, but I chose an undergrad in finance, so I’m used to it!
When Covid hit, we put our entire curriculum fully online. On the plus side, this meant we could expand internationally. But people from lower income environments struggled more with setting aside quality time and space and accessing a computer, so we’re looking forward to getting the in-person lessons back up and running.
Classrooms are still run the way they were around, like, 100 to 200 years ago.
There definitely needs to be innovation there. For example, our attention spans are getting much, much shorter. So, in a three-hour lecture, we might only be paying attention for half an hour. It’s just how we work. So, I feel like finding different ways to accommodate different learning styles and attention spans is needed.
I have dyslexia very strongly.
It impacts me daily, it’s kind of ridiculous. Even just telling the time—I get time messed up so often. It’s a constant struggle to do basic things that other people just do without thinking. So I had to learn how to figure out different ways around it. I’ve never taken the normal path. I’ll always make my own way, whether it’s like, “oh, I guess I’m not going to read any of my books.” So, am I going to find software that’s going to read them to me? Am I going to voice type? Am I going to become really good friends with a professor and then have it read or explained back to me?
I’ve become very comfortable with failure because failure is there on such a constant basis that it’s not really something that I’m afraid of. I’m more able to laugh it off and can pivot and move on really quickly. I’ve also had to become an advocate for myself. So, standing up and saying, ok, I do need accommodations. I do need this help. You can’t evaluate me the same way you’re evaluating everyone else, because that wouldn’t be fair. And becoming an advocate for self then leads to becoming an advocate for others.
“Normal” is a concept. Normal doesn’t exist. And so many of the best people I’ve worked with have had neurodivergent differences—from CEOs to founders to friends I’ve surrounded myself with. Working with people who think differently is just a pleasure. It’s definitely something that lets you see the world in a different way.
I vividly remember evacuating my hotel during an earthquake as a teenager. That day, it really hit me that everything can be gone in a second. So, you may as well not care about the superficial things and only care about what’s really going to matter long term. That still gives me perspective—like, while I’m on Earth and while I have the luxury to live, I want it to be the most crazy, abnormal, impact-driven life possible. I’ll never settle for the status quo.