PLEDGE CLASS: Tau
MAJOR: Chemical Biomolecular Engineering
What were you involved in while at Penn?
Society of Women Engineers (President), Engineering Student Activities Council (President), Theta Tau, Sphinx Senior Society and Oracle Senior Society
What have you been up to since graduating?
After graduation, I moved to Chicago and started as a consultant at McKinsey. Since starting, I’ve done projects in Chicago, Newark, Boston and Pittsburgh ranging from urban mobility planning for a city to new product development at a chemical company. I’m usually traveling during the week, but during the weekend, I love to play spikeball, run along Lakeshore drive, hang out with my starting class and explore different coffee shops.
What was the biggest change, going from college to career?
I found career life to be quite different from college. In college, it often felt like there was a clear path laid out in terms of what classes to take and what clubs to get involved in, and you knew that all of your friends were closeby. There was a sense of security in knowing the gist of what was ahead.
The biggest change I’ve felt in career life is that there is a lot of ambiguity and you are constantly pushed outside of your comfort zone. I’ve found that there is often no clear path laid out for you, and it’s up to you to define the problem, design how you’re going to solve it and go about solving it. I think expectations are really high, but Penn + engineering prepares you well for that and it pushes you to learn a lot very quickly, which is super rewarding!
What was/is your favorite thing about Theta Tau? Favorite OT events/memories?
There are so many things that I loved about Theta Tau. Looking back, my college experience honestly would not have been the same without the brotherhood. I miss how much of an impact Theta Tau had on my day-to-day life, whether it was running into people in Engineering, the game nights, rolling into E-formal squad deep, getting Copa and all of the lin events.
I also love how the brotherhood is still a part of my life after graduating. Whether it’s visiting people in other cities or having friends visit you, the community doesn’t end at Penn!
Do you have any advice for us still here at Penn?
The biggest piece of advice I would have is to prioritize friendships and people who make you happy. Looking back, the most valuable thing I’ve taken away from Penn is all of the amazing friendships and the people I met who I know I’ll have in my life forever.
I would also highly highly recommend reaching out to upperclassmen and finding mentors! So much of my college experience, both socially and professionally, was shaped by people older than me who had already gone through the same experiences. All it takes is grabbing coffee or sending a text and people are super willing to help out.
Lastly, I’d say to take some time and explore Philadelphia and try things outside of your comfort zone. There were so many small things at Penn that I took for granted, like how close center city was, the diversity of food trucks we had on campus (shoutout to Magic Carpet), the random/unique classes we had, and the Schuylkill river trail. I trained for the Love Run half marathon with Allison my senior year along the trail and it is one of my favorite college memories.