From March 8-9, Amherst held the Asian Alumni Weekend since its last reunion nearly 10 years ago. It was an invaluable opportunity for both the alumni to reunite with their friends and for students like me to learn about the different pathways our alumni have taken.
Navigating Your Future: Alumni Career Journeys
On an early Saturday morning, several alumni hosted a panel about their education and career journeys. Despite all being Asian and high-achievers, they had drastically different pathways and flourished in their own way: Dan Law ’16 talked about how being an international student was challenging yet also pushed him to try as many options as possible; Jenny Lee ’88 shared how she found her passion in Art History at Amherst but later on, succeeding in finance; Eric Kim ’19 described his interest in Philosophy and how that has prepared him well in going into pre-med; Syeda Malliha ’17 shared how her extraordinary internship experiences made her stand out among competitive applicants; and Sivian Yu ’20 pointed out working in Questbridge as data analyst to give back to this non-profit in helping her getting into Amherst. It was an insightful panel discussion, which allowed me to see how creative and flexible Amherst alumni are in their careers. I also got to talk with some alumni who I am interested in learning more about, where they shared specific suggestions and/or experiences they had that could help me better envision my future.
Student-Alumni Dinner
Later in the evening, students and alumni gathered at the Lewis Sebring wing of Valentine Dining Hall. I talked with more alumni who all had unique academic interests and unexpected career trajectories: a Black Studies major is now a physician, a SWAGS major is now a product manager at an EdTech company, a Neuroscience & Music double major is now an urban planner… I am amazed by how interdisciplinary and different they are. As they each shared their story, I could see a thread running through the seemingly unrelated dots connecting together.
Not only did I discover more possibilities, but I also learned a lot more about the Asian student community’s history at Amherst and the significance of why we are gathering here. Ten years ago, there was no Asian Student Association. Students had a protest in Frost that pushed forth for the diversity and inclusion efforts at Amherst. Tony Chan ’72 was one of the two Asian students in his class year. It was hard to imagine how my student life would be and how much effort generations of students at Amherst have striven to make their voices heard and allow future students to feel included and respected in this community.