Homecoming 2019
BY QUAH JIA YONG
CN Yang Homecoming Day 2019 happened on 8th Feburary 2019. It was nice evening of catching up with old friends (especially for the alumni) and filled with good food and light-hearted banter. For us undergraduates, it was interesting to see how our seniors have assimilated into the “adult working world”, out of the CN Yang shell we called home for most of our university lives.
After dinner and Lou-hei (Because it was CNY!), we were ushered into different meeting rooms for the alumni sharing session. I attended the talk by Meldon, a current Year 1 PhD student in Chemistry. He shared about how OFYP and research attachments outside of curriculum hours have cemented his resolve on doing a PhD, and his struggles with finding the correct advisor to work for. His passion and enthusiasm for Chemistry throughout the talk were evident, and somewhat inspiring.
It is always heartening to listen to our fellow CN Yang seniors’ stories, as it reassures us that no matter how though school might be, seniors have done it before, we will also make it one day as well. Although life might take us to different paths in the future, we were all bonded together once by this CN Yang journey and I certainly look forward to day I attend Homecoming Day as a senior!
As Jia Yong was not present for the other 3 sharing sessions, here are the reflections by the scholars who attended them:
By Carissa (Year 1, CBE)
I attended the sharing by Jia Xuan, a graduate from NTU CBE who is currently an analyst at data analytics firm SAS. His sharing caught my interest because he was working in a different field from what he majored in, and I wanted to find out why he made the switch. Jia Xuan shared about data analytics and the SAS Business Intelligence & Analytics Program, which gives a “crash course on data analytics” for those passionate in data analytics but do not have much experience. He ended off by sharing how to decide whether data analytics is for you, which included being willing to deal with numerical results and enjoying challenging, open-ended problems. During the Q&A segment, I asked Jia Xuan what made him decide to pursue data analytics despite majoring in CBE. His answer was that based on his internship experience, he preferred more of a desk job. He was also interested in coding and mathematics, which eventually led to him pursuing data analytics. One interesting takeaway from Jia Xuan’s sharing was that the NTU email is a good source for opportunities like internships or other experiential programmes. Another insight I have gained from his sharing is that we should be willing to explore beyond our majors , and not feel limited to a particular field.
By Cerise Lim (Year 1, CBE)
I attended the sharing by Jowell, who was a CN Yang Aerospace Engineering major, currently studying at Duke-NUS Medical school. As someone who is interested in medical research, I was keen to hear what he had to say about his experience. He started off by introducing Duke-NUS Medical school, which offers 3 different tracks: MD (Doctor of Medicine) track in which Jowell is enrolled, PhD program as well as a joint MD-PhD program. Jowell very helpfully provided information on the admissions process for prospective applicants in the room; he explained the rolling admission process and the application requirements such as MCAT scores, essays and reference letters. I had the chance to ask him about the differences between graduating from graduate medical school and undergraduate medical school, to which he elaborated on the differences in curriculum structure. Undergraduate medical students have more clinical experience and more time to study the requisite content. However, graduate school students make up for it with their mental maturity, research experience and soft skills that they have developed with time. For those not interested in applying to medical school, it was still interesting to hear about his switch from Aerospace Engineering to Medicine. Jowell realised his interest in medicine during semester exchange and made use of the research opportunities CN Yang offers to get to know the medical field, which remains helpful and relevant to his studies today. Overall, it was lovely to hear the valuable experiences of the alumni and I really appreciate all the alumni for taking time to share them!
By Ryan Soh (Year 2, BS)
During his sharing, Akshay described his journey through NTU and CNYSP. Although he was from SCBE, Akshay told us how he was interested in biomedical research and elaborated on the biomedical research he undertook as part of the CNYSP curriculum, including his OFYP at Harvard Medical School. He cheerfully answered the juniors’ numerous questions about the OFYP process, including how to go about searching for projects and labs. Akshay also described his internship experience at IQVIA, which was a consulting company based on human data science, and half-jokingly remarked that the work there was perfect for scholars from CN Yang! Throughout his talk, Akshay encouraged us to pursue our interests and not to be afraid of trying out new things. When asked about what he was going to be doing now that he has graduated, Akshay revealed that he would be starting work at Abbott, a global healthcare industry, the week after Homecoming. Indeed, Akshay has truly embraced the multidisciplinary ethos of the CN Yang Scholars Programme!
