Three degrees, three countries
Each one changed what I thought I was going to do. None of them are what I ended up doing.
I went back to school to learn how to build things properly - not just analyze them. The NUS programme was rigorous in a way that forced me to think about systems from both sides: how they're designed and how they fail. The coursework covered everything from Java and Spring Boot to machine learning and DevSecOps. I finished with a 4.50 GPA. The goal was to do it properly, not just to do it.
USC was where I learned that the hardest part of building something isn't the technical work - it's the decisions upstream of it. The programme sat at the intersection of engineering and product strategy, which turned out to be exactly where I wanted to be. I was also President of the Singapore-Malaysia Student Association, which involved managing community events, external partnerships with SGInnovate and Singapore Airlines, and the kind of unglamorous coordination work that either teaches you how organizations actually function or breaks you.
I started university at 17 and graduated at 20, the youngest person to do so at the ERAU Asia campus. I finished with a 3.95 GPA, Summa Cum Laude, Dean's List every semester, and a Chancellor's Scholarship. I also presented a paper at Future Travel Experience APEX Expo 2022 and did research on the FAA's mental health certification process. What the transcript doesn't show is that I spent those three years genuinely uncertain where the degree would take me - which, looking back, was the right condition to be in.