As a Vietnamese-born first-generation college student, I see every opportunity to learn invaluable to embrace. I finished my bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, Math with the Liberal Arts education from Juniata College, on preparation to apply to medical school. However, a gap year working as a junior business analyst changed my perspective and shifted my journey to pursue a master’s degree in Business Analytics at the George Washington University from August 2023. While pursuing my degrees, I’ve worked under multiple projects of different fields, from analyzing NGS genomic data and qualitative surveys, building a database management system for California crime data, and to providing business strategies to a Swedish energy start-up. Although each project was a different challenge, they posed as an opportunity for me to quilt my technical and soft skillsets together and become a better practitioner. During summer 2024, I’ve joined Amazon Web Services internship program in their Support Engineering team. As a Cloud Support Associate, I learned IT from zero, from fundamental topics such as OSI model, security, networking, and cloud computing using Amazon products. Post-internship, I will continue my graduate education in Shanghai, China as a semester-long exchange at Fudan University. I am more than excited to another new experience in work culture, values, and especially the people in vibrant China.