I’m originally from Malaysia, so Penn was actually my first time ever in the States.

I think coming to the States is a bit of a culture shock, right? For a lot of people it’s a big change coming from high school, living with parents and people they know, to a new world. But for me on top that, it was like going to a completely new country with a very different culture.

The alum network was actually really helpful. I reached out to so many people and got really good responses… That kind of response rate to my cold emails was really heartwarming.

I was back in Malaysia in my mid-20s and felt that if I were to explore, as in do a very different job, like move to a different city or country, that would be the time to do it. I was not really married to a particular location. I was looking at a lot of hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, even London. I was looking all over. And then the alum network was actually really helpful. I reached out to so many people and got really good responses in general. Probably more than half the people actually wrote back to me. That kind of response rate to my cold emails was really heartwarming.

You know, freshman year, what did I know? I didn’t really know that much. But I would say that advice to myself would be just to explore and keep an open mind, and I think I was doing some of that, but in hindsight I could probably have taken more risk. — May 10, 2018 • Photo by Loraine Terrell