In part two of my interview with Mayu, she shares her experiences as a Princeton student from dorms and food to academic curriculum. Make sure to check out part one of my interview with her to find out how she got into Princeton to begin with. 

Part 1 is here.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey college kids. Welcome back to my podcast. Who cares about college? This is part two of my interview with my use. So if you have not checked out part one, make sure to do so. Subscribe and check out my blog college reality check.com. Hope you enjoy

all right, you’re in Princeton, huh? Let’s see. What did you do that if you did anything this summer before you got into, like, you know, started your time at Princeton, did you visit the College? Did you do some sort of like orientation program? I know some students come like, a couple weeks before the school year starts to do some sort of like, orientation pre orientation stuff. So what did you do the summer before to prepare?

Mayu
Yeah, so actually a little bit before the summer before freshman year, in the spring, Princeton hosts these events for students who have been accepted. There’s like a day long event that they first host for people who are accepted early action, but I wasn’t able to go just because it’s a long trip up to New Jersey for a day. But I went to what’s called Princeton preview, which is an event that’s for all accepted students. And this is in April, and this is like a weekend where Princeton coordinates a lot of like, of course admissions or like when not orientation, it’s like open houses for each of the departments and also some of the arts students groups put on shows. And then there are these things called Arc Singh where at Princeton, a lot of the fellows in groups, inequalities in arches, arch things

Kamila
are seeing, okay, cuz you you like you’re the audio when like, first like, Okay, keep going.

Mayu
Oh, my bad. Yeah. So now we have these things called arch things where aka Pella and singing groups go and, and sing in the archways on campus, because it provides a lot of like, good sound, good acoustics. And it’s super cool. But anyway, this Princeton preview was the first time I was on campus as an accepted student as a prospective student. And that it was an overnight thing. And so I stayed in the dorm with current Princeton student and got to experience a little bit of the life on campus. And visiting there like, this was before I’d made the decision to go to Princeton, but being there, it just honestly felt like home. I feel like that’s very cliche, but I could really imagine myself being a student there. And that really firmed up my decision to attend. And fast forward in the summer before freshman year. I mean, I didn’t do anything particularly special, I would say, a lot of people around me were telling me to just rest and enjoy the last summer before college starts. But I, I mean, I couldn’t just really sit around and do nothing, I guess. I, what Princeton does when you’re accepted and have decided to attend is it adds you to a Facebook group of other people in your class. And so some people send to like introductions of like their name and little fun facts for people to reach out and get to know each other. But what they also do is they have student groups send little like flyer advertisement type things of the student group and how people can get involved. And I happen to see one of these about a student group on climate policy. And so this is a group that’s affiliated with Princeton University and working on like statewide climate policy. And I thought it sounded cool because I was interested in policy and kind of getting involved. I haven’t really been involved at all with climate or environmental work before then. But I was interested in like math, education policy, and it was like, why not? It is the summer before college, and they have this room and freedom to explore. So I got involved, got very actively involved, actually, and I’m still involved now. But yeah, with that group, we would have like multiple calls a week working on, like drafting bill language and working with an assemblyman in the state legislature. And that was what I spent most of my summer doing.

Kamila
Was there even before you came on to Princeton, you were already and you said, this group is not like, this doesn’t like originate from Princeton is just affiliated with Princeton. So you are already doing work before I even got into Princeton.

Mayu
I wouldn’t consider it work. It was a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t have done it if I had been forced to. But yeah, It’s long story, but Princeton has a student group called their Princeton student climate initiative that has its broad goal is to help fight climate change from Princeton’s campus. But one branch of this Princeton student Climate Initiative is the New Jersey student climate advocates. And that’s the group I got involved with. But the reason why it’s a long story is because this New Jersey student climate advocates group functions, very step independently of the Princeton student Climate Initiative. And it’s so it’s essentially a standalone organization.

Kamila
Okay, but like, would you consider this not an internship? But, yeah, basically, an internship is a concern, because of how long you’ve been doing it? Do you consider it like an internship? Is that what you would call it?

Mayu
Um, not really, because it first of all, is a student led initiative, and it’s all run by students. And it’s essentially a student group. And, I mean, I’m leading it now. But I think it’s, I would consider it more of an extracurricular, I guess, in high school terms, like, it’s definitely something I just do more for enjoyment. And there’s no like, official credit attached, and there’s no like, official program behind it. It’s more of just like, I’m interested in climate policy. And so I’m working on it in this space.

Kamila
Wow. Okay. So before we get into prints, I just want to quickly know something. Is Princeton good with financial aid? Yes, it is. There?

Mayu
Are they like, really, really good? Yes. Um, and I would say, I mean, they’re people I’ve talked to, and then would be in like, the top? Yeah. Three, if not, like one of the best in terms of financial aid. Because, first of all, I think it’s one of five universities that conducts like fully need blind admissions, which means that people like the admissions team looks over your application without knowing what your financial situation is. And, and so, I mean, so they can’t kick you out, because they would, because you would require financial aid, it’s more that they’re looking to see who you are and what your potential is. And, and you can demonstrate that through what you’ve done, regardless of like, what your background is. And then from there, I would say, I mean, I know a lot of people who are on financial aid at the school and, and a lot of them are on full aid. And, and I also had like, no, a lot of people who are involved with the like, we call it fly, but it’s like the the first generation low income students. And there’s a community around that on campus to help kind of navigate this transition into studying at Princeton and, and this whole college experience.

Kamila
Okay, so let’s go on to more of the fun stuff about Princeton. Tell us tell us about the campus. I mean, I’ve been there. So I know how pretty it is. But tell us about the campus on Princeton. Is it located in like a city setting suburb rural? You know, what is there to do around Princeton when you want to like hang out with your friends? So tell us about where Princeton’s located.

Mayu
Yeah, so to start, Princeton is in the northeast, in New Jersey, in a bubble, we call it the orange bubble out of Yeah, appreciation. But I would say it’s, it is a gorgeous campus. But it is definitely a bubble in that like some college campuses, the campus is sort of integrated. So like, the buildings where you take your classes are like right next to other shops, or like in the downtown area, and have a lot of like hotels or whatnot. But with Princeton, there is an open, but it’s still a fence. There’s a fence gate system kind of around the campus. And mean of course you can like walk in and out easily, but the dorm buildings and the classroom buildings, and all of that is within its own bubble. And I mean, I remember my freshman fall, especially I spent most if not all of my time in that bubble, just going back and forth between dorm buildings and in classrooms. And so the first time I stepped out into like, beyond the campus into like, the downtown Princeton area, it was like, wow, there are non university people in this area. And it was I remember it being really eye opening. But yeah, I mean, so it is in a fairly suburban area in New Jersey and it beyond just the orange bubble that is the campus there are just like a few downtown roads, with shops and I mean like cafes. restaurants and there’s some like clothing shops and stuff in the downtown area. we fondly call it like Nassau Street is the name of the main town in the downtown area. And along that there are Yeah, like lots of places people go to get food. And young that though it’s like a lot of homes and residential areas. And I would say outside of that there’s also like local parks and trails where people go to just like spend some time in nature to kind of take a step back from just studying I guess, and me even being in downtown Princeton. And so that’s been really nice. So I’ve just recently explored some of those in this past semester. Yeah.

Kamila
And can you tell us about what I guess we could say requirements? Or maybe lack of requirements Princeton has for students? Are there some Gen Ed requirements that people regardless of what they major in, they have to take? Can you tell us about, you know, what system does Princeton have for that?

Mayu
Yeah, so first of all, there are two degree programs that you can go through for Princeton. And it’s called a B or BSC. And so for a B students, which I am as a policy student, it’s more of like the liberal arts or the liberal arts education where you have like, yeah, requirements across the board. And they’re mostly grouped in terms of the Matic requirements. So all students getting this AP, which is the Bachelor of Arts degree, you’ve got requirements to take certain classes in, like CQR, which is like quantitative reasoning. So this is not just it’s not just math specifically. But it can be anything ranging from math to computer science, or just engaging with like logical topics. And there’s also some in like, philosophy and like moral ethical reasoning. There’s one about like literature and kind of like reasoning in terms of written language. There’s some about science and kind of building up skills in the lab and also outside of the lab. I think recently, they added one about like, culture and diversity and kind of recognizing that across across disciplines. And then there’s also a language requirement, which some people test out of, I personally took a test for Japanese and was able to test out of that requirement. But if you aren’t able to do that, then then you like, take a specific number of language classes, usually during your first year at Princeton and, and that helps you satisfy that requirement. But overall, all of the requirements are very broad. And they’re set up in a way that you can really explore topics that you’re interested in, well, kind of checking these thematic requirements off the list.

Kamila
And you said there’s like two degree, I guess, you could say, pathways. When you’re applying to Princeton, number one, when you’re applying, do you choose like, do you say, I’m going to do this one? And then number two, if you let’s say you go to the one you were in a B, right. But you want to go into the other one, BSC? Is it like an easy transition that way? Is it possible to transition out of that?

Mayu
Yeah, yeah. So in terms of the application, nothing is set in stone at the time of your application. So I mean, I applied as a math major, which also would have been under the ABA umbrella. But yeah, I think I mean, a lot of people come in thinking that they’ll major in one thing, but end up switching to something completely different, as you can tell, and and it’s fairly common to and but I think for people applying specifically BSC, which is a bachelor of science and engineering. There, I think there was a specific essay question that people had to answer that targeted like specifically why you wanted to study engineering at Princeton. Yeah, and then about the question of switching between A B and BSC, I would say the the way the courses are distributed between A B and BSC, or the way the course load is distributed across four years for a B versus BSC is slightly different. I’m speaking based on like what I’ve heard from my friends in both programs, but the way it’s structured for a B students, first of all, is that during the first two years, you aren’t able to officially declare your major yet. This happens for a B students in the spring of your sophomore year. And so I only recently declared my major this past spring. And the first Yeah, like two years ish are devoted to just taking classes that seem interesting. There are, it’s an entire process of figuring out what you do ultimately want to declare as your major. And so, yes, to help guide you through that process, each major has a set of prerequisites that you would need to have taken before you declare that major. So for example, for the Public and International Affairs program that I’m in, you have to take a class on like economics macroeconomics class on like psychology and politics or history. And yeah, General, things like that. But those prerequisites are usually vague enough that you have a lot of freedom to choose classes that you’re interested in, and, like really go outside of your comfort zone and mean, because you might take a class one day that’s on Yeah, politics and become really, really interested in pursuing studies about Yeah, like, like South American politics, for example. And ultimately major in that even though you came in as a prospective economics major. Yeah, so anyway, for a B students, first two years are mostly about exploring, and then the third and fourth years about doing independent research and really digging into your major and required courses. On the other hand, for BSC students, the first year is a lot of taking, like prerequisites that are common across all of the different majors that are in the BSC program. So this is consistent across like mechanical and aerospace engineering, like electrical engineering. And I mean, there are several other BSC programs. But in the first year, BSC, students have to fulfill like basic science requirements for like chemistry or physics and also some math courses and and then the second, third, fourth years are a little bit lighter, because by then you already, like have dived into your degree program and are doing a little bit of research there. And so based on what I’ve seen, it’s, it’s easier to go from wanting to be BSE to becoming a bee, rather than the other way around. Because if you start as a bee, then you might not have taken all the necessary science requirements to become a BSc student. But if you’re going from BSC to an a B student, you’re just losing a little bit of time to explore interests across disciplines, but you’re not behind behind in terms of like fulfilling courses towards your major.

Kamila
And can you tell us about your, I guess, journey to, you know, through the program, to finding what you eventually you have multiple things that you’re studying? So how did you go from math to all the different areas of study that you have now?

Mayu
Yes, this is a great question. Because I’ve gone through wanting to major in a lot of different things. I guess to quickly list all of the majors I’ve considered over the course of two years. You’re right, I started out as a math major, but I took a philosophy class on practical ethics that I really, really enjoyed my freshman fall. And so I came out of that semester, wanting to major in philosophy. But I had also gotten a little bit into computer science during that same semester. And so yes, I would, I came out of the freshman fall wanting to either be a philosophy major, or maybe computer science. And so my thought process here was that I wanted to go into the spring semester taking the prerequisite courses for the computer science major. So I did that still was very interesting to me. But I also took a politics course, that made me interested in that. But then I also wanted to do more quantitative work. And so I explored becoming an economics major. I’ve also briefly considered actually switching to BSC, but at that point, it wasn’t as possible for me because I hadn’t taken like the basic science requirements. Be I considered the environmental engineering track. And besides that, I’ve also considered like psychology and also anthropology over the years. And I think that’s it. But yes, I’ve been really across the board. And, but I think now yeah, looking through all the different like major, the major and also the minor requirements, you’ll see that the hints of everything that I’ve explored are still there because Yes, I’m studying policy, but with the environmental engineering interest, like I am doing a minor in environmental studies, with the quantitative interests I’m doing, like a data and machine learning statistics and machine learning certificate, which is a minor for Princeton. And I’m also doing a little bit of the philosophies through what’s called the values in public life certificate, but it’s essentially a minor in politics and philosophy.

Kamila
So did you just like look at all the things that you’re interested in, say, I’m going to put them all together and do everything?

Mayu
Kind of? And I would say that this is not the most common thing to do, like, the average student does not do three certificates. And, honestly, it? Yeah, so what we call the certificate is a parallel of what most universities call miners, but it’s not as official, I would say. Because if people see a certificate on your resume, like in terms of in future employers seeing a certificate on your resume, they won’t really know what that’s about. And, and so I would say a lot of like, the advisors that we have, during our first year really encouraged us to not focus that much on what certificates you’re gonna pursue during your time at Princeton. Yeah, again, I keep saying this, but the main focus is on exploring different interests in your first couple years. And, but for me, it’s just ended up being that I have taken a lot of classes that go towards this certificate requirements that I’ve mentioned. And, and so I’ll continue on those paths.

Kamila
All right. And another thing I want to know, I asked this of everybody, so you went to a public high school, like most people coming into college do. And you said, it wasn’t like too competitive like you. They did offer some AP courses and such, but it wasn’t so competitive. As in you had a bunch of people applying top schools like, yeah, basically, like there wasn’t like heavy cut competition. So going into Princeton, the top university Ivy League, you would expect, like a lot. How was the transition for you in terms of competition? workload, and just I guess, moving to a completely different state as well.

Mayu
Yeah. So I’ll go backwards on your questions there in terms of moving to a completely different state. It honestly felt like I was going home because I had grown up on Long Island, New York. And the vibe of Princeton, I would say is fairly similar to where I was growing up. Even the poor thing about going back into the northeast, it just felt like I was going back. So yeah, that transition wasn’t tough. And I’ve also generally been fairly independent. So I mean, the transition to college and going away, wasn’t that I guess, off putting for me in terms of the competition? Yeah, I guess I haven’t really seen a lot of cutthroat competition at Princeton. Like there is a big atmosphere of just like, collaborative learning. And of course, just like, yeah, learning together and kind of working through I mean, yes, the material is tough. But yeah, that’s that’s kind

Kamila
of what I was trying to get at the academic competition. Yeah.

Mayu
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the academics are tough, but not unreasonable. Like there are, first of all professors who are so supportive in terms of offering a lot of open office hours, which are kind of slots of time where, like in person, you would be able to literally stop by their office and go ask questions and kind of just chat about the course but also about like the professor’s experiences and kind of what they know, because they usually know a lot of cool things. So you can just go chat, have conversations. In virtual settings, there were like zoom hours where you can just log in and kind of hop on a call with the professors. Yeah, and so the professors are, first of all very accessible to chat. But there’s also like a center called the McGraw center for I think writing in learning or something like that, where they offer like workshops throughout the semester to help help kind of navigate managing all of your readings for courses, or kind of just how to plan out your time to get everything done. And in addition to that, the McGraw Center offers what’s called Learning consultations, where like upper class peers, so this is like third and fourth years. They offer one on one sessions for you to to like talk through your schedule and kind of talk through how you’re going to get all of your assignments done. each week to also have the bigger picture. In terms of this adjustment, though, I would say it’s really helpful to have like, different study groups within your classes. And also like with friends and have space, especially knowing what your learning style is. Because I know some people, some of my close friends love to just get together with their friends and kind of be in a space in the library together and, and like work on their independent assignments. For me personally, though, I like to study alone. And so I’ll find some time to either like sit outside or go to a specific like, a table in the library where I can like, set up all my stuff and just focus for a little bit of time. And in terms of finding what your learning style is to I think freshman fall is a bit of an adjustment period. But again, the learning consultants at McGraw are really helpful for navigating that.

Kamila
Let’s go on to some lighter topics, dorms and food. Do you take it away? What are the dorms like at Princeton? What is the food like at Princeton?

Mayu
Yeah, so first with the dorms. The exteriors are absolutely, like magical. So like walking around campus, it’s like, you’re at Hogwarts. I know.

Mayu
It looks like a castle. Yeah,

Mayu
yes, all the buildings look like castles. And it’s super cool. I was especially in what’s called Rockefeller College, which is which is it’s a residential edge. So I’ll explain that a little bit first. So Princeton has this residential college system, which means that as you come onto the campus as first years, you’re placed into one of six residential colleges, which are essentially like sets of dorms that that you go into and, and there’s a community around this residential college and it was kind of strange navigating that in the virtual environment, especially for like, first year is in the class of 2425. But especially the class of 24. But yeah, usually when we’re in person, all of the people in the same rest college like there’s a dining hall in the rats college and there’s also like, yeah, like places to hang out. So common rooms for residential colleges and, and then each Rez College has their like, own type of community feel. I was in Rockefeller, but there’s one called Forbes, for example, that’s kind of distant from the central campus. And it’s like one building that used to be a hotel in. And since that’s kind of located a little bit further off campus, off of the campus square. Yeah, I know, people at Forbes develop really strong bonds, because they’re with each other a lot of the time. So, anyway, I was in Rockefeller College, which has, yeah, I think a lot of the older buildings, the ones that really look like castles, and I’m very fond of it. In terms of the inside, there is a mix. I know some people who do not like the dorms at all. I know a lot of people who Yeah, there can be a lot of complaints because most of the dorms are on the older side. And so, I mean, the dorm that I was in for freshman year did not have like a laundry space in that building. So I would have to like take all my laundry to a different building walk outside and, and go do laundry and a nearby but I mean, it was still a walk outside to get to laundry. And there are I mean, lots of buildings that don’t have air conditioning, which I know a lot of people complain about, but I mean, I don’t find it to be that big of a problem. And outside of that, I think yeah, dorms are cool. They’re just they’re not like super special though. Um, just ordinary college dorms. Yeah, pretty much there. I guess. The big thing is, they’re not as pretty inside as they are outside. Because outside that’s a really high bar. And then within the dorms in terms of like, the setups I think each Residential College has different distributions of like, single, double and quad rooms and others. So to explain that a little bit. single rooms mean that like, each one student has their own like bedroom and kind of space for themselves with a desk and a set of like drawers to put clothes in or like a closet space. But that’s just for one person. And then there are doubles, which means that like two people share a room and so usually they would have like, like two beds In one room and they can be bunked or not bonked. But anyway, it’s a room for two people there are and then there are a lot of rooms that are quads, which means that there are two of these double rooms that are connected by a common room. And so this is the setup that I was in for freshman year where so I, I shared a sleeping space with one other person. And they were also two other people in a adjacent bedroom. But and we had a shared common room that we use that we tried to study in, even though we got distracted quite often, we would just hang out in that common room and think it was a really nice setup. And one other thing to note about the First Year Experience is that Princeton puts us in what are called Z groups based on residential college, and so we get a residential college advisor who’s usually a third or fourth year who gets assigned a group of like a dozen or so first year students. And yeah, the RCA, the residential college advisor hosts like weekly events, usually involving food from a local shop, and like little activities to get to know each other. And, and these activities are really helpful for getting to know other first year’s and other people in the rest College. Now that I’ve mentioned food,

Mayu
I would say, I’m going to speak to the non COVID experience. So this year, I, I like a lot at Princeton, I would say I don’t have much to compare it to. But But yeah, I think the food at Princeton is good in terms of variety. Because each dining hall is set up like buffet style. So you can like, walk back and forth. You get like a plate and you just get whatever you want from the dining hall area. And every residential college has like consistent supplies of like that typical like standard, what there’s like a salad bar and places where you can get like, grilled cheese or fries or like, yeah, grilled chicken and stuff. But But beyond that, each rest college will always have like multiple, like main entree dishes. Like lots of mean, I like that Princeton generally offers a lot of like vegetarian and vegan options in on a regular basis. And and then there are some like, dishes here and there. There’s also like a pizza bar. But you have to the main thing is that sometimes, like every couple weeks or so they’ll also mix in like, like different cultural dishes to and have like, they’ll celebrate holidays. And I mean, like Halloween, they’ll make a lot of like, they’ll decorate the dining halls. And it’s a lot of fun. And in terms of other occasions, I know like when first years originally arrive on campus, there’s what’s called an origins dinner. And there’s like, a lot of story behind this dinner because they bring in ingredients that are locally sourced. And so they’re working with like local Princeton farmers and like farmers markets and stuff like that to bring ingredients that were harvested and grown like very local to Princeton and have a lot of history behind them. And yes, that’s one thing. And, yeah, sometimes they’ll have like cultural cuisines here and there. And each residential college always has different menus every day. And so I mean, there’s a way to check, like, what menus, what the menus are for the day online. So you can know like, which residential college you want to eat up for a specific day.

Kamila
Okay, and there are a couple more things I want to get through before we finish up number one is, I guess, we could say what you’re involved with on campus or, you know, internships that you have, that maybe you connected through Princeton or something. So can you tell me do you have any, like internships that you’ve done throughout Princeton or any sort of, besides the organization we talked about when you were first entering Princeton? Are there any other organ organizations that you’re part

Mayu
of? Yeah, I’ve gotten involved with a few. Right now. I do have an internship with the Environmental Defense Fund working on class

Kamila
about that. Tell us about that. Where like, did Princeton help you get it? Did you completely find it on your own?

Mayu
Yes, so it’s fully supported by Princeton. I found it through Princeton, and it’s also funded through Princeton. So one thing that I didn’t know about Princeton before coming in was that it has a lot of resources that are put towards sustainability efforts and also environmental like research and also work on campus and And so there’s this thing called the high Meadows Environmental Institute. And it coordinates a lot of the the Environmental Studies Certificate that I’ve mentioned, as well as courses on environmental topics, including engineering and, like science research and, like policy politics related issues, too. And every year, the high Meadows Environmental Institute puts out like a list of internships that are hosted by HMDI. And a lot of these do involve research positions at the university. So it’s like, I mean, there are so many amazing faculty at Princeton doing work on environmental topics. And so sometimes it’s like research assistant positions through the university. I was looking specifically for policy related positions, and I came across this one that’s doing climate policy works specifically based in California and Washington States, which both have a lot of work. Yes, they’re big states. And they’ve, like Washington especially has recently passed a really ambitious act called the Climate Commitment act. I don’t need to get into details there. But yeah, it’s a lot of exciting work. And I think it’s been great. Because, yeah, like going through Princeton to find this position like there are. I mean, I mean, Environmental Defense Fund is a great place to be working. And I mean, it’s a lot of impactful work that’s happening. And it’s also providing opportunities to environmental justice issues that I’m interested in from the perspective of a big environmental organization. That’s, yeah, has had interesting relationships, to say the least about environmental issues. So yeah, that’s something I’ve been doing throughout the summer, it’s uncomfortable. It’s

Kamila
about like you said, it’s funded by Princeton. Does Princeton pay you, not just you, but like, in general, do they pay their students to do internships?

Mayu
Yes, and no, I would say Princeton does provide a lot of opportunities for the summer. And some of these are through the high Meadows Environmental Institute. But there are others that are funded through the pace center for which is like the center for community service and leadership on campus. There are some that are hosted through like the arts departments, or other research base positions that are hosted through like, academic departments themselves. But there are also like volunteer positions that are available, and that can be accessed through Princeton. So yeah, there’s a broad range and mean, and there are also other opportunities. So if you’re not interested in in a specific offering that already exists, there are opportunities to apply for other funding from departments or like through the university, to cover projects that you find independently but don’t have funding for.

Kamila
And you said that you were specific, like Princeton specifically, has a lot of sustainability initiatives that you said, there are a lot of professors and there are a lot of resources for your friends who maybe have completely different majors not in sustainability. Did they find like internships and opportunities with ease as well? Like, is it general with Princeton that they’re good with? You know, work experience and internships?

Mayu
Yeah, I would say depends on the field. I mean, overall, yes, I think it’s very strong. And Princeton does provide a lot of resources. For example, I have a very close friend who is really interested in like, election related politics. And so and she was able to get an international internship. So there’s this thing called the Office of International Programs at Princeton that hosts international internship programs. And, and so for this process, you again, apply through Princeton, and they help match you with an organization that operates internationally and, and so I believe she’s working with, yeah, somewhere in Europe, focusing on kind of navigating election dynamics. They’re doing some research. I also have some friends who’ve, who are interested in like neuroscience and medicine and also thinking about sports medicine. And so I know she’s currently traveling actually, around the US. She was in. Yeah, I mean, traveled, like done work in New Jersey, in Florida, at least as far as I know. And that was also acquired through Princeton. And then for some other fields, like computer science or software engineering or consulting. I don’t know too much about them, but I do know that we have a career center at Princeton that is helpful for yeah for is finding positions like that and find Funding for them as well.

Kamila
So one more thing, like, literally the last thing you’ve ever done here is advice. So number one, what advice would you give for high school students, and this can be anything, this could be a regret that you had, I don’t know what you would regret, a regret that you had, or something that you found really valuable. Like, just like one piece of advice. And this can be anything, you know, college related or just life related. And then a second piece of advice for current college students, maybe they’re struggling, don’t know what they’re doing, you know, they’re coming in or maybe since the new school year is gonna start, what advice would you give for those people? So high school students and college students?

Mayu
Got it? Yeah, this is tough kind of trying to distill everything into one point of advice. But I think, for high school students first what it comes down to is just really doing what you enjoy, like doing what I mean, it took a long time for me, I think, to find what I can call a passion, and I’m still looking, but I think doing what you enjoy, will naturally lead to like being able to work hard on it, and like devoting time and like effort towards it. And I mean, someone was just telling me yesterday that like, if you if you do what you love it, it’s won’t be work. Think, yeah, I’m messing up the phrase. But anyway, finding what you love is really important. And taking the time during high school to explore all these different avenues is really key to being able to continue finding that and ultimately learning and really happy with where you are. So yeah, I think rather than trying to just do things that you think will check off boxes for the college application, for example, like, I think it’s really important to just dive in to things that look interesting. And, and yeah, don’t be afraid to devote a lot of time on it. And for college students, as a rising third year, I am not sure if I’m most qualified to share this, but I think it’s fairly similar. At least what I’m telling myself is that it’s okay not to know what I want to do for the rest of my life, because things will just continue to change and there will be always new opportunities that arise as we go. But I think it is really important to again, like devote yourself to the things that you’re interested in, dive in, really focus and work hard. Work hard in terms of letting yourself have the courage to spend a lot of time on the things you love and think things will follow naturally from there.

Kamila
Well, thank you so much smile. Have a good afternoon, evening.

Mayu
Yes, thank you, for sure you too.

Kamila
Bye bye. That concludes my entire interview with Maya Thank you for listening all the way through. Make sure to subscribe so you know when new episodes are released, but other than that, I hope to see you in the next