This article was published in Journeys Winter 2020. Click here to read more articles featured in this issue. 

Unplanned, Part 1: The Internship
At the end of June, I decided to work.

After receiving an email about three available internship opportunities from the office of alumni relations at Singapore American School, I entertained the idea of applying for Zesttee Digital Health Clinic. Zesttee, a digital health start-up, stood out to me due to my interest in biology/health. Furthermore, the required time commitment—two months—would allow me to start university in August with minimal overlap.

Long story short: I applied and was accepted.

I was tasked with simple but necessary tasks, such as testing the website for bugs, recommending UX improvements and content editing. I organized my notes into Google Docs for easy sharing. In doing so, I happened to catch the co-founder’s attention. Sanju Goswami thought my document was well organized and appreciated the detail in my work. He then assigned me to review his spreadsheet of supplements and allowed me to edit his writing. This catapulted me into working on other projects like restructuring content across the website, creating a landing page for his previous customer base to drive conversions, and brainstorming for marketing.

Unplanned, Part 2: The Gap Year
Three days before I was due at college, I decided to take a gap year. 

A month into my internship, Goswami broached the idea of extending my work contract with the company. I assumed this would lead to a part-time job offer, but he soon suggested I take a gap year. I quickly dismissed it, as I was due to start university in less than a week. But I realized that the opportunity of a valuable work experience appealed to me much more than starting school online amid COVID-19, and in a series of fortunate events, I was able to arrange a very last-minute gap year request with the University of North Carolina’s admissions office. 

At the time of writing this, I have been at Zesttee for almost four months. There is an endless amount of work, but it’s purposeful, and I enjoy it. Over the past two months, I’ve been given bigger tasks—managing Google Analytics/Google Tag Manager, launching Google Ads, creating email flows and cost sheets, handling operational work and delegating tasks. 

Start-up life and culture have taught me a lot. I am humbled to learn that our decisions are merely hypotheses and it’s the market that will support or reject them. This keeps us on our feet and reinforces the idea that it’s never good to get too comfortable. 

I’ve come to enjoy the start-up environment, especially the freedom and flexibility to take on a variety of roles and tasks. While it brings great responsibility (and unpredictability), I find that it makes work fresh. There’s always something new to learn, something more to do, and it’s inspiring to work with smart, hardworking, dedicated people. 

(P.S: If you’ve read this far, please go check us out and support us at zesttee.com) 

As I look back, my time at SAS prepared me for work in different ways. Junior year was rigorous academically (content-wise) and pushed me to absorb lots of information at once. I was also challenged to adapt as a new student and that was a steep learning curve. Senior year, while not as heavily focused on theoretical knowledge, was a highlight of my schooling. I was a part of Quest, a project-based interdisciplinary program, where I was stretched to learn in a more meaningful way. I think the number one thing Quest taught me was self-awareness. Through Quest I became more cognizant of my own biases and perceptions, my approach to work and work style, and my strengths and weaknesses. 

I was stretched to think, albeit in different ways, and as my mom always says “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” For me, a plan is a great rough draft, but life–the epitome of unplanned circumstances–is where thinking should be most present, as it’s the final draft in play.

Internships for SAS Alumni
• Seventy-one SAS alumni were hired between May 2020 and October 2020
• Eleven organizations offered internships, with some extending these to full-time hires

Beth Toole, associate director of alumni relations at SAS, started this program in May 2020 in response to young SAS alumni who were losing internships elsewhere or moving home due to the pandemic. Current and former parents and alumni offered opportunities for our college-age alumni to apply for summer internships at their organizations. The alumni relations office continues to seek internship opportunities for summer 2021. If you’re interested in supporting this program, you may submit internship opportunities by scanning the QR code or reaching out to Beth Toole at btoole@sas.edu.sg.

Journeys, our print publication, shares current, in-depth stories written by and for members of our school community. It is mailed to current families, faculty, staff, and alumni in December and June. If you are interested in contributing an article to Journeys, email communications@sas.edu.sg. Read more articles here.