“If you don’t ask, you don’t get” is what my first manager, Christina Kalli, told me as I proceeded to make a case to our UK team at GE Healthcare on why I should be the first intern to travel abroad and present my research at the 2018 Alzheimer’s Association Conference in Chicago. It was at that conference that I learnt about neurotechnology and discovered my passion for the field.
For this year’s International Women in Engineering Day, I’d like to thank you for the support and guidance you’ve given me over the years. You took me under your wing during my first internship in 2017. That year, I learnt C#, Unreal Engine, Python and other technologies, but my most valuable takeaway was cultivating the habit to ask for opportunities even when I think the answer will be no. Often times, I find myself pleasantly surprised by a yes. And occasionally it changes my life, like that trip did.