Bingyu (Lily) Deng
Weike (Colin) Fang
Hanjing (Sylvia) Zhu
Hairong Deng
Lingxiao Gao
Xinqi (Kayle) Liao
Jingyao Shan
Tiantian Wei
Jiani (Jenny) Xia
Bingyu (Lily) Deng
Our Lady of Perpetual Succor Global Scholar
Frank Reilly Scholar
Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar
Post-graduation: Analyst, Ares Management, New York
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Finance, Applied Maths, Musical Theater
High School: High School Affiliated to Fudan University
At Notre Dame, I was involved in various academic, leadership, and extracurricular activities. I joined SIBC (Student International Business Council) to explore my interest in business in my freshman year and developed a deep passion for the finance division. I grew from a member to the Finance Division Director overseeing more than 25 student-led projects with world-renowned financial services firms. Through working with firms on real-world projects, I gained a deeper understanding of my professional pursuit in the future. I’m also completed a Musical Theater minor was the assistant stage manager for a student-written musical, Dawn’s Early Light. With that being said, I’m extremely grateful for the flexibility of the Notre Dame's curriculum and the variety of opportunities it offers. Outside of academics, I’m also passionate about all kinds of volunteering work. For example, I’m was the president of MoneyThink, a club that teaches local high school students financial literacy, and also volunteered at various locations on campus.
During the summer following my junior year, I worked at Ares Management in private credit in New York and returend there after graduateion. I also took the Applied Investment Management course in my senior year, which is a legacy finance course founded by Prof. Frank Rilley where students run a live $25 million stock portfolio. As a Frank Rilley Scholar, I was really honored to take the course and learn from great professors and peers. I believe the course really was a capstone for my finance degree at Notre Dame and furthered my interest in the field.
Weike (Colin) Fang
Our Lady of Perpetual Succor Global Scholar
Post-graduation: PhD in Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Honors Mathematics (Computer Science Concentration)
High School: Shenzhen Senior High School
At Notre Dame, I participated in many clubs and organizations to expand my academic and extracurricular interests. I led several projects and served as the director of workshops for the ND Data club. In that role I led the student-corporate research partnership and presented our results to their data scientists.
In my junior year, I participated in an internship as a Machine Learning engineer at FloWaste, a tech startup aiming to reduce food waste in cafeterias and chain restaurants. I was able to develop computer vision models that accurately detect and track food components to help the restaurants know the amount of food served and wasted. With my technical skills, I hope to serve more significant causes worldwide.
I was involved in several research projects. In my sophomore summer, I participated in a Math Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) under the guidance of Professor Miller at Williams College. I designed algorithms and computed the coefficients of a Laurent series and conducted a statistical analysis of its adherence to Benford’s law. We published our work in Fractal and Fractional and presented it at the Young Mathematicians Conference. I also worked as an undergraduate research assistant at the Notre Dame DM2 Lab led by Professor Meng Jiang. I was also fortunate to present my work at KDD 2022, where I met a lot of like-minded researchers and learned about their projects.
I am grateful for the myriad of academic and career opportunities I had at Notre Dame, which allowed me to explore my academic paths and discern my life goals.
Hanjing (Sylvia) Zhu
Our Lady of Perpetual Succor Global Scholar
Post-graduation: Product Manager, Microsoft, Washington
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Computer Science, minor in Engineering Cooperative Practice
High School: St. Joseph’s Institution International, Singapore
My interest in Computer Science stemmed from taking two fundamental classes in my freshman year and since then I was eager to study more both inside and outside of the classroom. I enrolled in iOS Mobile App Development courses and a summer technical interview bootcamp with CodePath, a nonprofit organization devoted to boosting diversity in tech by providing free education to underrepresented minorities. My hard work and curiosity landed me an internship at Microsoft in the summer following my sophomore year, where I explored both Software Engineering and Product Management.
I also worked as a part-time software development intern for a client-focused Human Capital Management startup during my junior spring semester in the Bay Area. My internship experiences developed my strength in empathy and my ability to think through operational details, user experiences, and potential feature improvements. My entrepreneurial experiences and desire to engage with people drove me to start pursuing a career in Product Management. I interned at Microsoft again in my junior year summer as a Product Manager Intern in its Data & Analytics team. The company culture and its ability to influence billions of people globally motivated me to return full-time at Microsoft after graduation as a product manager.
The splendid life I spent at Notre Dame shaped me into a more ethical, thoughtful, and conscientious woman. I was a member of CS for Good and had led several projects where we taught local high school girls front-end development and went to the nursing home to help the elderly solve technical problems. In the future, I wish to continue dedicating myself to service and public welfare, becoming a force for good.
Hairong Deng
Post-graduation: TBD
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Philosophy, Digital Arts & Humanities
High School: Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing
My main academic interest lies in the philosophy of lived human experiences, and I also enjoy doing visual and audio design. By junior year I became interested in phenomenology, which gave me insights into the human being’s‘’ living environments and embodied existence. In addition to theoretical studies, I also participated in an architectural design program (Design Discovery) offered by Harvard GSD during the summer of 2021, as an attempt to concretize philosophical theories.
I spent my time outside of academia doing volunteer work and exploring human connections. I taught at a summer camp for underprivileged students in Guizhou, China, interned at China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, and participated in ND Center for Social Concerns’s service team to Appalachian regions. In the summer of 2021, I visited an eco-village in Hunan, where I served as a philosophy TA. The experience prompted my decision to take a gap year. During my gap year, I sojourned to different Chinese provinces, visited various communities, and served in a mindfulness center. I plan to continue exploring the intersection of health, nature, art, community, and phenomenology.
Lingxiao Gao
Post-graduation: PhD in Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: History, minor in German
High School: Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing
At Notre Dame, I majored in history and minored in German. It is my utmost interest to decipher the enchanting myths of diverse human civilizations. I am fascinated by how ancient people lived their lives, how different cultures interacted and synthesized into new flourishing styles, and how the human species strive to pursue happiness and truths.
In college, I aspired to further my interests in humanities and foster cross-cultural understanding. In my first year, I benefited greatly from the courses offered by the Glynn Family Honors Program. I joined the Kellogg International Scholars Program and gained new insights into international development. I did research with professor Liang Cai from the history department on Confucianism and the ancient Chinese legal system.
In my freshman summer, supported by the GCS summer enrichment award, I participated in the German Immersion Program to study German in Berlin for eight weeks, a transformative experience that provided me with not only language skills but also trans-cultural literacy. I worked as a Chinese language tutor at the Center for Language and Cultures (CSLC) and served as a board member at the Chinese Culture Society. My junior year, I served as a table leader at 2019’s AAA First Year Retreat, participated in a Study Away Locally program, and studied as an exchange student at PKU.
In the summer of 2021, I interned at CITIC Press as a podcast and volunteered at a Community Service Center in Shanghai, where I designed and lectured a history course for children of migrant workers. I received a Nanovic travel grant to travel to Germany in the winter of 2021 to pursue advanced language training and prepare for my senior thesis.
Xinqi (Kayle) Liao
Post-graduation: Sales and Trading Analyst, Citigroup, New York
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Economics, Political Science
High School: United World College Changshu China
Notre Dame allowed me to develop into a well-rounded person through various extracurriculars. I acquired business acumen and problem-solving skills through SIBC consulting projects that I worked on with McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and PwC. I learned the importance of serving the broader community through being an economics tutor at Notre Dame and teaching math to kids at Jefferson Middle School in South Bend.
Furthermore, I was able to discern my long-term career goals and passions through different internships. In Fall 2021, I participated in the Washington Program, where I discovered my academic interests in the international political economy by taking U.S. foreign policy and elections classes. While in DC, I interned at Accion, a leading global impact investor who invests in fintech startups to empower the world’s 3 billion financially underprivileged population. I was able to learn how my finance skills can be utilized and put towards force for good. In the summer following my sophomore year, I interned at the Bank of China New York Branch, where I gained an understanding of FX derivatives and RMB globalization. In my junior spring semester, I was selected as one of the three interns at the Notre Dame Investment Office which invests Notre Dame’s 13-billion endowment in areas including private equity, public equity, and real estate. I was able to sit on investor calls and participate in discussions on Notre Dame’s private equity portfolio. Given my previous experience with Chinese currency and understanding of the Chinese political economy, I provided strategy advice regarding the portfolio’s Chinese exposure.
In the summer of 2022, I interned at Citi in its Sales & Trading division in New York and will be returning full-time upon graduation. In the future, I want to become an impact investor, which requires a deep understanding of emerging countries' political and economic landscapes as well as rigorous investing expertise.
Jingyao Shan
Post-graduation: JD Program, Duke Law School, NC
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Philosophy, Economics
High School: Harbin No.3 High School
I’m passionate about the discussions related to the fundamental aspects of human beings and numerical analysis of different socioeconomic phenomena. I’m also interested in international development and world politics, which drove me into the PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) minor. The Notre Dame education made it possible for me to combine these academic interests together and explore them freely, especially in different places of the world. In the fall of 2020, I was able to do a study abroad exchange at Peking University, where I intensively studied Chinese philosophy and the Chinese economy. In the fall of 2021, I spent a semester in Washington DC taking political science classes and getting to know the real political world. In the summer of 2022, I traveled with the Nanovic Institute’s Diplomacy Scholars Program to Vienna and Brussels where we explored the diplomatic world and international legal system.
The experience at Notre Dame facilitated my growth in academic disciplines and exposed me to opportunities outside of the classroom. One of the highlights was my involvement in the Kellogg International Scholars Program. As a research assistant in the program, I closely studied the Chinese cultural system and public policy with Professor Michel Hockx. I developed connections with other faculty fellows and peers who also shared interests in international studies. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute and GCS in the winter and summer of 2021, I interned at South African NGOs, where I was able to look into the SA legal and political systems and further my understanding of international human rights.
In the fall of 2021, my time in DC was made particularly special because of my internship at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank. Working for its foreign policy department, I helped with the research project about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and familiarized myself with the world's challenges in the face of deteriorating US-China relations.
Tiantian Wei
Post-graduation: Short Rates Trading Analyst, Bank of America, New York
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Applied Mathematics, Economics
High School: Nanjing Foreign Language School
At Notre Dame, I engaged in STEM mentorship programs and coached at the ONEXYS program for two summers. ONEXYS is a pre-college Math program for first-generation college students organized by the ND Math department. I also taught a 4-week online course about pre-calculus for incoming Freshmen twice a week and mentored five students to help prepaer them for college-level quantitative reasoning courses and introduced my experiences at ND to help with their transition to college.
At the beginning of my freshman year, I was amazed by all the exciting opportunities for academic exploration, cultural immersion, and service that Notre Dame offers. Aiming to challenge myself and serve the community, I volunteered to work at an English teaching program at La Casa de Amistad (ENL Program), where I teach Hispanic people English. I also attended the Living with Mental Illness, a social concern seminar this semester. Through weekly meetings and an immersion week, I learned how nonprofit organizations help people with mental illnesses by creating an environment with mutual support.
Notre Dame has many amazing opportunities to help students discern career paths and future possibilities. I benefited from business clubs like SIBC, ND Institute in Global Investing, Career Center, and upperclassmen connections. I confirmed my interest in the secondary market after my summer internship at Huatai Securities in my freshman year. Later, I attended many workshops and guest speaker events organized by Wall Street Clubs, and I joined the JP Morgan wealth management travel team of SIBC. All of these experiences helped me learn valuable technical and leadership skills. I interned at Bank of America Sales and Trading in New York City where I rotated with the G10 FX Sales desk and the US Short Rates Trading desk.
I explored my passion for traveling and intercultural immersions through Notre Dame. In my junior fall semester, I studied abroad in London. My experience of studying in different parts of the world allows me to meet people from different backgrounds and learn how to explore the world on my own. I will continue exploring my academic interests and challenging myself in different aspects to become a better global citizen.
Jiani (Jenny) Xia
Post-graduation: Business Analyst, McKinsey, Chicago
Field(s) of Undergraduate Study: Finance, Applied Maths
High School: Shanghai Foreign Language School, Shanghai
At Notre Dame, I worked for the Endowment Office/Strategy Team as the only student intern. My responsibilities included maintaining alumni relationships and outreach, allocating funding to student organizations, and designing programs that benefit the student body. The experience provided a perfect way for me to give back to the Notre Dame community by using my own capabilities.
I also actively explored many opportunities and industries in order to figure out where my true interest lies. For example, I joined the Student International Business Council(SIBC), where I worked on consulting projects with various companies such as Bain and McKinsey. I interned at a boutique investment bank in New York in my junior summer. Eventually, I found my true passion for consulting and have joined McKinsey as a Business Analyst.
Notre Dame has a tradition of educating impactful leaders and encouraging students to take actions, which have encouraged me to keep exploring different opportunities and making contributions to my community.