NEWLY MINTED ALUMNUS MAKES EVERY CONNECTION COUNT

Kiran Chaudhry is just barely an alumnus, having received her M.S. in Cybersecurity degree in May 2022 via the Cyber Fellows program. She is now working on the security integration team for Salesforce, a company that creates cloud-based software to support businesses. But, she is also serving as an adjunct professor at the Ying Wu College of Computing at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the NYU Cyber Fellows program, teaching Privacy and IT at NJIT and Penetration Testing at NYU. Taking on posts in academia and industry at the same time might seem a bit daunting to some, particularly for a new graduate. But, for Chaudhry, it’s simply honoring a commitment to “pay knowledge forward” that has been part of her motivation since she was a freshman teaching Python and Java to K-8 students in a Jersey City, NJ, computer summer camp. As that first teaching assignment, along with being a tutor and peer mentor, helped her pay for some of her undergraduate college expenses, the takeaway for Chaudhry has been that when one pays things forward one can often move forward herself.

Chaudhry came to the attention of CyberByte as the winner of an NYU Inclusion Award, which is given to the one student in each academic department who has demonstrated a commitment to advancing inclusion, diversity, belonging and equity at Tandon. She received the honor for activities that support diversity in STEM professions, including single-handedly organizing, planning, and promoting two all Gen Z female panel events, even though she recalls, “I didn’t have any sponsorship or funds for either event.” As a social media ambassador for Niche.com, a scholarship application website, Chaudhry also had the opportunity to co-found a $2,000 scholarship. Lastly, during her time as community and partnership outreach campus chair for Victoria’s Secret Pink at NYU, she created a food event for Hispanic Heritage Month. The program provided students a healthy snack during midterms while spotlighting Elisa’s Love Bites, a local woman and Latinx-owned New York City business.

These examples show that Chaudhry has learned at a relatively young age how to form and use networks to both achieve personal goals, and to benefit others. In a recent conversation with CyberByte, she shared a few tips for other students who need to make the most of their available resources in order to achieve their goals.

Pay attention and follow the best leads

As a self-defined “first generation student,” Chaudhry knew early on that she would need to be smart about her educational decisions. She earned her first three college credits at the age of 12 by taking a biochemistry class at Rutgers University. Later on, “some female students from Rutgers did a presentation at my middle school and told us scholarships were available to women who wanted to study computer science.” She did land a full tuition honors scholarship to New Jersey City University and was able to complete her bachelor’s degree in two-and-a-half years. By then, she realized how much she liked teaching and began inquiring about adjunct work so she could “be a professor part time while continuing a corporate career. I was met with mostly one response, which was to have a master’s degree before applying.” Once again, she went searching for a program she could afford. Her research led her to NYU Tandon and the Cyber Fellows program. The program’s online nature meant she could save commuting fees from her home in New Jersey. But, she admitted she was also worried that she would not be able to “build that same sense of community” that she would have experienced had she chosen an in-person program.

Make the most of any opportunity you may get

Contrary to her concerns though, NYU, which she described as, “my dream school, the school I always aspired to go to but just never thought I’d be able to afford,” not only helped her find community, but also allowed her to grow in ways other than than just academically or professionally. Signing up for the NYU RADical Health program, a four-week interactive experience to help incoming first-year students “build mental, emotional, and spiritual health,” Chaudhry found it “opened a number of doors at a most opportune time” as she became a mental health ambassador for NYU students “promoting self-care, mindfulness, time management and active listening on social media while Covid was still challenging campus life.” Through the program Chaudhry also met Chelsea Garbell, Associate Director for Global Spiritual Life at NYU, and became a Spiritual Wisdom Fellow, giving her the opportunity to learn more about various faiths. “All these different experiences really catered to me as a person,” Chaudhry notes, adding, “I don’t think I would have been able to get these experiences outside of NYU.”

Keep the big picture in view

A big takeaway from Chaudhry’s experience is the value of thinking things through. “I have always been a person who did the long range plan. When I started at New Jersey City University, I mapped out my entire degree within two years in my first semester.” Now she is approaching her professional career the same way. “I definitely want to make a long term commitment to teaching,” she observes, noting she has already held a number of teaching positions, including serving as a course expert and a graduate teaching assistant for three courses at Tandon: Information Security and Privacy, Cloud Security, and Mobile Security. When she reached out to NJIT about adjunct work, she explains that they “actually were willing to offer me the opportunity to interview for a university lecture full-time position. But I think that having industry experience is invaluable to teaching, because you bring in an added perspective that you simply cannot just get out of theory and textbooks. So that is the reason that I want to pursue both side by side.”

She concludes by saying, “ I think it’s just such a beautiful experience being able to connect with students, seeing them grow. You really feel like you’re making an impact. I’m not saying that you can’t make an impact at a corporate level but it’s a different type of impact and, as a first generation student it really feels so precious.”