We said, “We should do an Asian-American magazine for everybody.” That led into this magazine, because then I became friends with people at Harvard who were doing the same thing. I thought, “We need to increase awareness of what it means to be Asian-American at Wellesley.” I proposed that we do a literary journal talking about Asian-American experiences, so I launched that. When I was at Wellesley, I was part of the group that got the first Asian-American Studies class on campus.

I took off six months to start this magazine with some friends in New York. It was an Asian-American magazine, and I was the first publisher. I like doing new things and start-ups, and I started a magazine, A Magazine, while I was at Wellesley and MIT. I knew that this was actually pretty good in terms of learning about how to research industries, competitors, that kind of thing.ĭid you know what you wanted to do after college? At a certain point, I switched to a lower-paying job as a research assistant. I was working 20 hours or more doing these presentations. I was doing all their Five Forces, Michael Porter presentations, making all their stuff look really nice, and they paid really well. That was my first introduction to management consulting. One of my first jobs at Wellesley, basically what funded me through Wellesley was, I did night graphic design at Monitor Group. I think my year there were maybe three women who did it, because it is really hard.Ĭan you talk about the job you had throughout college?

I started off going back and forth, from the beginning. You start off two years at Wellesley, and then you’re basically at MIT full-time. If you get into both schools, you can get both degrees. What was it like doing a dual degree at Wellesley and MIT?

I was reading, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich kind of stuff when I was 12. I’m sure I read Wonder Woman, I’m sure I did all that stuff, but it wasn’t in a way that most comic book nerds are, like, “I remember my first issue was issue XYZ of X-Men.” I was pretty nerdy. I grew up all over, but I spent my formative years in Iowa.I didn’t read comics.

Where she lives now: Princeton, New Jersey Education: Dual bachelor’s degrees from Wellesley College and MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School

Poison Ivy by Amy Chu