Over spring break last month, departments and programs throughout Princeton offered a variety of funded trips for students. Among these trips are the TigerTreks, sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. Silicon Valley and New York City were among this year's locations.
I was 1 of 20 students who went on the New York Tiger Trek, spending 5 days in Brooklyn and Manhattan having “intimate, off-the-record conversations with creatives, entrepreneurs, and game changers,” according to the NY TigerTrek site. The Prince also covered this, but I hope to bring more personal reflections on the experience.
I did not know any of the other Princeton students before going on this trip—a massive sleepover for a week straight in an Airbnb. Though I was originally a bit worried, we quickly bonded on the subway rides and food excursions. After all, we were in the city—there was always much to do!
I was able to meet peers from many different majors that I likely would not have otherwise, from Classics to Electrical and Civil Engineering. The best part: we got to traverse all parts of the city with our unlimited metrocards, from Times Square, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to Koreatown, and the Highline.
Speaking of the Highline, we met incredible speakers from all sorts of backgrounds, one of whom was the architect of the Highline: Robbie Hammond. We were able to discuss anything: from balancing one’s personal life, to how he came up with the idea for the Highline, and how he carved an unconventional career path.
At the MET museum, we met a conservator who specializes in recovering ancient artworks and toured the basement to view all of his current projects. The question of how much one should recover a piece without damaging its original authenticity was among our conversations of ethics, which we explored alongside the scientific side of art conservation.
This week was a transformational experience in exploring my career options. Going into TigerTrek, I had the misconception that all jobs had traditional paths with “stepping stones”, but almost all of the speakers I met had their own unique combination of experimentation, networking, and luck. It made me feel a lot more open to learning about other fields and more motivated to try out new things, especially at a place like Princeton. And it’s okay to not have a concrete career path—life will happen on its own.