For Alyssa Tran ’27, choosing just one interest was never going to be enough. Whether it’s coding and finance or writing and technology, she gravitates toward the space where disciplines overlap. “I’m interested in so many things,” she said. At the iSchool, that breadth of curiosity has become a strength, shaping her coursework, campus involvement, and creative pursuits.
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, as a second-generation Chinese and Vietnamese American, Tran was influenced early by both technology and business. Her father, a software developer, sparked her interest in coding. “In high school, I was the only girl on the robotics team and in coding class,” she recalled. At the same time, her mother’s career in insurance introduced her to the world of business.
When she began looking at colleges, Syracuse stood out for allowing her to double major in her fields of choice. Today, she studies information management and technology at the iSchool alongside finance at the Whitman School of Management.
At the same time, Tran has found ways to express another side of her interests. “I found that I can still channel a lot of creativity into the projects I do,” she said. That balance is especially clear in her honors thesis, which draws on her love of language—and her minor in English—to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way people express themselves through writing. She has also found time to take such classes as Shakespeare and study abroad in London, continuing to nurture the humanities alongside her work in data and technology.
Outside the classroom, Tran has continued to grow through her campus involvement and found community and mentorship in the professional technology fraternity Kappa Theta Pi. “At first I was super shy, but now I’m not scared to talk to people,” she said. “That’s also my career advice for other students: talk to anybody and everybody.”
It’s a recommendation Tran has put into practice herself, for example during a career exploration trip to New York City. The connections she made there helped lead to her upcoming summer internship. At EY in New York, Tran will be exploring a role in tech risk. “I’m just excited to try it out and see where it takes me,” she said.
The next step, she recently learned, will be joining the iSchool’s accelerated master’s program, for which she will start taking graduate classes this fall. Whatever comes after that– perhaps working at a high-profile magazine someday or pursuing tech for a while and later writing about it–Tran knows her career will be unique. “My path is a bit non-traditional,” she said. “But I’ve learned that you can find a place for yourself in almost any industry.”