Starting a Career in Silicon Valley

Nikita Omprakash Kuckian ’20, an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major at the Whitman School, has been able to hone entrepreneurial skills through a variety of academic and experiential activities.

Kuckian joined the Entrepreneurship Club as a first-year and now holds the position of president. Kuckian also has been working at various startups, her major focus being Visos VR, a virtual reality headset company. To Kuckian, a Whitman education, combined with her extracurricular involvement, helped give her a competitive edge when it came time to apply for internships.

This summer, she is holding an internship in Silicon Valley working for Mayatar, a cloud-based omnichannel commerce management software company. Whitman alumnus Jim Keene ’79 organized the internship.

According to Kuckian, she was made aware of this internship through conversations with fellow Whitman student Dorothy Deng ’20 who raved about the experience working in the tech capital of the world. After meeting with EEE department chair, Professor Alex McKelvie, Kuckian learned the goal of the program is to place more EEE students in Silicon Valley to gain experience and insight into what entrepreneurship looks like after college.

“Whitman has taught me a lot of the skills needed to succeed in this internship,” Kuckian said. “The opportunity to work with a tech innovator on a daily basis has been an incredible opportunity and really emphasizes the practical opportunities Whitman provides.”

Kuckian is planning to hit the ground running on starting an entrepreneurial career upon graduation and hopes to utilize her education in the virtual reality industry.

 

Bill Conallen
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