Cristina Pogorevici W'21
Email: Feel free to contact Cristina Pogorevici at Pogorevici.cristina@gmail.com if you have any questions about the Schwarzman Scholars Program or anything else she discusses below.
What did you study at Penn and when did you graduate?
I graduated May 2021, the most recent graduating class. I studied business analytics and management (entrepreneurship & innovation track) in Wharton and also did an Urban Studies minor in the college.
What was your favorite club/initiative you were involved in as an undergraduate?
I am biased in answering this but I was co-chair of Wharton Council and that was by far my favorite club because it was a small community and we managed to do a lot for Wharton. My favorite initiative was the centralized club application system initially on Campus Groups, now on Penn Clubs that me and my friend and co-chair Charlie coded and created. We actually pitched the idea before the pandemic and once covid started the online solution we created was needed more than ever, so it was implemented. It took many adjustments between 2020 and 2021 to get where it is today and fellow Council members are continuing to improve it every year, but I am proud to have moved the needle just a little.
What advice do you wish you had known when you were an undergraduate?
I would have loved someone to look me in my eyes and tell me on the first day at Penn not to compare myself to other people. Just because you are in the place with the highest achieving people in the world, you cannot doubt who you are because that won’t go well. You won’t necessarily be the best, the smartest, or have the highest grades of everyone around you but you will learn so much from everyone you meet and that is much more valuable. Accept that you're not the smartest in the room and be open-minded.
What has your career journey looked like up until this point?
As I am in my masters program, I have only had internships but I believe internships are part of your career journey. I was a part of the anti-resume project by The Signal (http://antiresume.org/resume/2021/131), which lists all the rejections I got during my time at Penn. My junior year I applied to 114 jobs and didn't get any. It was a lot harder as an international student because no one wanted a visa sponsor, but today I am considered a success story because I got into this masters program. But since I couldn’t get a job in junior year, I had to go back to Romania at the start of covid. I got to work at McKinsey in Romania and after that I re-recruited and got a job in New York at Bain & Company. I’m on a consulting path so I’m planning on working at Bain & Company after my program.
But because of my masters program I don’t have my visa so I’m entering the US visa lottery, which only has a 30% chance of success. If I don’t get my visa then I’ll have to work elsewhere, but luckily Bain will be placing me in a different office
What was it like moving to a country where you didn’t speak the language?
I went to a Romanian only high school, so my first year at Penn I wasn’t very confident in my English skills.
But then when I moved to China I didn’t realize how big of a barrier not knowing Chinese was going to be. I started learning Chinese during my last semester at Penn and over the summer after I had gotten into the program but it was pretty useless because Chinese is so hard that I could not speak a word when I landed in Beijing and people could not understand me. Now, I do about an hour of Chinese everyday and the people in my program push each other to practice with locals and work on our skills. I think I was oblivious to how challenging it would be and my advice would be to seriously learn the language before you go so that you can fully experience the place you are going to. It took me a month to even get on the metro because I was so scared I’d be lost and wouldn’t be able to ask for help. Now, I just returned from a five week trip around China without a native speaker and was able to check in and out and get around without help which is quite a progress.
What is your favorite trip you’ve been on or country you’ve visited and where is next on your list?
This is extremely hard to answer but I’d have to say my favorite country right now is China because it is like a continent in the way that every province is so different. I’ve only been to 9 out of 32 but the border of Tibet is very different from Shanghai which is so different from Beijing, etc. It was also such a milestone that I was able to travel around China alone and, for example, when I got food poisoning on my last trip, I went to the hospital and got help in Chinese with no native helper. It has given me so much confidence knowing that I can travel to any other place if I set my mind to it.
I also fell in love with Hong Kong, so that would be my second favorite because it has everything: nature, water, metropolis, night life. Everything in one place.
Next on my list is Central Asia like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, all the stans, or wherever I can get visas for because this is probably going to be the last time I have this much free time so I want to explore as much as possible before I’m back in New York.
My two covid trips that got canceled were South Africa and India which would have brought me to 40 countries, but I’ll get there this summer.
If you were advertising the Schwarzman Scholars, how would you describe the perfect candidate?
First things first you need to have a genuine interest in China and if you're not ready to fully immerse yourself then you shouldn't apply. You’ll have the opportunity to learn the language but you will also learn a lot about Chinese foreign relations. Most classes have a local and foreign professor so you get both sides of China’s role in the international order and if that doesn’t intrigue you then you shouldn’t apply. You can tailor your schedule to specific interests within the global affairs degree like business or environmental studies. This year for me was a year of soul searching because I think that soul searching and taking a break in your career to reinvent yourself are the ways you get the most out of the program. You have to be ready to socialize a lot because you'll be in a dorm with 150 people who are constantly busy and doing a thousand different things so your schedule will be booked with activities and interactions. It is also, especially with covid, quite isolating because you cannot leave and the quarantine upon entering China was a month and was quite difficult.
In summary, if you are passionate about China, energetic, curious, and a tad crazy, this program is perfect for you.