“I want everyone who arrives here to have a friendly face to turn to, and that’s especially important when you’re in an underrepresented group and you’re not seeing many faces that look like your own,” Tandon junior De’Ane Kennedy says.
Kennedy has provided a friendly face to hundreds of current and prospective Tandon students. A member of Project Welcome, she gives open house tours of the school and has been instrumental in planning numerous fun and informative undergraduate-admissions events. She’s even been called upon to be that friendly face and helping hand at all hours, since she also serves as a Resident Assistant.
And if those responsibilities weren’t enough, Kennedy, who hails from Dallas, Texas, is currently the external vice-president of Tandon’s National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) student chapter. In that capacity, she organizes tours and workshops with such companies as Google, Facebook, and Goldman Sachs; hosts networking events that bring high-powered alumni back to campus; and oversees much of the club’s finances. “We’re able to send 28 students to this year’s national NSBE convention,” she says, “so that’s especially exciting.”
Kennedy also serves as a stellar role model for anyone hoping to combine seemingly disparate interests into a course of study and a future job. A self-professed band geek with an interest in the workings of human brain and computer science, she says, “Artificially intelligent programs are now writing music, keyboards can be programmed, and someone has to write software for musicians. With my major in computer science and double minor in psychology and music, I’m definitely proof that there’s a way to study all the things you love and to forge a career from them.” (It bears mentioning here that she also plays the snare in NYU’s celebrated pipes and drum ensemble, known for its stirring performances at commencement and other major events.)
Although Kennedy has already completed a gratifying internship at Dell, she has no firm path set for 2020, after she graduates. “I know for sure that I want to travel, though, so perhaps I’ll work or study abroad,” she says. “My family is very close, and while we’d love to be together in Texas, they’ve always stressed that I should spread my wings and experience the world.”