I fell in love with infrastructure and what it could be in September of 2024. I had just moved to Beijing for the Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University, it was the first day of classes, and I walked into “Infrastructure in Foreign Policy.” Our professor, Gyude Moore, opened by explaining why infrastructure matters. He said when you build a bridge, you help a pregnant woman get to the hospital faster.
And I said alright, that’s what I want to do.
(And then it was slightly embarrassing when Ezra Klein released “Abundance” and it was all about that and suddenly I felt like I was just jumping on the bandwagon but I promise I was into it first.)

I then went to Schwarzman’s career czar Julia Zupko and said I gotta build bridges. And she said do you know anything about that, and I said no, and she said alright, you’ve got some emails to send. So I emailed 150 people across the industry to ask if they’d get on the phone with me and tell me how it worked.

The first person to talk to me was Vidya Basarkod, who was (is) a real big shot and surprised me when she responded to my email, then surprised me again with how effectively she could communicate her deep industry expertise to a know-nothing like myself.
I could tell she really cared about her work and her impact, and I told her as much. And she told me I’d find a lot of that in the industry, people in it for all the right reasons. She was right.

The next person to talk to me was Jee Mee Kim-Diaz. This would prove to be the most consequential conversation I’d have. She explained to me how the industry works, who the major players are, how cities interact with developers interact with design and construction firms. If my interest was a seed, she ripped the seed clean out and put down a whole tree and then I was like holy cow I’m a tree now. That was a first draft sentence but I’ve decided it is eloquent and so it shall remain.

I then spoke to 38 other people, which is too many to thank here but I feel beyond lucky that all these folks took the time to share their stories with me. Every conversation increased my resolve to work in the space and brought me further into this whole new world.

And then Jee Mee emailed and said I should talk to Jason King about applying computer science in architecture, and Jason and I got on for a thirty minute call and it ran two hours and suddenly I was a big fan of his, too, and then he had me talk to his co-captain Michael Lee and they told me I could be on the team. And I was in an airport Starbucks with David and Alex when I got the call and we started jumping up and down and got double chocolate muffins which I’m pretty sure they only have at China Starbuckses and holy gosh are those good.

Interlude here: This doesn’t even mention the countless hours that Jess and Arjun and Henley and Malaika and Uri and etc etc had to give me advice and listen to me talk about infrastructure. I would say more names but I think most people in the 150 person cohort had to deal with me rambling about this at lunch and I am thankful and sorry. Back to the story.

I graduated from Tsinghua and moved to New York, and in August of 2025, I started as a Computational Designer at Arcadis. I was blown away by everybody I met in the New York office. They were and are welcoming and intelligent and want to make cities better and have better taste in music and movies than I do. I don’t know if people at other companies in the industry are evil and bad, I think they’re probably also really kind and competent, but all I have is Arcadis people and they totally crushed.

My team, the Computational Design team, was entirely people who were both brilliant and patient, and they did incredible work and cared a lot about the process and the end result. None of them were in the New York office and this leaves me with virtual friends whom I’ve never met so I hope they were real. (I am only having this thought now as I write this, but it would be truly devastating if the year were one big catfish situation.)

And the work was fascinating, and the projects were meaningful. I had the opportunity to work on real big physical things happening in Los Angeles and the Netherlands and Germany and Texas and New Jersey (go Tigers) and New York (go Knicks) and Brooklyn (go Nets?), and more. The year was a crash course in all things architecture, engineering, policy, parks, cruise ships, the list goes on.
And in a delightfully full-circle moment, I partnered with the tremendous folks at the Chicago Central Area Committee on, you guessed it, bridges :)

And now, with a very full year behind me, I am leaving Arcadis and heading into a new adventure. More on that soon, but for now:

Thank you to the faculty and scholars at Schwarzman who inspired me and supported me and pushed me towards this entirely new career path.
Thank you to the 40 industry veterans who so readily picked up the phone and brought into focus the hazy outlines of a world about which I knew so little.
Thank you Jee Mee for guiding me, for answering my every question with your signature warmth and expertise.
Thank you Jason, my team, and everybody in the New York office for making work something to look forward to.

Thank you, Arcadis.

Goodbye!