From Nabhonil Kar, Class of 2021
Dear Princeton Association of Northeast Ohio,
My name is Nab Kar, and I’m a senior in the Operations Research & Financial Engineering department. From my understanding, a portion of my financial aid award was kindly sponsored by your fund, and so I am writing today to express my deepest gratitude for your support. As my time at Princeton comes to an end, I am both grateful for the opportunities I’ve been presented and proud of my accomplishments since coming here. Of course, none of these things would be possible without your contribution to my education. Recently, I have been reflecting on the things I’ve done during my four years here. Here are a couple of highlights I’d like to share with you.
These few experiences and opportunities at Princeton, along with many others, would not be possible without your generous support, and I am very thankful for this.
Just last week, I completed my senior thesis under the supervision of Professor Mete Soner entitled Gaussian Process Regression for Volatility and Covariance Estimation of Noisy Observations. The work examines how one can measure the volatility of a financial asset or the correlation between two financial assets when the prices we observe in the market are contaminated with noise. The final product took a year’s worth of effort to produce and finished at 131 pages. Writing my senior thesis was one of the most rewarding and interesting academic accomplishments I’ve had here!
For the past two years, I’ve been a team lead member of Princeton Data Science, a student-ran group that facilitates data science and machine learning events for Princeton’s campus. My team in particular hosts introductory workshops on the basics of data science as well as hosts professor talks where faculty members present about their applied data science research. My role and influence on the club has been especially rewarding, as I’ve been able to have an influence on the many students that attend our workshops and events. I’ve even had one student tell me that our workshops made her switch her major from the humanities to engineering!
These few experiences and opportunities at Princeton, along with many others, would not be possible without your generous support, and I am very thankful for this. In September, I will begin work in the quantitative finance field at a trading firm in Chicago, but before then, I will be back in Ohio for a few months. Even though I will likely not be able to attend any in person PANO events given the circumstances, I will at least be at home with fellow alumni! Until then, I hope you all stay well and safe.
Best regards,
Nab
From Dillion Gallagher, Class of 2023
Dear benefactors of the Princeton Association of Northern Ohio,
I hope this note finds you and your loved ones well!
Because of your generosity, I not only get to explore subjects that excite me but also participate in so many activities on campus.
You probably “don’t know me from Adam,” as my mom likes to say, but my name is Dillion Gallagher, and I am currently a sophomore at Princeton University. As of this week, I am officially concentrating in the School of Public and International Affairs and hoping to earn certificates in Statistics and Machine Learning and East Asian Studies. Outside of class, I write for the Daily Princetonian, work as a Fellow at the University Writing Center, and have a position in Student Government.
I write this note to thank you for your continued support of PANO, Princeton University, and students like me. T
Because of your generosity, I not only get to explore subjects that excite me but also participate in so many activities on campus. As a first-generation American and a first-generation college student, my family and I have an opportunity here that is quite literally several lifetimes in the making.
Thanks to you all, I have the chance to make the most of it.
Gratefully,
Dillion Gallagher, Class of 2023