A Lafayette retrospective: 2022 Lafayette-Easton Scholarship winners Imaan Ali ’26 and Camille Voo ’26

I’m working full time in the semiconductor industry as an application engineer at DISCO Hi-Tec America. Our company makes tools, machines, and processes that cut, grind, or polish semiconductor wafers, which are used to make integrated circuits for electronics. My home office is located in the Boston area, but I get to travel to customer sites across the country and internationally to troubleshoot machines. It’s also a Japanese company, so I get to use my bilingual skills on a business level, which is very rewarding.

I’m excited to be working in an industry that supports rapidly advancing technologies, including the hardware used in AI data centers. It’s rewarding to know the work I do contributes, even in a small way, to technologies that are becoming increasingly important in everyday life. I also enjoy how hands-on my job is. Rather than spending all of my time behind a computer, I get to work directly with equipment, solve technical problems, communicate with customers and colleagues, and build relationships with people from different backgrounds.

I was first introduced to this company at a Career Fair at Lafayette, so I’m really grateful to the College for helping to open the door to this opportunity. 

My parents are immigrants, and they worked so hard and sacrificed a lot to raise me here in the U.S. This scholarship allowed me to return the favor to them, not only financially, but also by maximizing the opportunity for me to thrive. As a CaPA recipient, I was also able to continue developing as a violinist while pursuing engineering. The opportunities I received at Lafayette allowed me to grow both as an engineer and as a musician. I learned how to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone, and it gave me the freedom to pursue what I’m passionate about. I feel incredibly grateful for the scholarship because it gave me the freedom to explore different interests and ultimately helped shape the person I am today. 

Playing violin in the chamber orchestra at Lafayette College and playing different types of music—like classical, jazz, and others—allowed me to share my love of music and build connections with a lot of people from different backgrounds.

As a member of the International Students Association, I also had opportunities to experience different cultures, foods, and customs. It was a wonderful way to learn about different parts of the world through the people I met at Lafayette.

Another memorable experience was visiting JAPAN Fes in New York City as an officer of Anime Club. JAPAN Fes is a festival that celebrates Japanese culture and features different foods, vendors, and activities like karate, calligraphy, origami, and more. It was a very rewarding experience because not only did I get to serve as a translator between Lafayette students and the people working at the festival, but I was also able to share my Japanese culture with my friends.

Lewis Baratz, director of the chamber orchestra, played a large role in my life at Lafayette because he gave me the opportunity to challenge myself and explore different kinds of music with my violin. 

From an engineering perspective, Tobias Rossmann, associate professor of engineering—who advised my senior design project—was also one of my greatest inspirations. My team developed a prototype for rock climbers that could measure grip force while also helping cool their hands. The project gave me hands-on experience with prototyping, manufacturing, engineering drawings, testing, and analyzing experimental results, which are technical skills I continue to use in my professional work today. 

Prof. Rossmann also taught me lessons that went far beyond technical engineering. I tend to take my work very seriously and can sometimes become overly focused on small details. He encouraged me to step back, stay calm, and look at the bigger picture instead of putting unnecessary pressure on myself. I learned that approaching a problem with a relaxed and flexible mindset can actually help me think more creatively and find better solutions. He encouraged us to research independently, communicate and defend our ideas, experiment, make mistakes, and learn from them. He also taught me to ask myself an important question when solving a problem: What is the fundamental issue I am actually trying to solve? The technical and interpersonal skills I developed through Prof. Rossmann’s mentorship and collaboration with my senior design teammates made the experience one of the most valuable parts of my engineering education.

More broadly, I really appreciated how all my professors were always willing to help and how I was able to build close relationships with them. It was comforting knowing I could be curious and that my professors were there to help me explore my interests.

Being in small engineering classes, I was able to build close, cooperative relationships and develop teamwork skills with my classmates through projects and homework. These experiences helped me sharpen my communication skills and learn what effective teamwork looks like. Working together taught me how to communicate technical ideas, divide responsibilities, solve problems as a team, and learn from people who approached problems differently than I did. Those skills are extremely valuable in my current role, where effective communication and teamwork are just as important as technical knowledge.

Through Lafayette’s Gateway Career Center and career fairs, I obtained engineering internships after both my sophomore and junior years. These experiences exposed me to the biotechnology and construction industries, including product engineering and project management. Exploring different industries helped me understand what I enjoyed, what I didn’t enjoy, and what I wanted from my future career. They also gave me greater confidence and made me more comfortable stepping outside my comfort zone and taking on unfamiliar responsibilities. Now, I am more willing to explore possibilities in the workplace and take on versatile roles.

My experience as concertmaster and violin section leader taught me a great deal about leadership. I learned that leadership is not simply about telling people what to do; it is about setting an example, listening to others, encouraging your teammates, and helping everyone perform at their best. Balancing the responsibilities of being concertmaster with a demanding engineering curriculum also strengthened my discipline and time-management skills, which continue to be important in both my professional and personal life.

During my sophomore year, I participated in the Bergh Family Fellows program, where I worked on a food justice research project focused on food access in Easton’s West Ward community. The project required me to reach out to and interview people I might not otherwise have encountered. As someone who was naturally shy, initiating conversations with strangers was challenging at first. Over time, however, I became more comfortable introducing myself, asking thoughtful questions, listening carefully, and adapting the conversation based on what the other person was saying.

Although the research was not directly related to mechanical engineering, the communication skills I developed became extremely valuable. They helped prepare me for internship and job interviews, and continue to help me today when communicating with customers, co-workers, and people from different professional and cultural backgrounds. Learning to confidently approach someone, listen carefully, and ask the right questions was one of the most important steps in building my career.

In the future, I hope to become a mentor and role model for young people, particularly girls and students from underrepresented backgrounds who may not initially see themselves pursuing careers in STEM. With the engineering education and leadership skills I developed at Lafayette, I hope I can encourage the next generation of women to pursue engineering and recognize that they have something valuable to contribute to the field.

I also hope to use my multicultural background to help bridge cultures through my career. I have three cultural influences that have shaped who I am: my Japanese heritage from my mother, my Chinese Malaysian heritage from my father, and my identity as an American born and raised in the United States. I have had the privilege of visiting different countries from a young age, and being proficient in both Japanese and English has allowed me to communicate with people from many cultural backgrounds and develop a deeper appreciation for different perspectives. I consider this one of my greatest assets.

As a Japanese American working for a Japanese company in the United States, I hope to continue serving as a bridge between people and cultures. The semiconductor industry is a rapidly evolving global field, and I hope to contribute to its technological advancement while using my engineering knowledge, cross-cultural background, and language skills to bring people together and ultimately help improve people’s lives through technology.

Be curious, stay open-minded, and dream big. Don’t place unnecessary limitations on yourself. Try as many new things as possible. You might find things you like and things you don’t like, but it’s all part of exploring who you are and finding yourself.

Connect with as many people as you can. Attend career fairs, lectures, performances, club events, and even events that simply sound fun. Talk to professors, classmates, alumni, and people you might not normally meet. Some of the most meaningful opportunities can come from unexpected connections. Find what interests you the most and go for it. You never know where it might lead you.