Nimsu Ng ’22 on Thriving in a Culture of Love and Care

Nimsu Ng grew up in Chino Hills in sunny Southern California. It was everything you’d expect: laidback, lots of open space, and weather that’s very easy to get used to. Yet all through high school, she longed for an East Coast academic experience.

“There’s just something about the East Coast work ethic and the drive people have for their ideas that really stuck out to me,” she said. 

So, when she applied to colleges, Nimsu picked schools on both coasts, knowing there was a “tug on my heart to go east” to Boston. To no one’s surprise (least of all her parents, who’d hoped their oldest daughter would stay closer to home), she fell in love with the BC community the minute she stepped foot on campus. 

And “love” has defined her undergrad years here ever since.

Culture of Love and Care

A big part of what Nimsu quickly came to appreciate about BC is what she calls a “culture of love and care.” 

She first felt it among her fellow students at the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, where the double major in economics and philosophy explored her interest in social justice. But she felt it even more acutely at the Shea Center, where her minor in Accounting for Finance and Consulting led her to people and new passions she never imagined. 

“The people I’ve met and the amount of love and care and support they’ve provided has really motivated me to be a part of giving back to others,” she said.

The Shea Center not only introduced Nimsu to entrepreneurship. It also inspired her to co-chair Start@Shea, the student executive board behind the Shea Center, and to sign up for TechTrek in the spring of 2020, right before the pandemic hit. 

It was the last time the experiential learning course would offer in-person visits to Silicon Valley since the pandemic began. And Nimsu was among the last students to make the trek. 

“Companies were shutting down one by one,” she said. “And it was a week before the entire world shut down. So it was a really unique experience to have.”

TechTrek has since gone virtual, and, with the encouragement of Professor Jere Doyle, Nimsu has gone on to serve as a teaching assistant for the course, working alongside Professor Jerry Kane. The two faculty members and Shea Center Associate Director Kelsey Renda form a triad of Nimsu’s biggest supporters. 

“Professor Kane and Kelsey and Jere have been huge advocates for me throughout my BC career and pushed me toward pathways I probably wouldn’t have explored otherwise,” she said.

Lessons from Life@Shea

Nimsu credits the people she met at the Shea Center with shaping her career path as much as her personal and professional growth. 

“It’s such a diverse group of people, but we all get along so well and are joined in this care for others and helping students get their ideas off the ground,” she said. “And I think that backbone is something that’s held the community together for a long time and that I’ve been so grateful to help build.”

Through the Shea Center, she got to take ownership of “some of the most amazing projects and meet the most amazing people,” an experience she calls pivotal to her academic career at BC.