Sophie Chen
Degree: BA, computer science
College: College of Science and Technology
Hometown: Elkins Park, Pennsylvania 

Why I chose Temple: “I toured Temple in the pouring rain and liked the campus, so I thought if I like the campus now when it’s raining, I’ll like it when it’s a beautiful day. My dad also works for Temple Health, specifically Fox Chase Cancer Center, so I grew up hearing the Temple name a lot. 

“I think Temple is a nice balance of having university life and also living in a city, and all the people I have met have been awesome. One of the best things about Temple is the community of people you find here. I’m also grateful for the extensive study abroad program and for the opportunity to have studied abroad in Taipei in spring of 2024.” 

Transformative Temple moment: “I started two programs here, the Temple Chinese Student Association and the Project Management Cohort within the Temple HCI Lab, which is the Human Computer Interaction Lab within CST. I founded the Temple Chinese Student Association in my sophomore year (2022) because I felt there was a lack of community for people of Chinese descent or those interested in Chinese culture to connect. It was definitely hard, but the leadership, teamwork and initiative skills I gained from that experience really set me up for my future endeavors, especially in the next two years. 

“I was grateful to land a role as an associate product management intern at Google in California my junior year, which is a highly coveted position in tech. There weren’t any Temple students who had done this program before—there aren’t a lot of Temple students who are on the West Coast to begin with—and a lot of the students come from schools like Stanford and Harvard. It was definitely a new experience and bit of a challenge for me to navigate, but I knew that I had gotten into the program for a reason and that I was just as capable as those other students. 

"Coming back to the university my senior year, I really wanted to share the skills I had gained during my time at Google with my CST community. Assistant Professor Stephen MacNeil gave me the flexibility to create a product management cohort with my HCI Lab focused on creating projects to address important issues in the lab. This experience really tested my abilities both as a leader and as a teammate, and it also allowed me to foster deeper connections with other lab members that I hope to keep even after Temple.” 

What’s next: “I’ll be working as an associate product manager at Google in the Bay Area. It’s a two-year rotational program focused on launching impactful projects by leading efforts across engineering, design, marketing and beyond. Essentially, bridging the connection between software engineers, technical people and the nontechnical parts of building a product. I’ll be moving across the country, and while I am nervous to be starting over, I’m excited for what’s to come.”