Yejur Dube, '26 MSE

Looking back, my time at ASU was rewarding in a way that only really makes sense now. There were late nights in the library where I lost track of whether it was still tonight or already tomorrow, and even more hours in the lab - running setups, fixing what broke, running them again. Every grade I earned felt earned, not lucky. I sent out internship applications until rejection stopped stinging, and then one came back as a yes. The professors were genuinely helpful and deeply knowledgeable in their fields, and I learned a lot just from being in the room with them, asking questions, and paying attention to how they thought through problems. The friendships I built were forged in shared exhaustion: study groups, lab partners, the people who taught me how to think out loud. None of it was easy, but all of it mattered. ASU is what's getting me to CERN. In June, I'll be joining the CMS experiment in Switzerland, and the path there, the questions I get to spend my days on now, the work waiting for me when I land, none of it happens without those years. ASU didn't just prepare me for this; it shaped me into someone who could actually show up and contribute.