Catching up with Kavya Shah, Penn State class of 2024

August 14, 2024

YORK, Pa. - Kavya Shah was first connected with Penn State York through the Vidyalankar Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India. Her first two years of study took place virtually, then she finished her degrees in business analytics and project and supply chain management at the York campus. She graduated in May 2024 and received multiple job offers shortly thereafter.

"Doing two years in Mumbai was really nice then transferring here with all the basic credits was good. My adviser was Dr. Ali Kara [professor of business administration] and he's been so supportive and helpful throughout. After I came here, we added the supply chain and then the analytics major to my degree, so the final two years were completely packed with really heavy courses of supply chain and analytics."

Shah shared that her favorite course was MIS 404 with Bill Cantor, assistant teaching professor in information sciences and technology. The course covered SAP, which is an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. Shah described the course as including warehouse simulation games, which were challenging and fun.

Shah has accepted a position with Wayfair, headquartered out of Boston. She said it's an analyst role with the network analytics and platform team, which falls under the global supply chain and operations team, where she'll be focusing on the operations of end to end getting products from the suppliers to the customers and then do analytics on that data to address any issues. She'll be starting her new job at the end of August.

"The interview process was completely online, but I have a lot of family in Boston, so I had visited there a couple of times. I come from Mumbai, which is such a big city, so I wanted to be in a city like Boston," said Shah.

International student experience at York

Shah enjoyed her experience as an international student and spoke highly of the programming put in place by the campus. Nicauris "Nikki" Rosario-Flores, global engagement coordinator at Penn State York, organized trips for the international students each semester, to help them get to know each other and enjoy social engagement.

"Coming from a fast-moving city to York was a drastic change," said Shah. "York is a smaller, slower city, but it has its own beauty. Everybody on campus is so helpful and they're always there for you - the transition was extremely smooth. Our professors understood where we were coming from and they took extra steps to make sure we were on the same page and we were learning."

Shah also took a job on campus and got to know everyone in the office of student affairs. She said, "Both years, I worked in the student affairs office, so over two years my relationship with everybody in the office grew and it became like a small little family."

In addition to her on-campus job, Shah took advantage of many professional development opportunities through Penn State York.

Preparing for the workforce

While Shah didn't complete the Graham Fellows Program in her two years on campus, she did attend most of the speaker series events and found them beneficial as she prepared for her career. The business program also required her to do an internship, which she completed last summer in Philadelphia.

"It was a supply chain operations internship with TJ X companies, which is the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Homegoods. I was primarily at the Marshalls distribution center, so it was a completely hands-on operations supply chain internship," said Shah. "It was a great experience because it was my first time interning in the supply chain world and it was so different from just the theory. So, learning the ins-and-outs - it broadened my perspective on how vast supply chain is. It also helped me understand what I wanted to do full time. It was one of the biggest things on my resume."

She also participated in FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) Collegiate. The resume critiquing career networking events also helped her feel more comfortable showcasing her skills in a professional setting.

"I went to the career fair every semester - so four times - and it's always been a different learning experience," she said. "All of these things come together to prepare you for the interview process and completing job applications."

After seven rounds of interviews, Shah was offered the position at Wayfair, which she received while in Orlando, Florida for the FBLA Collegiate national competition.

FBLA experience

Shah teamed up with fellow business student Lawrence Williams to compete at the national level on the topic of business ethics. The duo, who claimed the second-place prize at the state level, earned fourth place at the national FBLA competition at the end of June.

"I'm so glad Professor Megan Lorenz [assistant teaching professor of business} pushed me to do it," she said. "She makes sure you've really done your research - she prepares you so well and pushes you for the best. So that was a great experience. It was so much fun representing Penn State York and it was a proud moment because most of us placed nationally. We even got the award for the best collegiate chapter and it's just a great moment to be up there."

On the final night of the competition, Penn State York's office of alumni relations and development organized a networking opportunity for the FBLA group.

"Penn State arranged a meet-and-greet at EPCOT center and then we had the fireworks show, which was so pretty. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Shah. "Then, of course, placing was the cherry on top. We won fourth, so that was a really good moment for us both."

Shifting the focus from marketing to analytics

One of the great things about Penn State is that it gives students the ability to tailor their experience and access a broad range of courses across multiple campuses. Shah explained that when she decided to shift her focus from business marketing to analytics, she was able to do so through a hybrid learning experience.

"Business is usually with management / marketing, but I think shifting that to analytics was a game-changer for me because - just looking at the work environments - they're so technical," said Shah. "Those technical skills are required for analytical tools. That's where Professor Bill Cantor came in and he was my solid foundation for getting me through the analytics, so I think Dr. Kara and Bill Cantor together were the perfect combination."

Visit the International Student website to learn more about the international student experience at Penn State York.