Speaking to me over a video call from her home in New York City on Jul 2, where she’s now in the midst of relocating, Ms Soon immediately struck me as a spirited and determined go-getter who doesn’t let ideas remain mere ideas.
Asked how she would describe herself, she said she was “definitely ambitious” and “kind of unconventional”.
“I think I always look to do things a little bit differently from other people. And deep down, I’m pretty optimistic. Even if, in the moment, I feel like things are really bad, at the back of my mind, I (still) believe in a better future and a better outcome.”
A combination of these traits and her appetite for risk – which she tells me is “more calculated than people think” – has shaped every chapter of her life.
GROWING UP IN THE LITTLE RED DOT
The younger of two children and the daughter of a civil servant and lecturer, Ms Soon spent most of her childhood living in Clementi.
Throughout her schooling years at Raffles Girls’ School and Hwa Chong Institution, she picked up several co-curricular activities and hobbies, from robotics to choir, being a librarian to building her own websites. She also played football and was in the drama club.
As she spoke candidly about the various things she had dabbled in or pursued, it soon became clear to me – over two hour-long conversations on separate days – that she was immensely curious about many things and this likely underpinned her career choices after her scholarship.
Despite her interest in the arts in school and technology outside of it, Ms Soon decided to take up a GIC scholarship to study economics at England’s University of Cambridge, followed by a postgraduate degree in financial engineering at Columbia University in New York.
“I think it’s quite common in Singapore, and just in Asian upbringing, to always pick the practical path. So even though my favourite subjects in school were history and literature, I think I ended up picking the most practical thing to study, which was economics, and then, became a GIC scholar.”
