Laveena is a rising junior at Syracuse University, majoring in Policy Studies with a double minor in Italian and Information Management and Technologies. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York City, and her family now currently resides in Putnam County, New York. As a first-generation Chinese-American, Laveena was raised by her Taishanese (Hoisanwa) speaking grandparents and did not learn English until she began school. She has always had a passion for learning which made it hard for Laveena to decide on a focus for her college studies but knew that she wanted something involved with cultural studies integrated with the emerging workforce industries of the 21st century. Thus, she chose Syracuse University for its broad range of majors and minors and matriculated as an undeclared undergraduate student. In the second semester of her freshman year, she was introduced to Syracuse University’s Policy Studies program, fell in love with its core values, and admired its alumni stories. With Policy Studies, Laveena is learning how to be a professional problem solver with practical skills that can be applied to a variety of fields including the private business sector, governmental bodies, or non-profit public organizations. She views policy as the infrastructure for change, whether that is involved within the government or not. The importance of Information Management in the digital world motivated her to pursue a minor in IMT, and her personal love for Italian and its culture enabled her to pursue a minor in Italian as well. A blend of these unique skillsets, Laveena is determined to grow as an individual so she can one day give back to her community and help others just like her family had been helped. She recently returned from a semester abroad in Florence, Italy this past year, and is currently a Syracuse University Abroad Global Ambassador.
At Syracuse University, Laveena enrolled in a course on Smart Cities and Urban Policy which introduced the City of Syracuse’s What Works Cities initiatives and their iTeam to her. Subsequently, she had also enrolled in an Information Policy and Decision Making course at the iSchool, where Laveena connected with the city’s Chief Innovation & Data Officer, Nicolas Diaz, and expressed interest in the work their office had been doing. Returning from her spring semester abroad, Laveena joined the team as a summer fellow and is currently working on projects including data governance infrastructure, Syracuse’s Open Data Portal usability testing, and digitizing data for the greenhouses of the Parks Department. Unafraid to make mistakes, driven, and dedicated, she is looking forward to growing her professional network, fine-tuning her professional skills, understanding the inner workings of data governance, and practicing her data processing skills.
Outside of work, Laveena enjoys photography, listening to and studying music, weight-lifting, cooking and trying new recipes, as well as traveling the world and expanding her cultural understanding. Coming from an immigrant family in one of the biggest cities in the world, she has an interest in learning about different cultures, traditions, and languages. She speaks three dialects of Chinese: Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taishanese; Italian, and English. Her dream position would be to work in an organization that works towards addressing food insecurity and homelessness, women’s rights and empowerment, and is dedicated to giving back to the community. Laveena understands that she is privileged to have the life she does today, and strives to continue to build and use her skills to help others.