Patana Pathways – Nicole Lu, Product Design
Join us in celebrating Grad’23 Patana Pathways!
Having attended Bangkok Patana since Nursery, Yu Ling (Nicole) Lu discovered and honed her passion for product design through the (I)GCSE and IB programmes. Nicole received an Early Decision offer for Northwestern University to study Manufacturing and Design Engineering. She credits the D+T, Economics and Mathematics courses for developing her creative problem solving, logical reasoning and conceptualisation. At Northwestern, Nicole is looking forward to experiencing the winters of Illinois, particularly as campus is located near Lake Michigan. As one of her favourite hobbies is playing the piano and the flute, she is also excited about the focus on music at Northwestern, which boasts “one of the few non-major music groups of which a music professor is the conductor”. At Bangkok Patana, Nicole focused her IB work on projects that emphasised “user-centered design”, which helped her to realise “the impact that [product] design can have on end-users”. This is echoed by Northwestern’s ethos of integrating design in the Engineering College.
When asked which food she could eat for the rest of her life, Nicole answered “Udon!”, which was reiterated when she was asked what she would miss most about Bangkok Patana – “the noodle bar!” Reflecting back on her journey through Primary and Secondary schools, Nicole recalled her favourite memory being the Victorian Day in Year 5. “Everyone dressed up and had a ‘day in the life’ in a mock-Victorian school. We made up our own era-specific names, ate gruel, which I surprisingly enjoyed, and participated in unique workshops like calligraphy.” Experiences like these help students to develop their empathy and global citizenship at an early age, two values that Nicole embodies as she begins on her new pathway. Congratulations, Nicole!
To see a cumulative list of Grad’23 university offers, click here!
