Yibing (Rebecca) Chen ‘18

Hi, my name is Yibing Chen (aka Rebecca) and I graduated from Northwest in 2018. I just graduated from Columbia University in 2022 where I majored in Computer Science, and started my career as a technology Product Manager at Microsoft.

I attended NWS as a first-generation immigrant who just moved to Seattle. Being on Northwest’s Outdoor Program trips with my friends helped me feel like home in Seattle.

My education at NWS has also driven me to always contemplate my impact on the world and how I can contribute to initiatives I care about. In college, I joined multiple hackathons where people interested in tech come together and build technology in a fast-paced and time-boxed environment. These events are frequently 24 to 72 hours long, and I worked with my teammates to think deeply about what problems we mutually want to tackle and how we can mitigate people’s challenges with technology.

For example, we attended a hackathon at Cooper Union and ideated a software application to help identify early onset dementia. The impact we sought was to help people diagnose their symptoms early, which can greatly increase the chances to control the progression of neurological deterioration, and make expensive diagnostic procedures more accessible to all.

My work at Microsoft today centers around data security and protection. With the proliferation of AI and exponential data sharing, protecting one’s personal data is key.

Earlier this year, I worked on products that allow intelligent and automatic redaction of personal data in documents, which greatly prevents identity theft and privacy breaches, and I was fortunate to receive an intellectual patent for my work.

Meaningful opportunities like this are what wake me up and drive me to interact with the world every day, and the philosophy of emphasizing social impact at NWS has influenced who I am today.