Her Story
About Bina
I'm currently a student working toward becoming a tax lawyer. My entire family is medical, and I thought I always wanted to go into medicine, but when I got my first job in urgent care during COVID, I realized I don't deal too well with blood or anything gory. This led me to possibly wanting to start a business because I still wanted to make an impact on the world somehow. By this time, I had already started a small nonprofit for cancer where I sold hats outside of my high school, and I also taught free swimming and tutoring lessons in my neighborhood because it's relatively low income. Fast forward, I got an internship at Blackstone full-time for 6 months, and during my time there, I was able to speak to a lot of tax lawyers, including tax legend John Samuels himself. That one-to-one chat I had with John Samuels, alongside many other chats with other tax lawyers, really inspired me to want to go into tax law, especially because I love problem-solving, I love math, and they phrased tax law as something where I would be solving problems daily. I love a challenge, so that's what I'm working towards right now. At my school, I'm a social chair for Women in Pre-Law Society, which I joined last semester and got the position by a full vote. At Blackstone, one of the biggest things I did was walk around by cubicle to cubicle, making people laugh, joking with people, making the environment feel lighter, and grabbing bagels for my coworkers before I got into work in the morning. One of the biggest pieces of feedback I received was that people really missed the energy that I brought to work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Bina
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice would be start earlier. I didn't start as early as I wanted to. I should have entered more nonprofits in the beginning of my school year. I should have committed to more clubs and programs during my freshman year. But also, don't be afraid to explore. One of the reasons why I didn't commit to that many extracurriculars in the beginning and nonprofits in the beginning is because I was still exploring what I wanted to become, what I wanted to contribute to. I finally figured out what I wanted to do in junior year. It's okay to figure yourself out later in life. Stay true to who you are, research the nonprofits that you want to support. It's never too late to contribute.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The biggest value in my work and personal life is community, mainly my own community. Growing up in a low-income family, we didn't have that many resources, especially with the SAT and a lot of other big things in my life. The person who helped me the most throughout it all was my older brother, who spent days and nights tutoring me for all of this. He had gone through this on his own first, so he knew how to help me. Seeing that, and seeing my low-income community which reflected exactly who I was when I was younger, I decided that I wanted to be like my older brother, but for my community. That's why I offered free swimming lessons, because parents are working day and night, paycheck to paycheck in my neighborhood. Maybe they wanted their kids to learn water safety. I only had the resources to be in a swim team because my coach gave me a huge swimming discount, so I had the resources for swimming and I provided that to my community. I provided SAT tutoring and first grade English tutoring to my community, all for free, because I knew how it felt to feel lost. Bringing it into my workplace at Blackstone, I walked around by cubicle to cubicle, making people laugh, joking with people, making the environment feel lighter, grabbing bagels for my coworkers. One of the biggest pieces of feedback I received was that people really missed the energy that I brought to work.
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