Alumni Interview

Halit Sencan Class of 2016

Pioneer is very different from other schools in that it feels like an extended family. Everyone knows each other and connects through experiencing the same things. You never know what the next day at Pioneer will throw at you, so that keeps it fresh and fun.

Tell me about yourself (when/where you graduated from Pioneer and your current college/job position)

I graduated from Pioneer Academy after 9 years at the school. For college, I went to Emory University for 2 years and spent my last 2 years at Rutgers University. I currently work at a Public Accounting firm in Manhattan as a Forensic Accountant.

What was your experience like at Pioneer Academy?

Where do I start… Pioneer is very different from other schools in that it feels like an extended family, good or bad. Everyone knows each other and connects through experiencing the same things. You never know what the next day at Pioneer will throw at you, so that keeps it fresh and fun. I would definitely say I enjoyed my experience.

Did Pioneer help you integrate easily into a greater community, such as college life? / Did Pioneer prepare you for your college life?

I would actually say that this was a downside, but may be more specific to me. Since I went to Pioneer from the 3rd grade onwards, my friend group was mostly established so I had almost no practice making new friends. This was initially a struggle.

What was student life like? Student life was interesting. As I mentioned above, it feels like a giant family and this includes the teachers and admin. It’s a lot of fun if you embrace the differences.

Are you excited about our revamped Alumni program?

I’m excited to see what comes of it. I think there is a lot of work to do, but I’m also hopeful it becomes something special.

What advice do you have for current Pioneer students as they look for college applications?

I can give some advice/information regarding college choice, which is that it’s not as cut and dry as you may think. Let’s take Emory and Rutgers as an example. The advantage Emory offers is not that I will necessarily find a better job, especially if I want to stay in the Northeast.

When I went to a new recruit meeting for my job in Manhattan, I realized there were a lot of people from schools like Rutgers & Baruch as well, I would say more than students from Emory (mostly because they are geographically closer to Manhattan and have a lot of connections). Not to mention, that the pool of applicants you compete with to be recruited from Emory is, in general, more competitive. The trick to landing the best job/ opportunity, like Goldman Sachs for business, is to be (one of) the best applicant in your class.

In my opinion, unless you were around a 4.0 student in high school, you need to improve your work ethic to maintain your GPA. I had pretty good grades, but I had to be a lot more disciplined to obtain similar grades in college. I would also say make sure you go to class in college, unless your professor is the type to use their slides as the base for the test, then maybe you can skip a few :)

Finally, use Rate My Professor to check your professor’s reviews and try to stick with professors that have good reviews, even if you have to make a sacrifice for it (trust me, bad professors can be a horrible experience).