MEDIA, Pa. — Three years after earning her bachelor’s degree from Penn State Brandywine, Sukhmanpreet (Sukh) Kaur, class of 2019, is back at the University to receive her master’s degree.
Kaur began her Penn State journey at the Brandywine campus in 2017, after transferring from a nearby university. She majored in information sciences and technology and minored in security risk analysis. During her time at Brandywine, Kaur was involved with the Multicultural Club, held two internships, and worked two jobs.
“While at Brandywine, I had two consecutive internships at A. Duie Pyle, a trucking company in West Chester,” she said. “I got my internship at A. Duie Pyle through the career fair. I gave the recruiter my resume and expressed interest in learning about the company. After talking with the recruiting team, I got a position as an IT service desk technician. It was a great hands-on experience. I was A. Duie Pyle’s first female intern, too, if memory serves me correct.”
With experience on resume, Kaur then worked at the Apple Store’s Genius Bar.
“I leveraged the experience as IT service desk technician to position myself better for the Genius Bar role, and it worked out well, as I got to learn about Apple products and support offerings. Throughout my time at Brandywine, I also had a part-time job at Rite Aid as a pharmacy technician.”
Kaur said one of her favorite aspects of Brandywine was the small class sizes.
“One thing I loved most about Brandywine was the smaller class sizes, especially coming from a university with very large class sizes,” Kaur said. “I really liked having such dedicated professors. They were all open to spending extra time with their students covering open questions, and that’s what helped me get a better grip on my major.”
Upon graduating in 2019, Kaur landed a job with SAP, a global software company, with the help of a professor she had at Brandywine. She stepped into a client-facing role, where she connected businesses with resources to get the best return on investment. Recently, she has stepped into a cybersecurity role, where she will be exploring security controls and aligning them with different security reports.
“I like working at SAP because of its culture.” Kaur said. “SAP has a very welcoming environment. There are tons of opportunities for employees to grow. HR and management are pretty transparent, which makes it even better for someone like me who focuses on learning and growth.”
Kaur was able to come back to Penn State with SAP in 2022 to present at Brandywine’s inaugural cybersecurity conference. She received a personal invitation to speak from Andy Landmesser, associate teaching professor of information sciences and technology, with whom she also did an undergraduate research project.
