2019 Harold R. Mortenson Endowed Scholarship Fund Recipient

Biography:  Samantha Chandra is a fourth-year Business Economics major with double minors in Entrepreneurship and Digital Humanities. She grew up in Bali, Indonesia and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her college degree at UCLA. At UCLA, Samantha serves as the president for 180 Degrees Consulting, an organization with a mission to provide consulting services to nonprofits and social enterprises. Samantha was also involved in Bruin Entrepreneurs, the largest entrepreneurship community on campus, raising money for multiple events and eventually serving as Internal Vice President in her junior year. Samantha was also a Sharpe Fellow in the Consulting track, and was involved in other campus programs like the Social Enterprise Academy.  Samantha’s interests lie in the field of business, entrepreneurship, and design. Beyond campus involvements, Samantha has completed internships in various fields, including media entertainment, startups, venture capital, and consulting throughout her 4 years at UCLA. To put her interest and learnings in entrepreneurship into application, Samantha worked on a student startup in her senior year, developing and designing a location-based social media app for UCLA students.

Future plans:  Samantha will be pursuing a career in consulting upon graduation. She will be working at Deloitte Consulting as a Business Technology Analyst in their Chicago office. She plans to gain meaningful experience and exposure to different industries by working in consulting and eventually starting her own business, either back home in Asia or globally. She is also considering applying for MBA programs after a few years of professional experience.

What does the scholarship mean to me?  I am really grateful to receive the Harold R. Mortenson Scholarship. Coming into college, I looked for scholarships and was told there were not many opportunities for international students. I was really thankful for this scholarship for giving me the opportunity to help out my parents who are supporting my education here, and I am really grateful to now be able to do that with this scholarship. I hope that my journey in the next few years will rightfully represent this scholarship, the economics department, and UCLA.