Karen Dsouza

PERSONAL STATEMENT I have always been interested in music and wanted to learn some musical instrument. Owing to my predilection for Indian classical music, I trained to learn the Harmonium, in my first year of Engineering. However, because of my medical condition of Syndactyly, a congenital defect where my left hand is underdeveloped and has only three fingers, it was an uphill task for me to learn the instrument. However, with a lot of practice I was finally able to play the nuances gracefully. After four years of training, I also got a few opportunities to perform in some concerts, as an accompanying artist. Moreover I have also completed the third level of the national classical music exam with distinction in Feb 2021, which was a proud moment for me. As one can imagine, it is difficult for to manage tasks without the full balance that the five fingers offers and a musical instrument is extremely tactile. Although it was a challenge, I learned to extend my fingers, beyond the limitations, to achieve success, which has been my pathway to action all my goals, thus far. Extending my love for Music beyond my own interests, I took the opportunity to impart my knowledge of music to the economically weaker sections of the society. I was selected to teach Harmonium to children of municipal schools who were from a poor background and did not get opportunities to study art. This program was held by Vertical Notes in collaboration with Thane Municipal Corporation from July 2019 – November 2019. The study of music imparts a finer note of aesthetics and an appreciation for the fine arts, bringing a sense of refinement into one’s life and way of thinking. Also, I believe music gives me the much needed quiet time to mindfully examine my thoughts and ideas. One such time was at Finezza, I was exposed to various such challenges while building the loan management system from scratch. I had to multi task across learning new technologies and product nuances quickly while developing features. One of the most challenging experiences was to develop the new version of loan management system by revamping the old one and adding various new features. I did play a lot of music to unwind during this time, which gave me the mindspace to breathe and plan my activities as I needed. This product that I was working on was one of the most important for our start-up and a lot of stakes were involved in developing it. A successful launch would mean a high growth trajectory for the start-up, in the coming years. I developed the backend of this system and after six months of crucial efforts, we launched the first version of the product in September 2021. As of October, we already have two enterprises who have bought our product and in recognition of my key contributions to the success of this venture, I was promoted to Senior Software Engineer in August 2021. Going forward, I would like to use my knowledge of Computer science in developing technical solutions to various challenges faced in healthcare, especially in developing countries like India. While working at Skinzy, as a Backend Development Intern, I experienced the direct impact of using computing for healthcare advancements. Along with observing the impact of our work, I was also introduced to the various problems that can be solved, to aide people get better medical facilities or harness the medical information, using various techniques in AI to assist doctors in better treatment of diseases. Inspired by this, I will apply the knowledge that I gain through my graduate study in ________ at ___________ University to address these issues in healthcare. During the pandemic in April 2020, the central bank implemented unprecedented policy changes in the lending domain to help people and NBFCs cope up with the exigency. These policies included a moratorium on loan repayment for 6 months, which had a direct impact on the product that I was working on at Finezza (loan management system). No one had anticipated these sudden policy changes and even our founders were caught by surprise. I was assigned to make the necessary changes in the core computation logic used for all computations in the backend of loan management system. These computations directly affected all the customers, and any error would lead to wrong financial transactions with the customer. Being relatively new to the system and on top of that being a part of a newly founded startup, it was an uphill task for me to learn all the nuances quickly and do the changes on time. Owing to strict regulatory deadline, I had little time to complete the changes without errors. After putting in a lot of efforts and continuously working for 30 days, I successfully completed all the changes, without a single error, a feat that was appreciated by the Founders and senior management. I would like to learn the art of calculated risks in terms of hedging the odds, beneficially. Observing the way my founders worked and interacting with them, I found out that the ability of taking calculated and educated risk is something that I lack. Therefore, I would like to imbibe these qualities, particularly decision making and the core ability to take risks, which will ensure that I am able to make impactful contributions in the case studies undertaken through my graduate study at ___________ in the Fall ’22 intake. My own professional experiences and scholastic ability will be my contribution to the program.