Andre Sha
Can you introduce yourself with your year, major, hometown?
My name is Andre Sha, I was part of the class of 2020.5, I majored in Statistics and Economics. I am from Milpitas, CA in the south Bay.
Why did you choose Statistics and Economics as your majors?
In high school, my favorite classes were AP Economics and AP Statistics, and I could see myself pursuing those subjects as a major in college. They were both taught by the same teacher; he was a UC Berkeley alum and was just really inspirational to me.
What are some of your fun facts?
At the end of my freshman year, I went backpacking to Burma as a way to connect with my roots. It was a rough time, but I thought it was a very enlightening experience. I saw a lot of things that made me realize how privileged I am to be born and raised here in the States, and how much my parents have sacrificed for that. I've traveled more than half the United States; my goal in life is to travel all 50 states with my family. I lost to Ewen in arm wrestling; arm wrestling is one of my favorite hobbies but I can't seem to beat anyone in the club.
Speaking of hobbies, what are some of your other hobbies and/or interests?
I started vinyl collecting recently! Vinyl collecting is actually more affordable and sustainable than I thought. I bought a vinyl player for $25 on Free & For Sale and I bought vinyls from Goodwill and thrift stores for $1 or $2. 10/10 would recommend. I love the vintage-y sound that comes out of these record players. I also collect denim. I played the clarinet in high school. I really like music. I listen to everything, from Japanese music to punk rock to old school hip hop, think pre-90s.
What are you doing now that you've graduated?
The company I'm working for is called Redwood Trust. One of the main things we do is business purpose lending, which involves writing out loans to businesses and multi-family properties. These could be rental units and large apartments; think The Dwight, The Berk, and similar properties. The other side of our business is residential. We buy non-government agency loans from originators, securitize them (package it into our own bonds), and sell them to banks or other qualified investors. Some examples of people we work with include Barclays, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch.
I'm on the portfolio investment team — we're essentially trading high yield subordinate mortgage bonds, which are relatively riskier than safe, guaranteed government mortgage bonds. I do a lot of risk analysis: is this bond feasible to buy, should we get rid of this bond, is the price going to drop in the future, etc. That's one part of my job. The other part of my job is to maintain our current portfolio. We currently have around a billion or so dollars worth of bonds in our portfolio, and my job is to check the overall healthiness of the individual bonds. This entails looking at how the cash flows are doing from month to month and whether some of the individual loans inside these bonds are being delinquent. It's really fun and challenging. I don't think I use a lot of my statistical background for my job, but macroeconomics definitely really helps out because I need to check the overall market healthiness to decide what steps to take. My 'stack' includes working on the Bloomberg terminal; I use a lot of Excel, and we use software such as IntexCalc to do cash flow analysis, which is important for seeing trends in specific bonds. The team is very small; I'm working with a senior analyst, a managing director, and a CIO. I'm learning a lot very fast. This is an excellent opportunity that I would have never imagined I would get into straight out of college.
My work-life balance is very fair and I like the team I'm working with. They are seasoned professionals and they've been through so many crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the subprime mortgage crisis from 2007-2009. I'm one of the first new graduate hires that they've brought in in a long time, so I feel very fortunate for this opportunity. It's a very established company. I'm the youngest one there. I like that, since I have a lot of mentorship on the daily and I can envision myself becoming a leader not only in this company, but perhaps in this industry. This is a great starting point for my career because there are a lot of growth opportunities. I could either go into consulting, business school, or perhaps I could just stay here forever.
Where are you located right now?
Right now I'm located in Oakland, CA. I commute to work in Mill Valley, Marin County. What I like about Oakland and Berkeley is that I'm very close to what I'm used to. It's a well-rounded, nice community that I feel comfortable living in. Traffic's really bad. After two months of working I'm used to it though. Also, fun fact about Marin County: Otis Redding's Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay was written there.
What were some of your other campus involvements during your time at Berkeley?
I was involved in a lot. I was part of the UC Berkeley Wind Ensemble my freshman year of college. I was in Matriculate; we helped low income high-achieving high school students with the full college application process. This starts with planning out schools to apply to, designing some sort of game plan that maps out a timeline for them to follow, celebrating their success, and helping them apply for scholarships and grants. I found that to be very emotionally fulfilling. Educational equity is something that I am extremely passionate about. During my sophomore year, I did research for the Design for Equity Lab, which revolved around educational equity for introductory college-level courses. I did basic data analyses for them.
I was mostly involved with Healthcare Consulting Group. We deal with healthcare/medtech startups that range from early seed to series B. I served as a consultant my first semester, I became a project lead second semester, and I became the Vice President of Training and Outreach in my third year. As Vice President, I reached out to a lot of start-ups to find clients, including people who already existed in our contacts, Stanford StartX, or Berkeley Skydeck.
Next up, I was in Cal Japan Club during my junior year of college because I initially wanted to work in Japan and I thought the best way to learn Japanese was to be immersed in student culture at Berkeley. It was super fun; I made a lot of good friends and language partners that I went clubbing with.
Finally, I was in a club called You Mean More; it's a mental health advocacy group. We do a yearly walk, and we also do mental health monologues. Our goal is to destigmatize mental health issues and help people be more open about talking about mental health.
How did you find out about SAAS and why did you join?
During my freshman year, SUSA was THE Statistics department-sponsored organization, so there was a lot of marketing from the Statistics department during the first 3 weeks of school. I went to all the recruitment events, including a meet and greet boba and Welcome Night at 1011 Evans. I thought that it was a great open community with a bunch of smart people that I could learn a lot from. I was already dead set on becoming a Stats major, so I figured I needed to make some Stats major friends. The leadership back then was very people-focused and I think that remains true to this day. People in SUSA and SAAS wanted to make connections, of course, but they also wanted to leverage their own passions.
What are all the committees/positions that you've held in SUSA and SAAS?
Fall 2017, I was a Career Ex member. Spring 2018, I was part of the EVP committee. Fall 2018, I was part of the EVP committee. Spring 2019, I was part of the EVP committee. Fall 2019, I was the EVP. That was the restructuring period; we changed from SUSA to SAAS. Spring 2020, I was the EVP. Fall 2020, I was an Exec Advisor.
What did you do in the EVP committee and as EVP?
When I was in the EVP committee, I focused mainly on faculty contacts. I scheduled the faculty coffee chats and the faculty dinner. Those were very well-received during my time as part of the EVP committee, but unfortunately when I became EVP we couldn't host a lot of these events due to the wildfires and COVID-19. As EVP, my first semester was focused on restructuring the whole club and cultivating the culture of the club, so I worked alongside IVP and the president for that. There was also a lot of ASUC and behind the scenes work. With my committee, we were able to work through some coffee chats and host 1 or 2 career panels, including a speaker series. I helped Caro and the IVP at the time plan retreat, including picking the location. My main goal as EVP was to not only bring professional development to the forefront of this applied statistics community, but I also wanted to make the club fun. I wanted to foster a community of belongingness and cultivate the culture of the new SAAS. I'm a fun-loving guy, and I want other people to bounce off my energy and have fun too. In college, we all work hard, we all study, but we need a time where people can group up and just vibe.
After my time as EVP, I became an advisor. What I want to do is to help the execs of tomorrow do what I wasn't able to do. I guess what I want future execs to know is that if you want to build a culture in the club, you have to take initiative and be that fun-loving person at the party.
Why did you stay in SAAS?
For the people. I love the people. My first semester, Brian was a huge role model for me. He was my CX director. He was a sophomore, so he was only a year older than me, but he knew a lot about everything. I thought that if I stayed in this club, I would be able to learn from other smart people. I think everyone is very reachable. I remember freshman year, I had trouble in math classes, so I would reach out to Patrick and other upperclassmen and they were willing to tutor me at no cost. They told me, "if you're free, come through to Moffitt and I can help you for 2 hours or so." Because of that, I wanted to give back in my future semesters. I wanted to see this club grow. Membership retention has gone up since when I started, which means that people are more passionate in this organization and they're more willing to give back, which is what I really love to see. We are growing in many avenues — we're starting to work with larger companies, we're having more events, both internal and external, and we're adding more committees.
In terms of professional development opportunities, being part of EVP opened myself up to a lot of different opportunities. During my junior year, I helped secure clients for the DC projects. I was able to talk to a couple of startup founders, pick their brains a little bit, and discuss what our club and its talented members could do for them and their company. That was my main motivation for wanting to work for a smaller company, to see how big of an impact I can make. SAAS really helped me cultivate that decision to work in smaller groups and smaller teams. Even though we're a large club, we still have that small family feel, and I really like that about SAAS and SUSA.
How has SAAS changed during your time in the club? What's the biggest change the club has undergone?
We've become more diverse and inclusive; we bring in people from many backgrounds. I'd say we're a very equitable club — we help members from all different backgrounds, all different levels of experience. Our goal is to have everyone succeed. During the online semesters, even though we were so far away from each other, we were as close-knit as ever.
What is your personal vision for SAAS moving forward?
As an alum, I'd really like to see more alumni interactions. That includes more speaker panels. I didn't know there were so many career opportunities out there for Statistics and related majors. If I knew about my current job opportunity in college, that would've been super helpful because I work in such a niche industry. I didn't know that I could leverage some of my data analytics background in this sort of occupation. I would like for alumni to come back and give back to SAAS, because I'm all for growth, in terms of personal growth, career growth, and relationship growth.
Also, be more fun! A club is not all about working. I feel like a lot of semesters of SAAS and SUSA were full of members who were all grind only. During the online semester, I saw a lot of people open up and come through to social events. We have an Avalon committee now run by Brian — I just think that's so fascinating and it's something we should've done back during my starting days in the club. It's a great feeling, bringing people together, bringing people from many backgrounds and interests into one. We played Geoguessr together, we played Avalon, we talked on Discord for hours on end. It's great.
What's your favorite SAAS memory?
Recently, it's been the Discord community. During the Spring 2021 semester, I found that chatting with the people on Discord was a way for me to be able to keep social interactions and keep myself in check. I was able to go into Discord and catch up with everyone every day and see what they're up to, whether it be something school related or something fun, and just learn a bit about them every Discord call. I thought that was very fulfilling. Even though I graduated, that was a very fruitful semester for me in SAAS.
I also enjoyed my junior year when I was EVP and I was focused on trying to get to know every individual member of the club. I went to a lot of events; I remember I went to Ohgane, shoutout happy hour. Donutbots were really cool, that's how I met Elysia for the first time and had her come on as IVP and eventually president, she was very great to work with. Director bonding was really dope; we were pretty close that semester, execs and directors.
Also, taking stats classes with people. We would usually form study groups and we were pretty productive, most of the time. :) I think in a club as big as SAAS, it's good to talk to people who are taking the same classes as you. It really helped me out. I don't think I would've done well in school without SAAS.
What was your favorite SAAS semester?
I would say the most recent semester, Spring 2021. I think everyone was used to the whole online atmosphere, and community involvement was at its peak.
What's your proudest accomplishment in SAAS?
My proudest accomplishment would probably be organizing all the professors and having coffee chats and faculty dinner. I was able to get a little bit out of my comfort zone and start cold emailing people, and I think that's a very valuable skill that you should learn in college — being able to cold contact people, whether it's through LinkedIn or other platforms, because that is how you get a job.
Can you pick one of the 3 SAAS values — community, exploration, and mentorship and explain what it means to you?
Community. The homies.
How did you make friends with people in SAAS?
People made friends with me. I was just such a popular guy in this organization that people went up to me and would be like, "Andre, I want to know you better, you're such a fascinating character." On the more serious side, during my first semester in SUSA, it was just the people I had classes with. But then when I joined the EVP committee, whereas other people went into DC or R&P, I made friends through socials and retreat. And Discord.
Who's your favorite professor?
My favorite professor was Jared Fisher from Stat 153. He was not only knowledgeable in time series analysis because that's what he did his PhD thesis on, but he also had a student- first mindset in which he wanted personal growth in the kids that he taught. He also gave us a lot of resources in the COVID transitional semester, and I cannot thank him enough.
What's your favorite spot on campus that more people should know about?
Definitely Engineering Student Services. What's great about Engineering Student Services is that if you're a COE student, you get free food. I, as a L&S student, snuck in a lot, put in my ID, and took free Chipotle burritos from time to time. I am forever thankful for them because they saved me quite a bit of money.
What's your favorite bathroom to use on campus?
Honestly, I like to use the Moffitt bathrooms after they finish cleaning up the bathrooms, because that's when they know it's super clean. They clean it very periodically; I think the lady comes at 10 AM, 3 PM, and 7 PM. So if you time your bathroom schedule correctly, you have a clean bathroom. And that is a life hack that not a lot of people know about during their time at Berkeley. You are absolutely welcome.
What's your favorite place to study on campus?
I just recently discovered it during my third year of college. I would say the third floor of Eshleman Hall during the afternoon. At night, you won't get anything done. In the afternoon, it's a very productive place to get stuff done because there's not a lot of people there; members from clubs that have cubicles in the space haven't come yet. When Ronnie and the AFX group come, you know you're not getting stuff done.
What's your favorite library on campus?
I would say Eshleman, but Eshleman doesn't count as a library. The East Asian Library's pretty cool. It's very quiet and dim, so it's a great environment for pre-dinner studying. Other alternatives include Haas Library. People there are more put together than your average stressed out CS kid because they have less of a workload, so when you go there there's a less stressful vibe. They have really nice air fresheners compared to other libraries, and some spots in the libraries don't allow food, so it doesn't smell musky like some other libraries.
What advice would you give to people who are starting off in SAAS or starting off their college experience?
Don't rush things. Take your time, and opportunities will present itself once you are able to develop a work ethic that you yourself are comfortable with. Do not compare yourself to others. Realize that everyone is gifted and everyone opens their presents at different times.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
To the future of SAAS. I want you to stay great.