When Rowan College at Burlington County student Yvonne Tai goes up on stage to retrieve her diploma at winter commencement, it won’t be the last time she’ll be up there. Because at spring 2026 commencement, she’s coming back, and not just for the completion of one more degree or two, but for three degrees. Once her time at RCBC is complete, Tai will have earned four associate degrees in two years.
The computer science, computer information systems, mathematics, and physics major didn’t have the chance to attend college when she first graduated from high school 12 years ago. Tuition, which included foreign student prices, as she was a Malaysian citizen in Singapore, was too expensive. Coming to RCBC in 2024 after earning enough money was her chance to finally catch up with all the education she had left behind years before.
“I was just very curious about learning again,” Tai said.
In lieu of her education, Tai worked at DHL Express, a global logistics and international shipping company, for 10 years to save money. She saw four promotions during her tenure, culminating in a senior manager position in sales. Once she was financially confident enough to begin the college acceptance process, rejection from several institutions in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, due to the gap in her educational experience, left her dejected. It was then that she was steered toward community colleges in the United States. RCBC and its 3+1 program became an appealing prospect even to a person half the world over.
“Of all the schools I applied to, RCBC was the most helpful by far,” Tai said. “I decided to commit to RCBC, quit my job, take the world’s longest flight from Singapore to New York at 18 and a half hours, and start my journey at RCBC.”
The first associate degree Tai is completing this winter, in computer science, is the field she has decided to continue with after RCBC. An education nurtured by Assistant Professor of Information Technology Chris Simber and an influential experience in the Princeton Transfer Scholars Initiative, a summer program for community college students that offers a taste of life at an Ivy League school, nurtured her love for the discipline. At Princeton University, Tai grasped brand-new concepts in computer science, including how to create music from code.
In the end, she earned a coveted A+, a grade that must be approved by Princeton department heads. None of it would have been possible without a recommendation to the program by now-retired RCBC math professor Crystal Bourne.
“That changed my life, really, because I didn’t know that I’d be given so many opportunities,” Tai said. “I thought I’d just come to a community college and make my way to a four-year university somehow, but I didn’t know there was such a support system.”
Professor Simber also played an instrumental role in securing her a position as a tutor at RCBC’s tutoring center. With his recommendation, Tai has found a purpose in helping students with physics, computer science, and almost every math discipline. She also volunteers to tutor outside of RCBC. At Step Up Tutoring, a national nonprofit, Tai mentors low-income students in grades four through ten in math and English.
The most meaningful activity for Tai has, without a doubt, become tutoring, and she has made it her top priority during her studies. A role in academia may be in her future, but her current plan is to transfer to a four-year university. Since she ultimately decided not to participate in the 3+1 program because her current interests do not align with its offerings, she will determine where to transfer after completing her three remaining degrees next May.
Tai’s efforts over the course of two years have culminated in her earning the valedictorian title. She will have the opportunity to share her story as a student speaker at commencement. When she gets to the podium, one of the things she hopes to reiterate to her cohort is something she learned back home in Singapore.
At DHL, Tai was in a mentorship program directly under the company’s chief executive officer. She remembers him telling her that “the gap between zero and one is infinity.”
“Which means that when you have no chance at anything versus a 1% chance, it is extremely different circumstances,” Tai said. “If there’s even a little bit of opportunity, then they should give it their all. If they see any form of opportunity at all in the future, have the grit and the guts to fight for a better opportunity.
“Having zero background in higher education and leaving a really good career behind, I still took that 1% chance, because to me, 1%, 0%, it is a world of difference.”
Tai will speak at the commencement at 3 pm on Wednesday, Dec. 17, in Votta Hall auditorium. Learn more about commencement at rcbc.edu/commencement.
