5 Questions with Michelle Yaochai
Michelle, Global Director of Marketing and Public Relations, oversees social media, digital marketing and public relations at Project Access International.
Identifying strongly with PA’s mission to fight higher education inequality, Michelle first joined PA as an Active Recruitment Officer in the Talent Team in 2022. Currently, she is about to enter the final year of her undergraduate degree in Life Sciences at the National University of Singapore.
Michelle tells us all about how she discovered PA, switched to volunteering in this role, and her top study tip!
1. How did you get into your current role at Project Access?
I learned about Project Access when I met Janna, the previous Global Director of Talent, who came to Singapore for exchange. We were out having matcha when she casually mentioned PA to me.
As an avid volunteer myself then, I was quite intrigued by the idea of helping out in an international non-profit, so I took a chance and signed up to join as a team member. To be honest, I didn’t know which role to join. All year round, Project Access has so many open roles available that you are most likely spoilt for choice. I ended up on Janna’s team as an Active Recruitment Officer, where I did outreach to recruit team members and conducted cultural fit interviews for the new applicants. Being in the Talent team was really fun, and I got to meet and work with some truly talented and amazing people: Janna, Erona, Stella (now PA Greece Operations Manager), Aakansha (now Head of Outreach), and Lukas (now CEO).
After a year there, I made the switch to join the Marketing team as the Social Media Manager for a change. I think there was loads of potential to grow our reach as an organisation through social media, and I wanted to make that happen. We gave our social media pages a new look and inserted more fresh content that builds up the community. When the Global Leadership Team changed in November 2023, I stepped up as the GD of Marketing and PR. Now, I am working with a really brilliant team whipping up posts for social media, doing ads and analytics, and putting out press releases and blogs (like this one, thanks to our fantastic PR Manager Richa who took all the reins!).
2. What is your favourite part of PA?
Definitely the people, they are some of the coolest and most passionate people you’ll ever meet!
3. What’s your favourite beverage?
Iced vanilla latte - yes one, I’m basic, two, I’m just a sleep-deprived uni student!
4. Best study tip?
What works for me is to make full use of lecture time to absorb every bit of information that’s delivered, and usually, I speed-write all my notes during the lecture so it gets in my head. This way I don’t have to go through lectures again, and I have more time for revising complex concepts before exams.
5. Who is the most extroverted person in your team?
I want to say Linh, but we’ll have to find out when we all meet in person :)