Meet Eugenia: the Prodigy of Product Design
This post is part of a weekly series in which we get to know Sifties.
Eugenia Ho is a Product Designer who has been with Sift Science for almost three years. If she could time travel, she’d want to go to the future because it isn’t conceivable what it would be like in thousands of years, especially considering how much technology has changed in the last fifty years.
What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?
Music. I can’t live a day without listening to music, singing, or playing an instrument. I love keeping myself occupied with music. I listen to just about everything — rap, R&B, and musicals. I love bachata music (romantic Latin music, Enrique sings a lot, current fave Romeo Santos). I grew up playing piano, flute and viola. I just bought a keyboard and I got a ukulele a year ago.
If a movie was made of your life, what genre would it be and who would play you?
I would choose a Disney animated film. I love animation, and I love musicals; they’re so me. Alan Tudyk would play me (he does HeiHei the chicken in Moana). I’m not sure what the story would exactly be, but I know that I would want a training montage somewhere — a la Mulan.
Do you speak another language?
I grew up speaking Cantonese. My parents are both immigrants from Hong Kong, and even now I only speak to them in Cantonese. I didn’t learn English until I started going to school. To this day, I can’t have an intellectual conversation in Cantonese but I can speak conversationally.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I was super obsessed with Greek mythology as a child. I read an encyclopedia about it and I reread it every day until I memorized it. I wanted to be an archaeologist for the longest time. In college, I almost took an ancient Greek language course, but I did end up taking seminars on ancient Mediterranean worlds. I’ve named all my electronic devices after Greek deities. I didn’t end up pursuing archaeology because even though it’s something that I’m interested in, it’s just not what I think I would want to consume my life. Design is closer to my heart and what I can imagine myself doing every single day rather than studying ancient texts.
Every year you’ve been here you’ve done Valentine’s Day cards. Tell me more about them!
I love making cards; I’m the card maker in my family. I always did it growing up. One time, I saw really cute Valentine’s Day pun cards, and I wanted to do ones with science puns for work. It was really well-received, so I’ve kept doing it! I’ve done a food card, math card, and science-related card.
