Guyanese American graduate Shawn Rajkumar credits family and Queens College for career start
The son of Guyanese immigrants led the Queens College student government and is joining Wells Fargo in Charlotte.
NEW YORK, United States. Shawn Rajkumar’s family emigrated from West Canje, Berbice, in Guyana, to the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. He grew up on Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, alongside many other Guyanese families.
An only child, he credits his mother, Ramwattie Rajkumar, and his father, Lakshmi Rajkumar, with the greatest impact on his life.
“I saw how hard my mom worked, with two jobs averaging 70-80 hours a week,” he said. “As her only son, I know I don’t have an excuse to be lazy, as that would be wasting all the opportunities she and my dad gave me by coming to this country.”
Student leader
Mr Rajkumar has graduated from Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), with dual degrees in finance and economics. A middle school programme called Virtua Enterprise first taught him about the stock market and economics.
He joined the Queens College Student Association as a freshman in 2021 and held every position up to the end of his tenure on May 28, 2026, when he gave the commencement speech as student body president.
He said that from 2022 to 2025 he created a resume template used by more than 15,000 students, helped run hundreds of mock interviews and assisted with applications that led to more than 300 opportunities. As president he helped host carnivals that he said are the largest across CUNY’s 26 campuses, and a national career summit with more than 500 people and 18 employers.
Wells Fargo
Involvement with groups including the Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA), the National Association of Black Accountants and Ascend helped him secure an internship at Wells Fargo, after earlier work with Bloomberg, Blackstone and the New York State Assembly.
At an ALPFA convention he spent three days in interviews with companies including PNC, BNY, Deloitte, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and chose Wells Fargo again after three rounds. He will now move to Charlotte, North Carolina, to work for the bank.
“It can be challenging growing up or moving to a place where you and or your parents may not be fully accustomed to, but never forget that there’s always an opportunity out there,” he said.
