From founding a global investing initiative at Stanford to earning academic and professional recognition in her first year, Cindy Toh (Class of 2024) is challenging what student leadership and positive social impact can look like.

Since graduating from CIS, one of her most meaningful accomplishments has been co-founding the Cardinal Aligned Investing Initiative (CAII) at Stanford University. Through this initiative, Cindy is changing how students learn to invest by building an open-source curriculum and framework for values-aligned investing.

This initiative equips students with the tools to evaluate companies in ways that consider both financial performance and real-world social impact, such as corporate social responsibility and long-term sustainability. In just four months, her project gained global traction with the support of finance societies and student-run investment funds at the University of Cambridge.

By shaping how future investors approach capital early in their careers, Cindy’s goal is to help ensure that tomorrow’s financial decisions generate both strong returns and positive societal outcomes.

As her time at Stanford continues, Cindy has naturally stepped into a growing number of leadership roles. From managing finances at Stanford Women in Law and leading community engagement for the Stanford Myanmar Student Association to directing cosponsorships at the Stanford Speakers Bureau, she balances diverse responsibilities across campus while balancing a healthy student life.

But how does Cindy find time to do it all? Between leading multiple organisations, she’s still excelling academically and professionally. She was recently nominated for the Boothe Prize for Excellence in First-Year Writing, placing her among the top five percent of first-year students. On top of that, she secured a summer internship at Baker McKenzie, one of the world’s largest law firms, working in Business Development, Marketing, and Communications as the youngest employee!

She credits much of her ability to thrive at Stanford to the foundation built at CIS. The rigour of the IB curriculum and the demands of balancing academics with several extracurricular commitments helped her develop discipline, efficiency, and strong time-management skills.

Looking ahead, she is working toward careers at the intersection of law, finance, and global affairs. Even with all these accomplishments, Cindy’s focus is grounded by a bigger purpose; to create more opportunities and positive change in her home country, Myanmar.

We are incredibly proud of Cindy and excited to see the impact she will continue to make.