Op-Ed
Remembrance of Things Past
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In retrospect, the most fulfilling experience of my life has been my involvement in various mentoring relationships. I am very enthusiastic about expanding the alumni- mentoring program at Cornell, and recently I realized that this program could serve as the most important bridge to connect Cornell’s two highest priorities.
In her inaugural Academic State of the University Address, Provost Biddy Martin expressed Cornell’s ambition to be a world leader in research and in undergraduate education. While these two aims have some overlap, they are two very different goals. As knowledge accumulates, research in many fields has become more and more specialized, moving further away from the realm of everyday life. On the other hand, in this global economy, education is becoming more pragmatic, as a good candidate for the job market in most fields should be balanced with many other qualifications in addition to a good GPA.
The difference between these two goals could grow larger and larger. Any institution that shares our ambitions will face the same challenges. One solution is to supplement academic studies with extracurricular alumni mentoring. With a strong alumni mentoring program, professors can concentrate their attention on teaching us big ideas, problem solving skills and creative ways of thinking, while alumni can teach students how to deal with real problems and support their development as professionals in their chosen fields.
My own career was substantially changed by advice from several senior alumni of my undergraduate university. My first mentor was a famous actress in China. I met her through a career event that I organized my sophomore year. In order to attract other students’ attention, I wrote to several very prominent alumni. The actress was the only one who responded and allowed me five minutes to pitch my event. I was thrilled about this opportunity and prepared a four-minute speech to impress her. I even dreamed that she would discover my talent in performance and help me to become the Tom Hanks or, better yet, the Johnny Depp of China.
As it turned out, when I finally met her, I was very nervous and fumbled throughout my speech. After I left, I was convinced the meeting was a complete failure. To my surprise, she accepted my invitation and told me: “I really appreciate your courage to approach me. When you have a job, what you do depends on your ability. Before you have a job, your ability depends on what you do. Keep on trying; there is no limit to your imagination.”
Her words finally helped me become the first trustee from Mainland China at an Ivy League school. I knew the most important thing was to “try it,” despite the fact that I only had six months experience in the U.S. when I ran. After I won, I was interviewed by three major TV stations and 15 leading news periodicals in China. My mentor mailed me a newspaper with the title “Ye, Forrest Gump of China.” She said “You are Tom Hanks of China, but you are performing your life, the most beautiful film for you in the world.”
A good mentor can support, encourage and inspire students during their Cornell experience, and my goal is to allow every student access to the alumni-mentoring program. Unfortunately, Cornell has only about 842 alumni mentors out of 244,200 living alumni, making the program focus mostly on minority students, as explained by Alicia S. Torrey ’83, director of the program. In my opinion, there are several ways to increase the number of mentors. First, we can invite current MBA students to become mentors. Second, we have many staff who are also students and who could become mentors.
However, the key is to encourage more alumni to register as mentors. I was a mentor to a group of students at my alma mater in 2003, when my U.S. student visa was rejected and I needed to wait for one more year. The students benefited from my advice, and all received admission to top schools in the U.S. and China. Before they left, they prepared a handmade newspaper for me, documenting all of the help that I had given them. I was very satisfied that I could change lives even when I had just begun my own career.
When I arrived at Cornell in 2005, I reconnected with two of these students. They personally tutored me on the first-year Ph.D economics core courses, and, thanks to their help, I became the first Cornell economics student in history to pass both Ph.D Qualification tests without taking any classes. I first changed their lives, but later, they helped me to transform my own.
I also support supplementing one-on-one mentorship with a periodic lecture series by high-profile alumni. To identify those alumni who will attract the most students, I suggest conducting a voluntary survey to find out what kinds of questions students have for alumni. Then, we can invite the alumni who can best address these questions back to Cornell.
I know many high-profile alumni are readers of this newspaper. I conclude by addressing you. I want to tell you that you may be the biggest winners when you share experiences with students. For one of the career events that I organized in China, I invited a billionaire alumnus of my undergraduate university as a guest of honor. In his lecture, he talked about how he finally became a friend and then a business partner of a classmate that he had considered his biggest enemy during his freshman year. He explained that we can learn the most from people who disagree with us. Several days after the lecture, I received a thank-you card from him. I will conclude with his words:
“Mao, thanks very much for giving me the opportunity to discuss my undergraduate experience at your career event. It reminded me of many of my most prized memories. When I speak to young people like you, I realize that those memories are from the most important part of my life.”
Mao Ye is a student-elected trustee. He can be contacted at my87@cornell.edu. Trustee Viewpoint appears alternate Tuesdays.