Why I Work in the Studio at Cornell Tech
I spend a lot of my time talking to people about Cornell Tech and the Studio. Often times, at the end of the conversation I am asked what brought me to Cornell Tech and what my background is. Like many of the Studio team members, my background is not in academia and I really never saw myself working in higher education. However, the lessons I’ve learned throughout my windy career made Cornell Tech the perfect next step in my journey.
For a bit of background, I grew up as the typical overachiever in a small suburban town on Long Island. My belief about the way the world works was simple- if I worked hard and with integrity everything in life would just fall into place. I attended Tufts University with this same belief. I double majored with great grades and graduated with a sense of accomplishment. However, I did not give my career or first job more than 5 seconds of my attention prior to graduating. I didn’t know how it was going to happen but I naively believed that it would all work out. I realize now how ridiculously privileged I am to have grown up with the real belief that hard work would result in fairness, but it explains why I didn’t attend a single job fair or even visit a job board until after I graduated.
Several months after graduating, and just weeks before I was dismissed from my first job at a very sketchy startup, Lehman Brothers collapsed and the job market shrunk overnight. It was a scramble, but in that first year out of school I took on contract positions at a law firm, the Federal Reserve, and a hedge fund to make ends meet. I even sold paper door to door for a short stint.
Fast forward four years, after having worked at both New York Blood Center and Standard & Poors, I finally had the head space to search for a job with more meaning. I found my way to Venture for America (VFA). VFA is creating economic opportunity in American cities by mobilizing the next generation of entrepreneurs and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to create jobs. At VFA everything is guided by the “VFA Credo”- five statements that everyone feels connected to. One in particular is important to me: My career is a choice that indicates my values.
It is at VFA that I became comfortable with the idea that I don’t need to have a set career path. I realized that “career” doesn’t need to be linear. My career will be defined not by my job function or the industry I am in but by the interesting work and diverse people that I meet at companies redefining what it means to create value in the world.
When I was ready for my next professional challenge, Cornell Tech felt like a natural choice, yet it’s not an organization I would have considered had I not internalized these VFA values. Cornell Tech is providing an education and set of experiences unlike any other. We’re committed to advancing technology as a means to a better quality of life — for communities in New York City, across the nation and around the world. In my role as Studio Director I have the opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds and lend support to entrepreneurs who are building technologies that will change the world for the better.
I couldn’t think of a better way to demonstrate my values than working with Cornell Tech students, faculty, and staff on solving society’s most pressing problems.
