Middle-Autumn Festival is also known as Chinese Moon Festival. It is a time for families to be together, so people far from home will gaze longingly at the moon and think about their families. The event is open to anyone and everyone on campus. Delicious potluck dinner, music, dance, fun games and sharing traditional culture!Continue Reading
Authors
Advice for Selecting a College: Shop for Best Fit, Not ‘Designer’ Name
“Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania,” is the title of an outstanding book by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Bruni.
After researching higher education in the United States, Bruni discovers and shares anecdotes of students who did not get into their first-choice colleges, and were better off as a result. His conclusion is uplifting.
Today, in our country, there are an amazing number of strong education opportunities that will serve students well. Yet students and parents spend too much time, money, and effort, coupled with stress and tears, seeking acceptance to the perfect, most-desired school. Continue Reading
Top 10 Reasons to Live Off-Campus for at Least a Year During College
1. Having more freedom. Living off-campus gives you more choice of how many friends you would like to live with. Also you can mostly feel free to decide how to decorate your own room.
2. It’s a better place if you want to invite your friends over. Dorms are apparently not the best places to hang out because they are too small. However, off-campus apartments gives you more space. Continue Reading
A New Experience and the Meaning of Traveling
I decided to ask my boss for a couple of days off after working at the library for more than a month. So my trip from New York to Washington DC started on Friday afternoon, when I took Peterpan to New York to meet two friends of mine. Although I have been to New York many times before, this is the first time I ever visited this city at night. It was definitely impressive.Continue Reading
The Investor Pitch
The iQ program is a series of events that starts slowly, and then accelerates very quickly. It all starts with mentor meetings, followed by the application, and then the final pitch to get accepted to iQ. Then, a moment’s anticipation, then workshops, a flood of new ideas, constant networking, and barely enough time to breathe. All the while, you’re working on prototypes, building your business model, and then… Continue Reading
The Small, Happy Life
I have previously shared my thoughts about graduation speeches and mentioned several excellent examples. In that blog, I talked about the range of topics and advice in those speeches but I just read an essay by David Brooks—NYT, May 29, 2015, “The Small, Happy Life.’’—that I think enriches the discussion. David invited his readers to “send in essays describing their purpose in life and how they found it.” He “expected most contributors would follow the commencement speech clichés of our high achieving culture; dream big; set ambitious goals; try to change the world.”Continue Reading
Coaches, Leading and Talent
Some may not like sports as a metaphor for life, and if you fall in that category, you might want to stop here. But I think it can be useful, and I want to talk about three examples in sport and draw inferences to life.
I am the dean of the business school at UConn, so not surprisingly, I cite our Geno Auriemma as an example of leadership of the highest order. Geno has coached the women’s basketball team since 1985 and, in the process, has garnered 10 NCAA championships. His championship record is unsurpassed among women’s coaches, and tied with legendary UCLA men’s coach John Wooden. Geno headlines the “Geno Auriemma UConn Leadership Conference’’ and invariably talks about his experiences as a coach, and the teams he has been privileged to train. Continue Reading
Graduation, Commencement, Celebration and Satisfaction
It is that time of year: graduation, commencement, celebration and satisfaction. At UConn, we find myriad ways to celebrate our students, by engaging graduates, their families and friends, our alumni, our faculty and staff. As dean, I find I pay attention to what others say in these settings and invariably learn in the process.
This year, Professor Robert Shiller, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Economics and a Professor at Yale, spoke at our undergraduate commencement and received an honorary degree from UConn. His message was powerful and important and dealt with “Business and the Good Society.” He chose to remind our business graduates, that while some give business a bad rap, it is an engine of growth and promise. Good business propels a rising tide that lifts all boats. He found a nice balance between engaging our thoughts and our emotions. He challenged all of us to engage with our world and to better it. His talk is worth a read.
Let me share three other speeches that I consider landmarks: Continue Reading
Finals, Interviews, and Housing Dilemmas: How I Survived
Finals week has always been the most challenging time during every semester for me especially this one. It was definitely challenging for everyone else, but most people I know only needed to prepare for finals and pack up to go home. However it was about dealing with the multi-tasks for me. After knowing that I am not able to live in the same dorm at Alumni which is where I have lived for both my freshman and sophomore year, I decided to live off-campus during junior year. Finding off-campus housing as well as roommates might sound interesting, but that is true only when you have enough time. Continue Reading
After Guatemala
Since we have returned from Guatemala our project has gone from a project to a passionate pursuit, a fire has been ignited within us. Before our trip Dr. Lisa Eaton told us that we had to ‘get our feet wet’ and bring Parrot MD to an impoverished country. We didn’t realize how important this advice was until we were in a small village seeing firsthand the problem and how useful our device can be. There’s a lot to be said for sitting and planning out details but at one point you have to be there to fully understand what needs to be done.Continue Reading