A new Friday gathering in the Latina/o Studies Program (LSP) will connect students to alumni with varied career paths.
“Fridays with Alumni” kicks off Jan. 31 featuring Kim Cardenas '17 & Joseph De Los Santos '19 joining by Zoom. Students will gather in the LSP program offices to join the conversation, but they can also participate by Zoom.
“Cornell played a transformative role in our trajectory, empowering us to harness our skills and talents to contribute to the world. As alumni, we’re eager to pay it forward. We want to help the next generation and share lessons gleaned from our successes, and from our struggles," said Kety Esquivel '97, president of the Cornell Latino Alumni Association (CLAA), co-sponsor of the new series. "Countless alumni attest to the extraordinary impact of LSP, and the critical role that LSP directors, affiliated faculty, and staff had in folks thriving academically and personally at Cornell. We’re excited to partner with them on this endeavor.”
Maria Cristina Garcia, Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and director of the Latina/o Studies Program, said the impetus for the new event came from Reunion 2024, when more than 50 alumni came to an LSP reception.
“After the reception, Kety and I discussed ways that CLAA could support the program and thought it would be great for this generation of students to talk to alumni who went before them,” she said.
Garcia, who had many of these alumni as students, said she remembers them having the same questions that students have today – What will I do for my career? Will I find a job that has purpose and meaning? How do I develop a network? How do I find my first internship and then my first job?
For Esquivel, some of the faculty and alumni mentors she had as a student – where she was elected the first Latina student on the Cornell Board of Trustees and had an honorary seat on the President’s Councill of Cornell Women (PCCW), which was just starting — have been formative in her career and her life.
“From all of these mentors, I’ve learned that there’s not just one way to live a successful life,” she said. “It’s thinking about what you want and how you can get there, doing what you can to put the pieces in place and contribute your grain of sand to the world. There will be ups and downs and failures, but that’s all a part of the journey.”
The Friday sessions will include lunch and short presentations from the alumni about how they chose their majors, what experiences they had at Cornell, how they ended up on their current career path and what they know now that they wish they had known as students. There will plenty of time for students to ask questions.
“We hope that students will appreciate talking to alumni who charted very different paths and who represent a wide range of colleges at Cornell,” Garcia said. “Sometimes that path is straightforward, but oftentimes alumni pursue careers that have nothing to do with their major, so we want students to know that they’re learning critical skills that will serve them well no matter where they go in life.
Other alumni visitors this semester include:
- April 18: Andre Bhatia '92, founding partner of Symbiome Capital, a clean energy adjacencies private equity fund. He was a double major in computer science and economics at Cornell University and earned a master’s degree in economics from Columbia University.
- April 25: Gabriel de Corral '12, a graduate of Cornell Law School, who practices corporate and securities law in Miami, with a strong focus on the Latin American market. He has also taken part in numerous pro bono initiatives, such as representing migrant minors and mothers from Latin America seeking asylum in the U.S.
The Fridays with Alumni series complements the Latina/o Studies Program’s successful Fridays with Faculty series, which features an in-person conversation with a Cornell faculty member or administrator about their research or work in progress.
The Fridays with Alumni series is funded by the Latina/o Studies Program in collaboration with the Cornell Latino Alumni Association, Latine Student Success Office and the Latino Living Center at Cornell.
