The amount of messages isn\u2019t overwhelming, just two or three a month \u2013 a couple dozen a year since he completed his own undergraduate studies in economics at UConn. Some are regulars that he hears from again and again, from time to time.\u00a0 Others he\u2019s never met before.<\/p>\n
No matter who the message is from, KC always responds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to speak to all of them,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I know how much of a difference it made for me when alumni would like be like, \u2018Yeah, of course I’ll talk to you.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd regardless of title and age, they were always willing to.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Personal Board of Advisors<\/strong><\/p>\n In his own senior year at UConn, KC knew that he wanted to pursue a strategy career in the technology industry, but what he didn\u2019t know was where to start.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s such a high, fast-growth industry,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2019Growth\u2019 is my favorite word, and I knew that\u2019s where I wanted to be, but I didn\u2019t really have the full background or connections to that industry.\u201d<\/p>\n In that fall semester, KC set a goal for himself to reach out to one UConn alum every single day. He\u2019d hop on LinkedIn himself and search through the more than 100,000 UConn alumni connected to the University\u2019s official account<\/a> for people who worked in a variety of roles in and around the technology industry, or for alums who just seem to have interesting job titles \u2013 and then he\u2019d message them.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the end of the week, it would be seven that I’d reach out to, at a minimum,\u201d he says. \u201cLuckily, as a UConn student, if you reach out to UConn alums, the success rate is pretty high that they\u2019ll at least respond. Even if one or two didn’t, I’d have five that would be happy to chat, and then maybe three or four of those would actually become a half-hour virtual call.\u201d<\/p>\n He used those calls to learn their personal stories, to ask them how they\u2019d gotten to their current jobs. He spoke to strategists and entrepreneurs. To an alum who started off as a teacher and then completely pivoted into a career in business. To people who thought they were going to do one thing and kept with it, and others who found that something else was their real true passion once they left college and started on a career path.<\/p>\n As he collected perspectives and advice, he also built a network of people with diverse experiences and backgrounds. Many became mentors who not only helped guide him through his senior year, but also beyond that, as he entered the workforce.<\/p>\n And finding a network of mentors is actually the first piece of advice that KC offers to current UConn students when they reach out to him.<\/p>\n \u201cBuild out your personal board of advisors \u2013 the people who you can reach out to for trusted advice,\u201d he says. \u201cWhenever I have to face a life decision, I know I can reach out to these people at any time. That\u2019s probably been one of the most impactful things that I started at UConn, and it’s paid dividends that I could never have thought about.\u201d<\/p>\n Explore Everything<\/strong><\/p>\n The second piece of advice he offers is for UConn students to explore everything they\u2019re interested in while at UConn \u2013 and not just those interests that fall within particular majors.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of students in the Business School who ask, \u2018What are the business clubs that I need to be in?\u2019 and I can answer that question, for the most part,\u201d KC says. \u201cBut I always tell them, go explore something else that’s not in the Business School. Not everything has to be included on your r\u00e9sum\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn has more than 700 clubs and student organizations<\/a>, many of which are featured at the University\u2019s Involvement Fair<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember walking around the Involvement Fair as a student, and anything that I was interested in, I would first go talk to the person that\u2019s working at the booth, just to see what got them interested in it, what the club does,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then, I would just sign up for as many as I could in that time that it was there.\u201d<\/p>\n Often, KC would sign up for more clubs than he could manage. But he\u2019d go to them, see what they were all about, and then he\u2019d stick with the ones that he found the most interesting. He joined the business clubs, but he also joined photography clubs and nonprofits and the Pan Asian Council<\/a>, just because they interested him. He took a poetry class.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderneath each of those clubs, a part of all those clubs, are people who are super passionate about that topic,\u201d he explains, \u201cand I can’t really find many places that replicate that kind of structure, where if I’m interested in photography, there’s 15 different photography clubs on campus. I can go meet the kids that love photography, or even the faculty that love photography, and you create such good friendships. You get to learn from other people’s perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n Get After It<\/strong><\/p>\n The last piece of advice KC offers to students is to create short-term goals \u2013 with a long-term direction in mind \u2013 and really get after them.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you’ve explored and you’ve identified some things that you’re really passionate about, go after those short-term goals very aggressively,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In his senior year, that meant emailing seven alumni a week to learn all he could about breaking into the tech industry \u2013 that was one of his short-term goals for that fall semester.<\/p>\n But another goal for his senior year was to be the student speaker at his Commencement ceremony \u2013 he\u2019d been the student speaker at his graduation from E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew, in four years, no matter what, I’m going to do the same thing at UConn,\u201d he says. \u201cAt that point, I didn’t have a major selected. I didn’t know any of the details. I didn’t know how. But I just knew I was going to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating high school, KC struggled in his first semester at UConn. He found himself lost \u2013 he was close to failing some of his classes. He was overwhelmed. He didn\u2019t feel like he belonged, and as he thought about dropping out, he wondered if it might be history repeating \u2013 both his father and his brother had attempted programs of study at UConn, only to withdraw before completion.<\/p>\n He felt like the family had a curse when it came to UConn, and that curse had come for him next.<\/p>\n But instead of accepting that fate, he instead started building his network. He set goals. He sought out academic, mental health, and peer resources on campus. He began to turn his academics around, and he used his exploration of interests to start building a social circle that left him feeling far less isolated.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/KC_210928a015-300x200.jpg\")