聚焦 | 互动中双赢——校友导师项目助力学生发展

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Gabriela Naumnik总是抱有坚定、清晰的目标。

“她知道自己想要什么”，潘美旭这样评价她指导的学生Gabriela Naumnik，上海纽约大学2019届互动媒体与商业专业学生。潘美旭，纽约大学帝势艺术学院2004届毕业生，上海莱玛影视传媒有限公司创始人，公司总部在纽约和洛杉矶。当Naumnik大二学年参加纽约大学校友导师项目的时候，她已认定潘美旭担任自己的导师。项目提供给Naumnik三位导师备选，她在三个位置上都填上了潘美旭的名字。

前往上海与Naumnik见面讨论实习计划时，潘美旭正在制作一部新电视剧“The Lane”。她说这部在上海取景的电视剧，有点《飞跃情海》邂逅《欲望都市》的意思。她给Naumnik看了节目预告片。“我太喜欢这片子了！”这是Naumnik看完后的第一反应。

“她的热情感染了我，”潘美旭说。Naumnik追问潘美旭节目把角色年龄段设定在23-30岁之间的原因，并极力建议降低到与自己相仿的年龄段：18-23岁。她还提出，为适应互联网受众的观看习惯，片长应缩减为十分钟左右。

潘美旭说，“本来我都对这个项目都没什么兴趣了，但Gabriela的建议重新点燃了我的激情。我设计了20个问题，请她去采访上海的外籍人士。她通过Facebook将这些问题发给好友，开始征集故事。”Naumnik通过Skype做了40多个采访，还请到上海纽约大学的同学帮忙。

“这些学生身上所展现出的无所畏惧的精神，给了我很多力量，”潘美旭说，“他们让我意识到项目在全球范围的吸引力。”而潘美旭给学生的建议是“清楚自己想要什么”和“坦承自己真正的兴趣爱好”，“因为，只有诚实才能让你获得信任。而Gabriela总能大胆、明确地表达自己的想法。”

“我和潘美旭老师志趣相投，”Naumnik说，“导师告诉我要听从内心，所以，我决定辅修影视制作。我从不知道学习原来可以如此快乐！”Naumnik给未来参加导师项目学生也提出自己的建议——选择一位让你感兴趣的人当导师，而不是仅看他们的职业。 

“现实世界”的使者

2018届学生桑清川，大二选专业时左右为难，不知该选化学还是工程学。所以，他选择Mark Yang担任导师。Mark Yang，纽约大学科朗数学研究所1999届毕业生，光谱特种气体贸易（上海）有限公司总经理。当时，Mark Yang正在研究特种气体，一种生产医疗专用的活性气体，他便借此机会把桑清川介绍给参与该项目的化学工程师，带他参加北京的商业会议，与公司高层会面，让桑清川了解行业决策过程。这些经历让桑清川收获颇丰，他对从事研发工作更有信心了。“我原以为和技术的专业性相比，商业环节会容易一些，但并非如此。企业家需要考虑一连串问题：工厂规模多大，材料防火性能须达到何种级别，工厂的建筑材料成分是什么等等。这让我认识到，自己更适合做一名科学家。”

“我上学时，还没有这种导师项目，”Mark Yang说，“但我在贝尔实验室开始第一份工作时，公司为我指派了一位导师，我们至今还保持着联系。”Mark Yang认为，与学生分享自己的行业经验，对有志于在该领域发展的学生来说至关重要，“从学术领域到商业环境，是巨大的跨越。一直待在实验室，学生无法对所处行业有全面认识。导师能帮助学生提前做好对商业文化的适应和准备，这相当有用。”

文化的分量

与Mark Yang一样，纽约大学斯特恩商学院2001届工商管理硕士、特许金融分析师包强，在读大学时也没有导师项目。包强是慧金源资本顾问（香港）有限公司总经理兼首席投资官。“本科学习期间，我获得的职业咨询指导很有限。我对商界如何运作也一无所知。幸运的是，摩根大通有一项导师计划帮助了我。”而现在，包强表示，该轮到他帮学生发现自己的特长与爱好了。“与学生交谈时，我尽量将话题从父母对他们的期待转移开。我会问他们自己真正的爱好是什么，帮助缩小父母期望与自己真实兴趣之间的差距。”

“学习技能是一回事，而技术变革导致技能的需求瞬息万变。掌握了解一个行业的文化就更难了。”包强指导的学生、2017届的Olivia Taylor原本对投资银行感兴趣，通过包强的点拨，她意识到，自己真正感兴趣的是消费品行业，也更喜欢消费品行业文化。“包强导师指导我制定计划，熟悉面试过程。”现在，Olivia Taylor正在欧莱雅进行一个为期两年的营销与开发项目，项目参与者每年换岗一次。第一年，Olivia Taylor在奢侈品部门工作，“对千禧一代的年轻人来说，企业文化更为重要。包强导师给我的人生忠告，让我真正了解到这一点。我在欧莱雅结识了许多新朋友。工作不仅关乎一份漂亮的履历，而是你和会什么样的人们一起奋斗。”

点击文末“阅读原文”，了解更多关于纽约大学校友导师项目的信息。

  Win-Win: Mentors and Mentees at NYU Shanghai 

There was no doubt in Gabriela Naumnik’s mind.

“She knows what she wants,” laughs Julliet Pan, NYU Tisch ’04, founder of SHE&JUL Films Productions and Media Company, based in New York and Los Angeles. And what Gabriela Naumnik’19, majoring in Interactive Media and Business at NYUSH, wanted in her sophomore year, was to work with Julliet Pan. Mentees choose three possible mentors. Gabriela chose Pan all three times.

When Pan came to Shanghai to meet Naumnik and talk about the internship, she was working on The Lane, a new drama she describes as Melrose-Place-meets-Sex-in-the-City set in Shanghai. She showed Naumnik the trailer. “I love it!” was the immediate reaction.

“I was affected by her enthusiasm,” Pan admits. Naumnik asked why Pan had kept the characters’ ages in the 23 to 30 range. She pressed hard for Pan to consider a series the age range to 18 to 23, her own demographic. She also suggested making the episodes much shorter—around ten minutes—for an internet audience.

“I was focusing on other projects at the time,” says Pan, but Gabriela’s suggestions re-energized me. I gave her twenty questions to ask expats in Shanghai. She posted the questions to her facebook friends and began to gather stories.” Naumnik then conducted over forty skype interviews. She brought in other NYU Shanghai students to help.

“I got so much energy from the fearlessness of these students,” says Pan. “They helped me to realize the global appeal of the project.” Pan advises her mentees to “know what they want” and “be honest about their interests with their mentors.” “Through honesty, you gain trust. Gabriela was bold and clear.”

“Pan embodied everything I was interested in,” says Naumnik. “When I saw the pilot of her new project I thought, ‘there are so many old stereotypes around life in China. But Shanghai is a youthful, modern city!” Naumnik felt from the start that she could talk openly with Pan. “After she told me to follow my heart, I decided to minor in producing. And I have never felt so happy about studying something.” Gabriela’s advice to future mentees? “Choose someone who interests you as a person, not only by their line of work.”

Ambassadors from the “Real World”

Qingchuan (Kyle) Sang ’18 was torn his sophomore year between chemistry and engineering. He wanted to get the inside scoop on the chemical industry. He chose Mark Yang, NYU Courant '99, General Manager, Spectra Gases (Shanghai), as a possible mentor. “Mark was working on special gases, producing a reactive gas for medical usage.” Yang introduced Kyle to the chemical engineers working on the project. He took Kyle to a business conference in Beijing to meet the company leaders and give Kyle an inside look at decision-making in his industry. Kyle worked as a translator at the conference.  Kyle’s take-away? For now, he feels more comfortable in Research and Development. “I thought the business side would be easier but it’s NOT! Questions like, ‘how big should the factory be; how fireproof do the materials have to be, what should the dirt the factory is built on be composed of’ made me realize that I’m a scientist!”

“I had no mentor experience in my education,” says Mark Yang, “but at my first job at Bell Labs they assigned me a mentor. I still keep in touch with him.” Yang felt that sharing his experience was critical for students considering his field.

“There is a great leap from the academic world to the commercial world. Staying in the lab, he feels, does not give a student in the sciences the whole picture. It really helps to have a mentor prepare you for the culture of the industry and what is expected of you in that culture.”  

Culture Counts

Like Mark Yang, Danny Bao, CFA, NYU Stern MBA ’01, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, HJY Capital Advisors (HK) Limited, had no mentoring experience in his college years. “In my undergraduate study,  I had very limited career counseling. I had no idea of how the business world worked! Luckily, J.P. Morgan had a mentoring program.” Bao helps his mentees understand their personal strengths. “I try to move the conversation away from what the student’s parents want. I ask about their hobbies and I try to reduce the gap between the parents’ aspirations and the student’s interests.”

“It’s one thing to learn skills,” Bao says, “but these are changing every day with new technologies. Learning the culture of an industry is much harder.” Bao’s mentee, Olivia Taylor ’17, was interested in investment banking, but Bao helped her to realize her true interest in consumer products, and that this was a culture she might enjoy more. “Danny helped me with the interview process, and with an action plan.” Taylor is now in a two-year marketing and development program at L’Oreal. Participants switch roles each year. In her first year, Taylor is working in the luxury division. “For millennials, the culture is so important. The life advice I got from Danny gave me real insight into this. I’ve made friends at L’Oreal—in the end, it’s not just about the resume. It’s about the people you will be working with.”

Click "Read more" (阅读原文) below for information about the NYU Alumni Executive Mentor program at NYU Shanghai