If someone
would have told me
when I was younger
that I will be graduating from Yale
at the age of 52
I would've told them they're crazy.
I would not have had a, a inkling of an idea that would
happen to a individual from
like a, like myself, from the South Bronx,
but it has.
The Eli Whitney Program is a program to bring students to Yale,
who have had lives
such that they didn't get to do an undergraduate education at the traditional age.
Their career path took them some,
in some other direction.
They have obstacles that might have to be overcome.
And whatever it is, we're looking for extraordinary people
to be part of the Yale undergraduate body, who aren't of the
traditional age that most of the Yale students are.
My schooling was interrupted
for my first career, which is a professional athlete playing ice hockey for the New York Rangers.
I had a fifteen-year NHL career
and I made the decision to turn pro with the understanding, really,
the deal with myself, that I'd always go back to school. That was going to be my first priority and it was.
In high school I was diagnosed with
high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia, so it was very important for me
to
take care of my health, but at the same time, I obviously wanted to pursue the goals
that I had in mind for
my career.
I came to Yale to complete an education that I
gave up in the 1980s.
For most of my adult life, I've been working in AIDS
and
science
policy,
but at this point my life I was interested in going back to school and, and finishing
up
unfinished business that I'd left
unattended, you know, close to twenty years ago.
And I was at Howard University
and, and my junior year I had to leave due to family
issues. Once I received the opportunity and I heard about the Eli Whitney Program
and I found that it would fit my schedule
and also
would fill that void that I had about not completing
my education.
Yale
offers a really tremendous undergraduate liberal arts education. I don't think there's anywhere
else that can compare to it.
And Eli Whitney's students
participate in that program
in exactly the same manner as all our other
undergraduates. It's a full
immersion academic program. And you're, you're with 18- to 22-year-olds.
I never looked at myself being different
and in that respect because education is education.
It was seamless. It, it, it was one of
those really pleasant surprises about coming to Yale,
where you're judged exactly as you should be, on your merits. What
do you bring to your classroom time. Have you done your homework?
Do you participate? 0:03:01.489,0:03:05.309 I bring experiences to the table that my younger colleagues don't,
but also
I have the opportunity to sort of
learn from them as well, so.
It's very inviting. It's, it's not as if
this is a different kind of program than Yale college. This is Yale college,
but it's Yale college in a way that is conducive to the needs
of people,
who have interests outside of academics.
Since the beginning of my time here
in the program
I've worked full-time.
And it's just, you know, managing a household, working full-time,
going to school.
Very challenging,
but very rewarding.
One of the reasons I chose the Eli Whitney Program to apply to
is because it gave the
full-time option. I'm also trying to carry on my
professional life as well and working around
advocacy
around AIDS, public health, and global health issues. So
trying to juggle a student life and a professional life at the same time.
I'm a lobbyist for pediatric cancer
and we met with government officials in various congressional
appropriations committees and we ask for
money for research for the Children's Oncology Group. They're a group of
physicians. They engage in clinical trials research.
They're, they're the most prestigious group of physicians that conducts clinical research trials in the world.
So both my,
my academic interests and my
extracurricular interests were
very much supported by all of the faculty in addition to the structure of the program.
I graduated in 2008, but prior to graduating I had the opportunity to
join a group of
financiers downtown
that were coming together to form a private equity fund that
puts private equity money to work in specifically green ventures.
The environmental spaces is something I've always had a great interest in and
read about a lot when I was playing.
When I came to Yale I took classes that
certainly
steeled me and prepared me for my second career,
but specifically through my undergraduate classes here.
And some of the classes I took at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies,
I'm applying what I learned there every day of my new career,
so
what I say it's, it was a perfect fit for
applying and graduating from Yale. I mean that every day.
You know, at 45 years old, you don't think
you can teach an old dog new tricks
and I think
what the Eli Whitney Program has shown me is that actually
doesn't matter what age you are, you can learn new things and take in new information to enrich
your life.
These are remarkable people,
really remarkable people
and they add something to the Yale community
that the 18-year-olds who are most of our undergraduate,
no matter how extraordinary,
simply don't have to offer-
the kind of life experience and
perspective that
nobody coming out of high school really can offer.