Episode #19 | A Conversation with Andy Chan, Wake Forest University

04/28/22 • 46 min

Andy Chan, VP of Innovation and Career Development at Wake Forest University, knows that being a student in 2022 is a uniquely complicated experience. There are more educational and professional options than ever before. There's also immense societal and cultural pressure to pick the perfect path and flawlessly transition from high school to college to a career.

In episode 19 of MindMaxing—the first in the podcast’s second season—Andy urges students to consider education not as a means to an end but as a way to foster the desire to learn and grow over one's lifetime. He says the advice educators, mentors, and parents should give students "is not 'follow your passions'—it's 'follow your interests to discover your passions.'"

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Episode #18 | A Conversation with Debra Iles, Harvard Kennedy School

Harvard Kennedy School Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education Debra Iles believes that the pandemic has “created the opportunity for us to think differently, to embrace some things that we were perhaps postponing.” Debra and I met virtually for episode 18 of MindMaxing, the final episode in the podcast’s first season, where she reflected on the unique perspective she and her colleagues had throughout the pandemic. Listen to the full episode wherever you find your podcasts or watch it above.

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Episode #20 | A Conversation with Rick Dalton of CFES Brilliant Pathways

Rick Dalton, CEO and President of CFES Brilliant Pathways, is committed to helping students overcome obstacles, access educational opportunities, and achieve success in their lives.
While today’s higher education landscape is complex and changing rapidly, Rick notes that students can still take control of their academic destinies.
In the second episode of our MindMaxing podcast series, Adolescence to Adulthood, Rick outlines three crucial steps for ambitious students. His advice is clear: “Get a mentor, think about developing essential skills, and think also about pathways and what it’s going to take to move down your pathway.”

MindMaxing: Conversations on Higher Ed - Episode #19 | A Conversation with Andy Chan, Wake Forest University

Transcript

Lee Maxey:
Hi, my name is Lee Maxey, and welcoming you to another of the MindMaxing Podcast series. And this series is focusing on the journeys that adolescents take to adulthood and how education supports, helps, hinders, and enables that journey.
And I'm delighted to be here with Andy Chan, from Wake Forest University, who's the VP of Innovation and Career Development. And I got a chance to listen to Andy speak at a New York Times event, I think, it was probably seven or eight years ag