One graduate, five questions, go...
Chanaka Mendis '92 (Chemistry)
Professor of Chemistry & Assistant Provost
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
How did your education at SUNY Old Westbury prepare you for what you are doing today?
The chemistry program, faculty, and especially the Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program greatly influenced me to pursue a graduate education at Georgetown University and a career in higher education. As you know, I did a post doc at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research prior to starting to teach at UW-Platteville. That experience gave me a skillset to lead a successful undergraduate research lab, and also made me, I think, a strong faculty member. So today, even after 15 years here at UW-Platteville in my current position, on a day-to-day basis, I use those critical thinking skills, collaborative working skills, and communication skills, learned throughout my undergraduate and graduate career.
What is your greatest professional accomplishment or recent professional accomplishment to date?
There are many, but the one that is dear to my heart is the first journal article I published with an undergraduate research student here at UW-Platteville in 2008. That was really, really huge for me because UW-Platteville is kind of similar to SUNY Old Westbury. It’s primarily an undergraduate institution, and our primary focus is providing a hands-on education. It is rather challenging to do a research project during the semester, in other words do the experiments, analyze the data and write a journal article for publication. My research student was really great. She worked hard to get all of those things done and made sure she had a publication before she graduated from UW-Platteville.
What programs do you support at SUNY Old Westbury, and why?
I am a big believer in the value of undergraduate research, and I was introduced to that at Old Westbury. Hands-on experiences students receive through undergraduate research gives them an added advantage in addition to them gaining critical thinking skills. Importantly, they will also know that it is Okay to fail, however, if you keep on trying, you can get better. Doing undergraduate research at Old Westbury also provided opportunities to meet students from other institutions and share ideas. When I was in the MBRS program, there were about eight to nine of us, and we were all doing vastly different research projects, but always had time to help each other out. I still remember the very first national conference that I attended as a student at Old Westbury, we were able to compare our posters, compare the things we’d done, the experiments we’d carried out, and talk to others who were working on projects similar to ours.
Do you have advice for current students?
First, don’t shy away from a challenge, academically or otherwise, because I really believe that whether you are successful or not, those challenges are going to contribute to your overall identity. Second, don’t hesitate to get help. Sometimes, students feel that it’s a weakness to ask for help academically or otherwise, but I’ve learned along the way that there are a lot of people and a lot of support structures in place to help in such instances. Be proactive, take the first step and seek help. Lastly, get involved in your campus activities (if possible as early as in your freshmen year) such as undergraduate research, student organizations, internships (if available), service learning projects, or even student governance. The skills you learn through these experiences definitely provide an added value to your undergraduate degree and actually can shape the career that you ultimately pursue.
What is your favorite memory and/or spot on campus?
My friends and mentors from the MBRS program, of course, especially Dr. Konrad Wu. I’ve already spoken about that. In terms of a location, there was this little sandwich or coffee shop on campus. I hope it’s still there (Editor’s Note: It is, now known as the Atrium Café in the Campus Center). I was a commuter student, coming from Baldwin, I used to always go there in the morning or between classes and enjoy a sandwich. Also really enjoyed the friendly conversations I had with the staff who worked there as well as the other students who patronized the eatery.
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