Online network finds answers to career questions

’Canes Helping ’Canes

etting ahead in the professional world requires making good decisions, a skill that often develops only through experience. How nice it would have been if someone had dissuaded you from snagging the boss’s parking spot or losing the only office restroom key. Perhaps you could help others navigate the rungs that tripped you on your way up the corporate ladder.

’Cane Connections is an online network of University of Miami alumni volunteers in various disciplines who share information about careers, companies, and job skills. UM students and alumni who are anxious or unsure about their potential role in the workforce can find professionals who once traversed a similar path and learned some dos and don’ts along the way. The free, password-protected service, maintained by the University of Miami Alumni Association, is not a job bank; it is a resource for guidance.

“It’s difficult to balance looking for a job and completing all the requirements for graduation,” says Andrew Potter, who graduated this May with an M.B.A. A participant in the Mentor Program at the School of Business Administration, Potter says his mentor has helped him narrow his focus in the broad field of investment banking. “He’s been able to counsel me on making decisions about which jobs to get into and which activities to pursue.” Unlike the School of Business Administration’s mentors, all ’Cane Connections advisors are UM alumni.

The average person is likely to change jobs nine times between the ages of 18 and 36, according to a recent study of baby boomers conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ’Cane Connections advisors can offer insight on the adjustments inherent in a career move—new skills, supervisors, office climate, maybe even a new city.

Regardless of an advisor’s level of experience, there always will be someone who can benefit from it. The larger the pool of volunteers, the broader the experience and the greater the value of the service. And benefits are reciprocal. In addition to personal satisfaction, advisors may gain new skills from recent graduates or identify qualified applicants for future job openings.

Alumni volunteers can specify how they receive questions, depending upon their technological savvy or lack thereof. Whether communicating in person or via phone, e-mail, or snail mail, volunteers should indicate the length of time they are available. Alumni can register for the network online at www.miamialumni.net or by calling the Office of Alumni Relations at 305-284-2872.

Like Potter, many students and alumni are more comfortable contacting fellow Hurricanes than non-alumni for advice. “I feel they would be more receptive because they have gone through the same process I have,” Potter says.

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Meet Your Alumni Reps

amela Jo Davis, Laurie Silvers, and Ernesto D’Escoubet have more in common than their mutual prestige in corporate and community circles. They are the new alumni trustees, elected to represent the Alumni Association on the University of Miami Board of Trustees.

Davis (B.B.A. ’65, M.Ed. ’72, Ph.D. ’79) is president and chief executive officer of Industries Training Corporation and Related Companies, a diversified holding company based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Among its portfolio is PRIDE Enterprises, which provides job training and education to 5,000 prison inmates a year and has generated more than $500 million for the Florida economy since 1985. Appointed to the Florida Council of 100, Davis is among a select group dedicated to improving economic growth and quality of life in Florida. She also serves on the Board of Governors of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Silvers (A.B. ’74, J.D. ’77) went from practicing law in South Florida to launching what has become a $130 million company called Hollywood Media Corporation, a leading provider of news, entertainment, and ticketing for the entertainment and media industries. Along the way she co-owned and was executive officer of several cable television stations, but one of her greatest endeavors was cofounding the Sci-Fi Channel. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Hollywood Media is publicly traded on NASDAQ.

Previously a vice president on the UMAA Board of Directors, D’Escoubet (B.S.E.E. ’65, M.S.E.E. ’70) recently retired as senior vice president and chief technology officer of Fairchild Semiconductor. Based in Portland, Maine, the company supplies semiconductors to various industries.

Having completed his role as an alumni trustee, Rudolph Moise (M.B.A. ’94, J.D. ’97) is president-elect of the Alumni Association. An osteopathic physician, U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, attorney, even an actor—Moise wears many hats. He is president and CEO of Comprehensive Health Centers, Inc., which provides health care to mostly disadvantaged patients in South Florida, and he serves as of counsel for the Miami-based law firm of Panter Panter & Sampedro, P.A. As treasurer of the National Organization for the Advancements of Haitians and president of its Florida chapter, Moise is an advocate for the Haitian experience. Last year he launched Radio Carnivale, Florida’s only Haitian radio station.

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Welcome Back, Klein

lot has changed for Michael Klein (B.B.A. ’63, J.D. ’66) since he attended the University of Miami. He has become a husband, father, senior partner at a prestigious Washington, D.C.-based law firm, businessman, and philanthropist. Recently he returned to his alma mater to impart some real-world advice to students in the seats he once filled.

Klein, the first featured speaker of the new Alumnus in Residence program, spent three days on the Coral Gables campus speaking to students in the Schools of Law and Business Administration. He offered a glimpse of his role at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, which handles control contests, public launches, mergers, and takeovers. Among the law firm’s most notable clients is the University of Michigan, which is defending its affirmative action policy in two highly publicized Supreme Court cases.

“You go to a store that sells a bunch of shirts and you pick a green one,” Klein says to 30 attentive faces in a Business Law class. “Is it discrimination? Yes. You’re making a decision. Almost all universities have three, four, sometimes 11 times the number of applicants they can accept. They’re going to make choices.”

Klein also described some trying and rewarding scenarios he’s encountered as founder, investor, director, and officer of numerous public, private, and nonprofit organizations, including the American Himalayan Foundation, which provides education, health care, and environmental services to the people of Sherpa, Nepal, and Tibet.

Each semester a different Alumnus in Residence will enjoy receptions, on-campus lodging, and interaction with students, faculty, and administrators.

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’Cane Couples: How Sweet It Is

im Yasser (B.G.S. ’71) was devastated when his college sweetheart and fiancée, Candy Hirsch (A.B. ’72), suddenly moved to California without saying good-bye. After Jim had graduated from the University and joined the New York City contingent of Volunteers In Service To America, a group that fights urban poverty, Candy decided to marry a University of Miami School of Law student whom she had met her senior year. Jim never married and spent the next 25 years wondering if he should try to contact his long-lost love.

“I would dial half the number, then hang up,” he recalls.

A member of the 25th Reunion Committee in 1996, Jim mustered the nerve to invite Candy and her husband to the upcoming Alumni Weekend. That’s when he learned she was divorced. She declined the invitation to Miami, but they continued to talk on the telephone.

“I realized she was very much the same person I remembered,” Jim says.

Three months later, they met in person at Kennedy Airport and flew to Paris, where Jim proposed. She accepted, again, and they were married the following May.

The University of Miami is a stimulating environment—intellectually and romantically. There are many stories about love that blossomed amidst the pursuit of knowledge, and some, like the Yassers, are brilliant examples of how certain things in life are just meant to be. The UMAA’s first-ever Sweet Memories contest this February prompted dozens of heart-melting and fate-twisting tales from couples who owe at least part of their happiness to the University of Miami.

“A university is where you learn, make lifelong friends, and meet the woman of your dreams, right?” asks Matthew Beekhuizen (B.B.A. ’91).

Matthew hoped becoming an orientation advisor would help him meet freshman women. To his surprise, it was another orientation advisor named Kristina Smith (B.S. ’92, M.S.P.T. ’98) who caught his eye. A training session icebreaker divided the advisors into two concentric circles rotating in opposite directions until instructed to stop. Those facing each other would be partners for the day.

“The wheels started spinning and I couldn’t believe my eyes as the beautiful woman moved closer and closer to me,” Matthew describes. “The facilitator said ‘stop!’ Everyone stopped. My heart stopped. Time stopped. There she was, directly in front of me, now my partner.”

Jay F. W. Pearson, president of the University from 1953 to 1962, inadvertently predicted matrimony for Allan M. Herbert (B.B.A. ’55, M.B.A. ’58) and Patricia McBride (B.B.A. ’57) when he erroneously introduced the couple as Mr. and Mrs. Herbert. It was during Allan’s installation as president-elect of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society and the couple’s first date. After President Pearson’s wife quietly identified her husband’s faux pas, he “corrected himself and then made things worse by calling Patti ‘Allan’s fiancée.’ The laughter became a roar,” says Allan, who married Patricia four years later.

To read these and other Sweet Memories submissions, including the winning submission from Luisa Lorenzo (A.B. ’79, J.D. ’82) and husband Jorge Gomez (B.Arch. ’81), visit www.miami.edu/alumni/photogallery.

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