NOTE: The Senior Close-Up is an occasional feature on the Bard Athletics web site, with the focus being the life of a student-athlete at Bard. Here, every student must complete a Senior Project to graduate. The Senior Project is an original, individual, focused project growing out of the student’s cumulative academic experiences. Preparation begins in the junior year, and one course each semester in the senior year is devoted entirely to the Senior Project. The student submits the completed project to a committee of three professors and participates with them in a Senior Project Review.
By Jim Sheahan
Bard College Sports Information Director
Here's the way your college experience is supposed to work:
You enter a wide-eyed freshman, not completely sure about what you want to study, with no clue about what your life will be like after college.
You grow up gradually during those four years, learning how much work it takes to succeed, and you become a strong, confident young adult.
You graduate from college a seasoned, mature individual with a clear vision of what you want to do after school, and in your life.
Meet Nick Chan: The man with a plan.
Now that graduation is looming, Chan looks like a genius. He will graduate from Bard in May with a degree in Psychology; he will move to Chicago in June, and shortly after that, he will begin working as an account executive at Morningstar Inc., recently named to the "100 Best Companies to Work For" list produced annually by Fortune magazine.
He was one of 35 people selected from more than 1,000 applicants into Morningstar's Development Program. Morningstar is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
It took a lot of smarts to get to this point for Chan, who definitely didn't know what he wanted to study when he arrived at Bard four years ago. He has developed into a super-organized model student, an active member of numerous clubs and organizations on campus, and an elite athlete in what was at the time a struggling athletic program.
But the real genius was in heeding the advice of his father, Raymond Chan, who told him Bard would be the best choice in the long run. He turned down the opportunity to play volleyball at Div. III powerhouses like Carthage, Juniata, Nazareth and Stevens Tech, opting instead to become part of what was a struggling program at Bard.
"I was looking at volleyball schools," Chan said, "but what it came down to is that I really didn't know what I wanted to study. I was more concerned about the money, but my dad was more concerned about the long-term benefit of the education. He basically told me, 'This will be best,' and I trusted him."
Chan made a recruiting visit and watched the Bard volleyball team get crushed by Ramapo.
"It made sense to go to Bard," Chan said. "It's the learning environment. My dad's emphasis was always on education, so Bard was kind of a compromise."
Turns out dad was right.
Chan was the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year as a freshman, and the Skyline Conference Player of the Year as a sophomore and junior, leading the Raptors to two Skyline Conference titles in three years.
Now, the Bard program is part of the prestigious United Volleyball Conference, which currently boasts six members ranked in the top 15 in the country.
But volleyball is only part of the man, albeit an important part. He had applied for an internship at Morningstar last spring but was turned down, for example. He didn't like that.
"I worked closely with the Career Development Office over the last couple of years, because there were obvious definciencies in my resume," Chan said. "I've decided to go into business. I'll have a Psychology degree with a slant toward business."
Chan is currently working part-time at Enterprise Rent-A-Car - a business internship - in Kingston, N.Y., and he believes the sales experience helped him get the job at Morningstar.
"Right now I'm thinking of staying executive track," Chan said of Morningstar. "It's a fast-paced work environment, but they're also very progressive in terms of work-life balance, which is why they're considered one of the best companies to work for."
Organization and people skills are among Chan's strengths. He was worked as a peer counselor for BRAVE on the Bard campus, a confidential and anonymous crisis counseling hotline. He's also been an officer for the Student Athletic Advisory Committee for four years, and he's also been in charge of fund-raising for the senior class, among other responsibilities. You'll often see him as a student worker at athletic events.
Don't think he's going to Chicago without a plan. He'll start working at Morningstar this summer, and he hopes to be accepted into the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, so he can pursue his MBA in the fall of 2013 while he works full-time.
His senior project, a paper that he describes as "ethical consumerism with a twist of social psychology," will hopefully give him a leg up on his efforts to get into graduate school, because he's devising his own methodology and collecting his own data.
"I've been happy with Bard," Chan said. "The things I've gotten out of Bard are exactly what I wanted to get out of my education."
Don't think he won't be playing volleyball, either. Did you know that the volleyball scene in the Midwest in among the best in the country? More than 100 beach volleyball courts line the shores of Lake Michigan, and leagues abound when the weather outside doesn't cooperate.
"I'll have time to play, and there are tournaments every weekend," Chan said.
He leaves Bard with the education he sought, and with his goals in sight. But he also leaves the athletic program in a different place than it was when he arrived. The way he has carried himself, on and off the court, has elevated the program. The volleyball team as a whole has developed great chemistry over these last few years.
"It's not just that Bard Athletics has changed," Chan said. "The Bard community has changed. When I got here, students didn't know what sports were. Now I see people wearing Bard athletic gear ... you can see a different caliber of athlete is coming here ... the changes in the coaching staffs have been significant ... it's definitely an improvement."
Chan's success story really began with his parents, Raymond and Laura. Raymond Chan is a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong who has lived a "rags to riches" story, according to Nick, one of their six children. Nick and his siblings were raised in Victor, N.Y., which is outside of Rochester.
Raymond and Laura met in medical school and now own three businesses, including an urgent care center. Raymond spent most of his years working in an emergency room, while Laura has been a general practitioner.
His parents must be proud of his drive to succeed, his people skills, his work ethic, and his humility. Bard certainly is.
"Something I've come to realize," Chan said, "is that I've had one of the best upbringings in the world."
