Mentee, Mentor, Friend, Inspiration

INCUBEATOR is dedicated to Jengyee Liang.

When We Met

The inspiration for the idea of incubeator began in 1994 and emerged more fully in 2004 after I met Jengyee Liang. We met as part of a college Students and Almuni Mentorship Program. Jengyee and I not only shared similar perspectives about the value of peer-to-peer learning but also the importance of the environment and of developing and serving people and communities.

What We Shared

One of the many discussions we had throughout our mentor-mentoree relatiopnship was about internships. After Jengyee had several summer student internships, she expressed frustration and concerns about internships because of some prior bad experiences. In December 2004, I encouraged her to journal – write her thoughts down … good, bad, happy, sad, indifferent, doodle … whatever automatically flowed from her writing. Meanwhile, I (as a business owner/consultant at the time) also would write down my thoughts about how I would make any internship experience I offered at least somewhat fulfilling, as Jengyee would hope to have for any students’ experiences.

What We Created

Jengyee’s result? She wrote a book called Hello Real World!: A Student’s Approach to Great Internships, Co-ops and Entry Level Positions. While she was writing her book throughout 2005, she encouraged me to start a blog to chronicle the experience of one of my interns; the blog, affectionately called REALITY| Intern became a reality in early 2006.

In Memory Of

Jengyee (1983-2008), died of lupus in November 2008 at the age of 25 years old. As part of her legacy, her fund  – Jengyee for a Better World Fund – has three major goals:

1. Fight Diseases and Improve Health Care Systems
2. Preserve Our Planet, and
3. Develop People.

Incubeator is being created in honor of her third goal. In February of 2009, family and friends held a memorial at the Cal Berkeley campus, and a couple of months later on April 27, a memorial tree planting and dedication was held outside on the northside of Cal Berkeley’s CITRIS building.

In Celebration Of

While Jengyee was young in age, many would agree that Jengyee also was quite wise for her age. And as she wrote on the inside cover of her book to me –

Wow! What a journey!! Thanks for being the impetus behind this book. No telling when I would have sat down to document my experiences without your initial suggestion and continued support. May this book bring you many amazing internship moments.

Now I am glad to be sitting down to share my thoughts about incubeator.