Interview with Aidan Kwong, Colby College

Interviewer: So today we have our second student-athlete from Colby College and just another really cool connection. Welcoming Aiden Kwong, again from Colby. He is an econ major, member of the varsity tennis team, has interests in consulting and marketing.

As we begin, I’d love to take a look at how you ended up at Colby College.

Aidan: Like you said I’m a junior at Colby College right now studying economics. I’m a part of the men’s tennis team, so I was a recruited athlete and I’ve been playing tennis basically my whole entire life since around eight years old. I kind of knew I wanted to play college tennis. But similar to KC DeSarno, our recruiting year was a little bit different because of COVID obviously, so we were talking to different coaches, and everything was a little bit more virtual. It was harder to get on campus, but lucky for me, one of my teammates is actually also from Jersey, and he committed to Colby a year before I did, so he kind of told me about the NESCAC schools, and told me how cool the schools were, and how academically strong they were. And then when I got in contact with the coach, it kind of just all fell in place. I came on my visit, I was able to meet the guys, I loved the team, the campus is super nice, and yeah, and then that’s how I kind of ended up here.

Interviewer: Yeah, I agree, the athletic campus specifically is like the nicest I’ve seen in the country, and I’ve been to a lot of schools. Was that a big draw for you?

Aidan: 100%. It was kind of still in the works while I was there visiting campus, and I saw the athletic center, and saw the training room, saw the locker room, everything was state-of-the-art, everything was super new. Athletes have our own gym, own trainers, so it was really the perfect environment, especially for a D3 school, and then the NESCAC.

Interviewer: Yeah, I think one thing I always enjoy a lot is it’s fun to talk to student-athletes, I had the D3 experience, I’m not as familiar with D2, but the D3 landscape of facilities is something I know well, and the things that are being offered to student athletes, even at these smaller schools, it is so impressive, it blows me away. I think it was my grad year; they got several new facilities. I was just lucky enough to be there at the time, and again, a combination of fundraising and fiscal prioritization from my university.

So real quick question for tennis, just because I’m less familiar, what’s the recruiting process look like for that, because obviously you have to win; you have to be a good athlete and really good at your sport, right? What else should we know about the process? Are you or coaches following you at tournaments, or how do they look at it?

Aidan: Yeah, so it is like that. So basically, you have a ranking, and tennis is a super individual sport, so there are a couple different metrics; there’s obviously your ranking in your state – for example, you could be top 50 in you know, some areas like from where I’m from, New Jersey, it’s really populated there’s a lot of tennis players and that area is just pretty strong competition wise. Coaches are talking to you from different tournaments they’re reaching out to you over emails, they’ll see some results you have, and kind of go from there. But there are different showcases as well where you can meet coaches, you can play some matches, they can see you in person because a lot of it is pretty hard if you’re just looking at numbers all the time, and then they’ll bring you in to see if you’d be a good match. You’ll probably shoot some videos just for colleges to see, and then if it’s a good match obviously you’ll keep talking and eventually meet up and everything, yeah. But it’s very numbers oriented, tennis is a very ranking-based sport, especially since it’s 1v1 so it’s pretty difficult.

Interviewer: Yeah, and some pressure there which again that’s kind of a give-and-take as a student-athlete. You love it and you hate it in certain ways but it sounds like Colby checked a lot of boxes. The beautiful campus that we touched on, but a big commitment athletically and academically.

So now as a junior, sounds like you’re a bit settled, but what was that transition like academically and athletically when you got to Colby?

Aidan: Yeah, I think initially it was a little bit difficult. I kind of knew going into college it was always obviously going to be a little bit difficult trying to balance all these new experiences and balancing these new commitments that I have. I’ve always been very accustomed to it during high school, long training days you know still trying to get good grades in high school as well, but definitely a whole new experience coming to college. You’re kind of all on your own; you’re going to have to manage your own schedule and there are just a lot more things you have to be doing constantly and things you have to be aware of, so I think first year, obviously, a lot of freshmen try to get accustomed to that and try to get used to that, especially with the help of their team, which is a big help. The upperclassmen definitely helped in showing me what to do, what classes to take, kind of how to manage my schedule in college. But I think for me it was just a little bit of an adjustment period and like you said, by now I feel so old, I feel like I’ve got to know how to deal with everything well by now.

Interviewer: So yeah, you get some guidance and now you’re the one doing the guiding as first years come in.

Aidan: Exactly.

Interviewer: You also have the fun, but weird reality of people competing for your spot with new first years joining each year.

Aidan: 100 percent.

Interviewer: I think I kind of explained that the goal in these conversations is to keep it laid back but believe it or not there is some structure where I try to touch on the journey to campus, the academic side of things, what the community is like…

…so, on the academic theme, you’re studying Econ; do you have a favorite class? How has the level of rigor felt from an academic standpoint for you?

Aidan: Yeah, I think it’s definitely different than high school. I came into college thinking that I was going to be pre-med, but I came to Colby and did a complete 180 changing to economics. I didn’t take anything like econ in high school so everything felt pretty new to me and there was a big adjustment period. I took this game theory class with Professor Solomon here, who I actually did some research for as well. And it was just a really interesting class, just like different thinking frameworks to get used to. I ran an experiment with him as well, and it was kind of just like testing different incentives, like under like monetary incentives how decision making and game theory might change it. It was really interesting. It felt like a different way of thinking because of my background with a pre-med focus. It didn’t feel like a common framework for thinking that you’d be using in your everyday life, so it was really interesting and that’s definitely a class that stands out for me, yeah.

Interviewer: You just touched on two things for me there. One of my other questions is about access to admin and faculty and just the professionals on campus, so sounds like that research project was something that connected you with a faculty member was that an easy thing to establish?

Aidan: Yeah. So I think at Colby, it’s definitely a lot easier right? There are only around like maybe 2,500 undergraduate students and professors are really, really accessible here, and so setting up a meeting with your professor, grabbing a coffee, trying to talk about any sort of research opportunities or any sort of work opportunities they have available is pretty pretty easy. It’s competitive, you know the more kids that take those classes and are, obviously, looking for research, looking for another thing to put on their resume, but I think if you’re capable and you’re, you know, putting yourself out there, professors are more than willing to help you especially outside of school at Colby so it’s really, really nice.

Interviewer: Yeah I’ve gotten to work closely with the Colby career team at DavisConnects and students just have a lot of great resources for accessing the community. Is that something else that you that you’ve utilized too through the Career Center?

Aidan: Yeah, yeah. So during my freshman year, especially trying to just again navigate the whole undergraduate career pivot from pre-med to business, basically in economics. I just showed up and was like, ‘Okay, can you look at my resume, what do I need to be putting on my resume?’ There are different fellows that help me, there are different mentors to walk me through, different career paths, walk me through a resume, check all those things that you really wouldn’t think about, especially as a freshman. But it’s all readily accessible here and DavisConnects is an amazing resource, so I highly recommend any Colby students that are looking for some help, that they go there.

Interviewer: Yeah, definitely.

So you’ve got professional experience, research projects, just having access to the resources on campus, and then you’ve had how many internships at this point? Is it two?

Aidan: So I’ve had a couple different ones, I’ve had two in the summer so one from my sophomore summer and I’m going to be doing one this upcoming summer, but I’ve had shorter ones during like the January semesters that we have here at Colby, called our Jan Plan, and so my freshman year I was able to do one in real estate, commercial real estate, and my sophomore year I was doing more medical work as well, so I was working in an ecologist’s office.

Interviewer: L’Oréal is just a really big name that I noticed on your LinkedIn, so did I read it correctly or incorrectly that you interned there or are you about to intern there?

Aidan: The first thing that I did for them was a fellowship program. It was more of a mentorship learning opportunity. It was something that you apply for and they take different undergraduate students from a bunch of different schools across the country and that’s more of like a virtual experience where you get you get paired up online with a mentor and there are different speakers that come and talk with us about the different divisions at L’oreal, like finance, research, and innovation, so that was really cool and then at the end of the program if you get in you got to do a guaranteed interview in one of the divisions that you’d be interested in. So in my case, I decided to go for marketing and then I had all my following interviews once I got that. And then I had my case study.

Interviewer: Nice, so what led to the original virtual opportunity? Was that just something you applied to randomly or was that through Colby in some way?

Aidan: Yeah, honestly during my sophomore year I was just trying to get ahead and I was just applying for everything and so initially being an economics major I had figured that I was going to be doing banking and doing recruiting for banking or some sort of corporate banking, investment banking, some asset management, and I saw L’Oréal had a finance division so I was actually gunning for that originally. But once I kind of went into the fellowship, heard the speakers, heard about like L’Oréal’s marketing program, I geared for that and so it was kind of like a last-minute switch, but yeah, I was kind of on my own for that one.

Interviewer: Yeah, I think it’s an important point because so many students I talk to mention these reputations that follow certain institutions and I think it’s an important point. We’re seeing more and more opportunities to go down any path or any career by seeking out opportunities on your own, through your career center and through things like the Bridge Program where I work. You can kind of combine options and get skills anywhere, so I think it’s really valuable, and you’re doing a lot of learning outside the classroom. I think that’s amazing, and you’re still managing your time with being a student-athlete, traveling to Florida, the things that you are doing and that you want to do, and I think that’s an important thing to think about in the future as well.

But back to the community feel at Colby: what’s it like living at Colby and what are the key things to know about the surrounding area?

Aidan: So Colby is just very in touch with nature, which sounds very cheesy and sounds like straight from the Colby recruiting handbook, but honestly, the campus is just stunning. The way that our dorms are set up is everyone is pretty close together. So there is definitely that community aspect, like dining halls are really close to everything. So it’s so easy to just like go grab a bite with your friends to eat at the dining hall or you can, you know, go to our spa and just hang out. So it’s a really nice, really nice campus. It’s a really nice campus setup and it’s really easy to navigate. So, it definitely is a big plus.

Interviewer: Yeah, for sure.

Do you have a favorite place on campus or off campus that you go to a lot for fun or different things like that?

Aidan: Yeah, we have an on-campus coffee shop, and that’s actually where I am right now. And, you know, it’s a really cozy area. Definitely get a lot of work done here. You can grab a drink and just hang out. So, it’s definitely probably my favorite place other than the Athletic Center, obviously.

Interviewer: Yeah, it’s insane.

Aidan: It really is.

Interviewer: We’ll just keep saying that. I remember walking into Colby’s athletic center and it was the same feeling I had walking into like Yankee Stadium. It was unbelievable.

Aidan: Yeah. It’s a little bit similar to that, I’d say.

Interviewer: Yeah. No, it was cool. And then socially in terms of like going somewhere on like a Saturday afternoon or nightlife kind of off-campus, is there a lot of that going on too?

Aidan: Yeah. So I’d say we’re about an hour from Portland. And so on the weekends, if you know, you or your friends have access to a car, there’s a lot of amazing restaurants down there. There is a lot to do there, you know, on campus or downtown. There are some bars that you can go to with your friends if you are of age, it’s really cool. And there’s some parties that are going on. So, there are definitely opportunities for you to have a good time as well. It’s very work hard, play hard here. So, that’s kind of, yeah, how it works on the weekends.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s great. This is going to be very cliché, but my coach sat me down first year and was just like, you have school, sports, and social life, you have to pick two because there’s no way you can manage all of them.

Aidan: I’ve heard that before.

Interviewer: Which is good. But like, again, like you’re saying, you can access versions of that on and off and it flows naturally, especially by junior year.

On that note, is there anything that kind of took you by surprise? Just your experience as a student athlete or at Colby?

Aidan: I think, yeah, I think it was a lot different coming in, being an athlete at a school, playing for a school. So kind of like I kind of touched on earlier, tennis is such an individual sport. And so for my whole life, and I was just playing for me, my own ranking, my own results. And it’s very, it’s very kind of isolating a little bit in that sense. Coming to college, obviously, now you’re playing for Colby. You’re playing for a whole team. You don’t want to let your team down. You know, your points matter a lot more than they did in the past. And so it was definitely a newfound pressure that I had to deal with. But I think, like we said, as you play more, the older you get, the more experience you get, you get used to that. And then there’s obviously different benefits as well. Like I wouldn’t trade up being on a team for anything. And so it’s, it’s a really amazing experience, but definitely very challenging at first.

Interviewer: Are you pursuing primarily career at this stage of undergrad? Are you still thinking pro sports too? Has that been a goal of yours at all?

Aidan: I think for me, I’ve kind of been dealing with some injuries as well. So I’ve been dealing with like a rotator cuff injury, you know, some movement, heel things. And so I think pro is probably not in the cards for me. I’m just focusing on my career and I think it’s, it’s kind of more my speed. I think I’ve played tennis for my whole life and I’m going to be playing tennis when I grow older with my friends recreationally. But I think after college it’s probably going to be shifting towards more career for sure.

Interviewer: Yeah, that makes sense. But you can keep tennis a part of your life. You can still dominate friends that didn’t play.

Aidan: Oh yes. I plan to do that very much so.

Interviewer: That’s awesome.

So, career-wise, do you have a job in mind that you think maybe first year out of college or five years down the road, do you have a title or an area that you’re focused on?

Aidan: Yeah. So I think this upcoming summer I’m working in the city, I’m working for L’Oreal in their marketing department. I think long-term I would love to kind of switch into more like product marketing, maybe growth strategy, growth marketing. Obviously, you know, big tech would be cool working for Google or working for an Apple, but it’s so far in the future, you never know. But I’m thinking about getting my MBA potentially. And so you never know what’s in the cards, but I think long-term anything, big tech, product marketing, growth, MBA is all in the cards.

Interviewer: Yeah. So kind of again, things people touch on is just like taking advantage of the options you have, and like you’re saying, you’re exploring things that you can just access now. And then, okay, maybe an MBA, maybe this kind of experience, you’re just surrounding yourself with those opportunities. Right. Which is the most important piece. So the next question for you, I think you probably read it in Casey’s interview, every interview I like to end on:

What is your best advice for making the most of undergrad and kind of preparing for that graduation date?

Aidan: Yeah. I think a really important thing to remember is that it’s really only four years. You know, it seems like it’s just a really long time, but I went abroad and I’m already back in my spring semester of my junior year. And next year I’m going to be graduating. So it definitely flies. It flies by and everyone will tell you that. But I think, like we said, it’s just a balance, you know, whether you’re doing sports, whether you’re just a normal athlete focusing on your career, anything you’re doing, just kind of make the most out of it. Make sure you’re making good friends, good memories, have a balance, you know, try to do everything, try to get out of your comfort zone, grow a little bit, but try to just make the best out of your four years and just develop as a person. I think you’re going to be on your way.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s great. I love hearing the abroad piece too, as a student-athlete, I never made that work. I had a couple of friends on the team that did that and still never been to Europe, and that’s the first thing on my bucket list. Yeah, I wish I had gone abroad in undergrad, even with the student-athlete commitments. But thank you so much again. Amazing insight and perspective on all these areas and I really appreciate your time.