What to do with this experience (last blog) to grow and to help other people
By Chhiring Sherpa UA’23 and Jim Stellar
This is the second blog in a pair and linked to the first one. This is the first time since this blog started since 2009 and over 200 posts that we have done this linking. We did it to preserve the clear powerful story in the first blog, but linking its impact on this, the second blog.
So what are a few of the lessons learned? Since CS really wrote the last one, maybe JS can start here by saying that he did not know any of that background when the two of us first met. But we two connected and he felt the usual obligation to use his lucky status of being a tenured professor to “pay it forward” to help students. After all, it happened to him when he was their age with his mentor, now more than 50 years ago. What JS has seen since was his former students go on to jobs, maybe take further educational steps, and in various ways make contributions to the world. In a way, he anticipated these changes would occur as he went through the historic changes in the 1960s. The core of the impact of CS’s story is its power. But that only happens when there is a leveraging of that human connection such as between a professor and a student, and that leads to strength to get such an outcome that, as we said, contributes. That is the phase in which we are in now, and we are determined to work together to keep that kind of contribution happening.
From CS’ perspective, she writes “I first came across Professor Stellar online on ratemyprofessor.com while planning my schedule for my final year at UAlbany. One of my last graduation requirements was a capstone course—a class meant to bring together everything I’d learned as a psychology major. One of my options was Selected Topics in Psychology, taught by Professor Stellar. What caught my attention was that his students got to choose their own discussion topics related to psychology. After reading his reviews and seeing that kind of creative freedom, I decided to take his class for my capstone.
At that time, I’ll admit I had a serious case of “senioritis”. My plan was to coast through my final semester and do what I had to do until graduation day. But that mindset didn’t last long. During the first week of class, my group chose Social Media and Mental Health as our project topic, and for the first time in a while, I actually felt excited about a school assignment. I left class that day feeling energized and curious again.
What stood out most in his class were the conversations. They didn’t feel like lectures—they felt like roundtable discussions where everyone’s ideas mattered. We talked about so many things: artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, social media’s influence on younger generations, how the brain connects to mental health disorders, the use of art as therapy, and even the mind-body connection. The energy in those discussions made me want to show up every week, even when my motivation was running low.
Halfway through the semester, Professor Stellar offered to mentor me, and I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Every week, we met to talk about my future—grad school, career goals, and how to get there. At the time, my plan was to take a gap year to work in the field and then apply for a master’s in social work. Those conversations helped me find clarity during a time when everything about the future felt uncertain. As a first-generation student who finished her degree in under three years, I wanted to feel proud—but instead, I felt anxious. I realize now that what I was really afraid of wasn’t failure, but the unknown. After graduation, I started working at a rehabilitation center in my hometown as a Milieu Counselor, making $17 an hour. That’s when I truly understood what “post-college depression” meant, even though I tried to convince myself I was fine. Around that time, I lost touch with Professor Stellar. We had talked about doing a blog together, but I was too weighed down by my own lack of motivation to even send an email.
Two years later, out of the blue, I saw a message from him on LinkedIn. My eyes lit up immediately. I jumped out of bed and wrote back right away. We set up a Zoom meeting, and during that week leading up to it, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time—hope. It reminded me how much mentors matter and how powerful it can be to have someone believe in you when you’re struggling to believe in yourself.
That reconnection became a turning point. I realized I didn’t just need external support—I needed to learn how to support myself, too. I wanted to be my own best friend, not my harshest critic. And having someone like Professor Stellar in my corner helped me take that first step.Now, we meet bi-weekly to talk about my next chapter. I’m planning to pursue a Master’s in Social Work with a focus on trauma research, and I’ve been exploring programs at places like NYU’s Silver School of Social Work and Fordham University. I feel more aligned with my purpose and excited for what’s next.
What I’ve learned through all of this is that mentorship doesn’t end when school does. Sometimes, the most important lessons come after graduation—when the roadmap disappears, and you finally start creating your own.”
Now that we have gotten this important story and our connection out of the way, our next blog will be on the next step in CS’ education, bearing in mind how the powerful story from the previous blog led to this one. We do this because we see this story as a model for how many students achieve, particularly those from backgrounds like with CS.
