Title: From Nuclear Science to STEM Entrepreneurship: Dr. Jarvis Sulcer MS ‘95, Ph.D. ‘98

[00:00:06,280] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  Welcome to the Engineering Career Conversations. I'm Christa Downey, Director of the Engineering Career Center at Cornell University. 

[00:00:14,160] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: And I'm Traci Nathans-Kelly, Director of the Engineering Communications Program. We are excited to bring you this forum where we will host lively conversations that we hope will inspire you. We had the wonderful opportunity to visit with Jarvis Sulcer, who is the co-founder and COO at Lingo Solutions Incorporated. He earned both his masters and his PhD in nuclear science and engineering at Cornell. Join us as we learn about his educational journey, his path to being an entrepreneur, and how he gives back to his communities each and every day. 

[00:00:58,540] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  Jarvis, Hi. It's great to see you here. 

[00:01:02,940] JARVIS SULCER:   Yes, glad to be here. Looking forward to this opportunity to share a little of my story. 

[00:01:10,619] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  I'm excited to share your story. I love what you are building, and I think we'd like to start with you telling us about your current work. And then also, what does that look like day-to-day and perhaps what motivates you day-to-day? 

[00:01:25,090] JARVIS SULCER:   Great question. I'm currently the co-founder and COO of Lingo Solutions, Inc., an AdTech startup that develops a coding kit that empowers students to build at home or in the classroom, and it comes not only with a coding kit, the hardware piece, but also we have step by step instructional videos that allow students who have no prior experience or even teachers who have no prior experience in coding electronics to get introduced through hands on real-life applications of different technology. And so day to day, even though my title is co founder COO, as you know at a startup of any type, you wear multiple hats. And so for me, the biggest hat I wear is b2b sales and business development. And so my title doesn't reflect actually what I'm primarily responsible for, which is driving revenue, new business opportunities from a b2b standpoint. So my day looks like following up with customers, engaging new partners that align with our mission and values, leading my team, a small team, a small powerful team, sales team, and having ongoing communication with my founder, CEO Aisha Bowe, on a day to day basis, and then engaging with again our customers. That's what drives any business is in customer engagement and follow up and ensuring they're having a great experience and making sure my team has what they need to be successful and then get out the way. 

[00:03:05,764] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That sounds like you have a lot going on all the time. 

[00:03:09,719] JARVIS SULCER: Yeah, and it's fun. I didn't say what motivates me, right? I left that part out, right? For me, what motivates me more than anything is the impact on the lives of the students that we serve through our partners. And our partners include corporations that want to do community engagement, schools and school districts that want to engage their teachers and students and nonprofits that may not have a stem component or may have a stem component and want to add something Lingo their portfolio of offerings to their students. So for me, it's the opportunity to play a role in transforming a student's life. Put them on a different trajectory. They may have been intimidated by coding or computer science or tech and then they get a chance to build something from scratch with no prior experience, and then see the backup sensor for a car beeping and work and say, you did that. 3 hours ago, you had no idea what even what would have meant to be a condition in loops in the context of coding or what a sensor is, or autotronic sensor, but now you've built something, tested it, and now like, wow, this is possible. For me, that aha moment of students, and same thing, that aha moment for teachers who may be intimidated as well. So for me, that's what motivates me every day is like we're making a difference the life of a student, and that students from a family, and that family might be impacted, a cousin might be impacted. It might turn a light on for a teacher who's teaching that student and realizing that wow, look at this gift that we have in this classroom. I didn't know that you had that in you. For me, that every day gets me up and keeps me moving forward with what we're doing through all the challenges that come with being in the role that I'm in. But it's fun. 

[00:04:49,660] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: It sounds like so much fun. I laugh about it now. I coached a Lego robotics team at my kids' grade school. And a lot of what you were saying just now, like, oh, I've never done X before, like, code or use the little engines or, you know, map out a plan for a build and all this. I've never done that before, so I can't help you. No, just dive in. And I really get a sense that that's what you're trying to help people do here. 

[00:05:18,875] JARVIS SULCER:     Yes, it is. It is at the core of why we started Lingo, because we wanted to provide students who oftentimes may not have access or are under exposed to these type of opportunities. We wanted to be not only hardware but software, and understand the connection between the two. Because everything is driven by a combination of those two. Even though they might not think about it, but when they are in a car, and they hit that back, when they back up a car and they hear that beeping sound, that's not just hardware, that little dot on the back of the bumper, there is software behind what's happening. So yeah, that is what we were trying to achieve is give students that exposure opportunity to say, you can do this. 

[00:06:02,460] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So yeah, I get that motivation bit quite that aha moment, I think is what keeps a lot of people in the education adjacent spaces going. And so you were talking about business to government, business to business, non profits, schools, all these sorts of things. And so we're wondering, what is a normal day? Is there a normal day? And what does that look like? 

[00:06:29,465] JARVIS SULCER:     A normal day. A normal day is, again, waking up, looking at my calendar and then following up with the customers. The customer, that's a constant - follow up with customers, constant looking at new leads, vetting those leads. Do the normal sales things you do, but also what's behind that is opportunity that can impact a life because these organizations are looking for solutions to problems, and that's how I see what I do. Even though I'm in sales, I feel like I'm helping. I'm bringing a solution to a problem, a pain point, and in many cases, what we're providing is not a vitamin, but a pain killer. And so you need a pain killer. You can take your vitamin like we should, pain killers you need, right? And so I think Lingo is a painkiller for a lot of organizations, a lot of students, a lot of teachers. And so for me, my regular day is again following up with our customers. Mostly, it could be, executive directors, CEOs, decision makers who are deciding whether or not they want to bring what we provide to their respective organization, be it a school, be a nonprofit, be it a corporation, and doing whatever we can to position it to be successful in implementing what we do. That is at the core of what I do every day, and ensuring my team is also positioned to do the same as they're reaching out and engaging customers with me supporting them. So that is at the core of what I do. Then there's the operational things that I do that are not sales related. So are some not, and then there's also dealing with people issues. Thankfully, we have a great team and so not a lot of that going on, thankfully, but it's still leading a team, managing a team, giving them what they need to be successful. And it's fun. It's challenging. It's a lot of work, but I enjoy it. It's not just a gig for me. It's part of my passion, why I do what I do. I never thought I'd be doing this. That's probably further along in this interview in this discussion. But yeah, hopefully that gives you a sense of what my day looks like. Sun up, to sundown. 

[00:08:46,660] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  Jarvis, we spoke a few weeks ago and I learned more about what you're building. And I wish every student had an opportunity, had this access. And so, I understand you're going through these different channels to get this out there. And I'm wondering what, maybe in terms of sales, maybe something else, but what's been the most significant challenge that you've faced? 

[00:09:12,080] JARVIS SULCER:   That is a really good question. Significant challenge. So in the context of what I'm doing now, I think it's on the student side, is get them to believe that they can. Really building that confidence. So that's a challenge because they may have had "failures" or other challenges that is preventing them to explore what they really can do. And so I think that's a challenge. And the same thing holds true for teachers, right? There's a lot on their plate. And now we're going to add one more thing, A Lingo kit or a coding kit or whatever, when do I have time to do that? Being able to convince someone that this is going to be a value-add and we're going to hold your hand, we're going to be by your side and sure that what we're providing doesn't become a doorstop because oftentimes that what happens if you don't get the proper support for teachers. So that's a challenge. Then given the teacher shortage and all of the things that have come along with schools, particularly in public schools. I think that's a challenge. On the business side, it's a lot because it's a start up, right? And so I didn't work at a start up before. I worked in other spaces, Silicon Valley, big fortune 500 companies, nonprofits. This is different. But the challenges, for me, I put a lot of pressure myself to position Lingo so that the investors who believed in us see a return what they've given us. I know it's a high risk high reward environment. But for me, that's the challenge. Can we give them 10X, 100X what they invested in us? And that's not easy because there's no guarantees. But I'm doing every day what I can to ensure that with my team that they look back and say, well, I'm glad you made that investment. And that we see the lives that have been impacted as a result. So I hope that answers your question. 

[00:11:24,479] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  I appreciate that perspective. Yes. Thank you. 

[00:11:29,939] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I have a question that we didn't send in advance. So I'm just reading all of this, and I'm thinking through everything. And you're one of the few people that we've interviewed so far that has gone on to get their PhD. And in nuclear, right? Which is amazing. So Masters and the PhD, and usually people think, oh, well, PhDs are going to go into academia, and you've decidedly not done that. Can you walk us through that path that you've taken? 

[00:12:04,630] JARVIS SULCER:   Yes. So that was my intent. My intent was to get my PhD and be a professor. I went to a historically black college for my undergraduate, and so I was thinking, I'm going to get my PhD, I'm going to go back to my Alma Mater where I did my undergrad in physics, and be a professor, build a lab, get research funding, and cultivate the next generation of innovators, that may go on to do the same. Go be postdoc and follow that path. However, I think my third year maybe of Cornell, as a graduate student, I realized it's not what I really wanted to do. Because of two reasons, doing a masters and PhD anywhere is extremely difficult and challenging, regardless of what field it is, right? And then to think about getting tenure, going through that process all over again and having friends that were much further along than me who were in that process of getting tenure and what they were telling about,  the challenges. I'm like, do I want to spend another six years, basically trying to go down that path. And so I said, no, I don't think I want to do that. And I also was married. So I got married two years before I left Cornell. I'm like, I don't want my wife through this. She wasn't my wife at the time, but we got married in my second year. Sorry, two years before I started, I finished, we got married, right I'm like I don't think that'd be a good idea. Then I also wanted to get industry experience. And the professors I had a Cornell and even my undergrad, who brought the most value to the classroom were those who had industry experience. And so I thought, okay, let me at least go to industry, and maybe I come back at some point and teach further down in my career because I can think of one Professor at Cornell, Professor Frank Wise,  I'm not sure if he still there, he was in applied engineering physics, and he had worked at AT&T Bell Labs at one point. And the way he taught quantum mechanics, I mean it was, I was just,  I was blown away, and come to find out he had worked in industry and came back and the same was true for other professors that I had at Cornell and other places that they had the industry experience, and that brought a different value to the classroom. So for me, I realized that I wanted to go to the industry. I ended up staying in industry, but realized also I wanted to teach. I still wanted to teach, but I didn't want to do it as a professor. And so I started a tutoring company. I had a tutoring company for 13 years in the Bay Area helping kids in math and science. So that was my first business, and I got the entrepreneur bug when I got to Silicon Valley. We even thinking about entrepreneurship. Wasn't even thinking about,  didn't know what a start up was honestly. It was not on my radar to be, even when I started the tutoring company it wasn't about let's grow this, let's scale this. It was just I want to help kids, and, I need to set up a business structure. You know, it was more of that. And so I just fell in love with entrepreneurship. I was like, I want to do this even as the social entrepreneur. I went to a nonprofit and I had to scale its programming from one site in UC Berkeley to Stanford to UCLA, and now they got sites all over the country, right? I was part of that initial team that helped grow. Then I left there and then came to where I am now, was STEMBoard at the time, which is our sister company. And she said, well, I'm developing this business defense business contracting company, but I want to educational arm to it. And I said, How are you going to do both of these? I can't. I need someone to help. Ah, me. So moved from Silicon Valley to DC and helped build out our educational arm of STEMBoard. And out of that spun Lingo. And so it just the path that's how I decided to do what I'm doing now. It was not like I had this plan mapped out because the plan I had mapped out, did not materialize. It was PhD, industry experience. So I did, I take the back. I did teach for a semester at a community college while I was at a  Hewlett Packard at the time when I first graduated. Matter of fact, a Cornell graduate recruited me to HP at the time. That's how I ended up in Silicon Valley through a Cornell graduate of the Electric Engineering Department, and he recruited me to HP. And there they allowed me to teach part time. On a Friday seminar class at a community college. So I did do a little dabble my foot to to speak into academia in that way. But yeah, that's how I started. So my path is not what I had envisioned that I'd be doing, like, right now, but I wouldn't change anything. 

[00:16:54,890] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY:I think so many of our people say that. Where I am right now is not anything that I predicted. We've heard that kind of as a theme repeatedly over and over, as we've been talking with these alums. So it's nice to hear that it's working out so well for you. 

[00:17:12,109] JARVIS SULCER:   Yes. 

[00:17:13,769] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So you've already lit on some of this, and I think I might know where you would take this, but tell us about what you're doing to help move us towards a more sustainable and equitable world. You're doing all this education stuff, and so that's the link there, but we'd like to hear more from you. 

[00:17:34,429] JARVIS SULCER:   Yeah, so I think one thing a couple of them doing. One is, I've spoken about already is around providing students with experiences that allow them to explore what is possible, and doing it in a way that will have them think differently about how they see the world and the difference they can make in the world in a positive way through technology, because in addition to just Lingo the product, we do a technology entrepreneurship camp. And we give students problems, global sustainability, you name it, and they got to come up with a unique solution to say problem that they've identified because entrepreneurs scratch their own itch, a lot of them do, or something that makes them mad, and they want to do something about it. A lot of us do that, so for students, sustainability, climate, all of that is top of mind for a lot of students. And so they begin to come up with the unique ideas. One thing we've done from a content standpoint, we have a plant health lesson. As a way to spark students into thinking about sustainability. So we have a lesson that's around and they build it. They build like this sensor to say, how is your plant thirsty or not? So they get a chance to build this system and then they, test it with the sensors, the humidity sensors and see, and then you get to see the data on the screen. And so it gets them to thinking. So it's an engagement piece, to get the thinking about sustainability and plants and all of the things that come along with that. And we have lesson to go along with that that teachers can use. And so that's one way. I think the other way is with our products. So we have one kit. Multiple projects you can do. Instead of having by all this hardware all over every time you do a new project, we can you one kit and you can do a plethora of different projects, and it's open source. Even if you decide not to work with us after one year, two years, whatever it may be, we prefer you to continue with us, recurring revenue with that. But at the same time, we want students that have the ability to tinker, explore, and innovate for beyond what we, they may do with us. Oftentimes what they receive it from us is free because it's sponsored by the school or by the organization or by the corporation, and after that's done, they might not be in a position to afford to pay for subscription or to re engage with us. But what they do have in their hand is something that allows them to continue to build and explore on their own. With or without us. So in my mind, those are the ways in which we are contributing to equity, sustainability through those means. 

[00:20:11,689] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  So what people and organizations are important collaborators toward this brighter future? 

[00:20:17,669] JARVIS SULCER:   Yeah. So quite a few. So I'll start with our Pinnacle Private Ventures. They're the ones who gave us the funding to do what we're doing now. So they're a big partner and a great resource. I can't thank them enough for how they have put trust and belief in what we're doing. And so they are one, the other one, I think I would say, is 1863 Ventures. They are a great help as well. They've also have made an investment in what we're doing. Then there's the nonprofit partners, like Inroads. They've been around for 50 plus years, and they have to get internships as they transition out of college into corporate America. But they provide them with opportunity to get internships, and they have a pre college program which we support and been supporting since 2016. Before Lingo, we were still supporting them around their STEM engagement with their students, and they're in 18 cities now more and growing. Another organization is General Dynamic, GDIT, one of our corporate partners who we started with in St. Louis with some years ago, about three or four years ago now, and now through their work in Little Bit Foundation, another partner, we work with them, we're in 18 schools now, started with two. Working with them, and then now that we've expanded a matter of fact on Monday, we'll be doing a training with teachers with four schools and a nonprofit in Tampa, and then we got something that's in the works in Denver. Those are my partners. We got Siemens. Siemens has an initiative around Siemens Sisters in STEM, and that's been going on for like the last three years and we were their STEM partner. They work with Girls,  Inc out of Philly. There's a Girls, Inc in Atlanta. So those are some of our partners. And Leidos. We had a cool project we did with Leidos and Bubba Wallace, who races for Michael Jordan's racing team, and we did this unique custom kit for them, so they've been a big supporter of our work through that initiative, but also with other local schools here in the DC. They're based out of Reston, at least one of their main headquarters in Reston, and so they do a lot of supporting of our work with schools in the local community. And then there's other organizations that we also work with American Association of University of Women, AAUW. We've been working with them for several years now and matter of fact, tomorrow, I'm doing an entrepreneurship workshop at their annual conference at University of Maryland College Park. My wife and I both are tag teaming a workshop for them for young women in college. Looking forward to that. That's not exhaustive list, but those are some of our partners that have been supporting our work. Microsoft is another one. We've worked with them from the very beginning in some schools, Boise State, River view Garden School District. Yeah, George Mason University, and now I can add Cornell University. 

[00:23:19,840] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Absolutely. We love, that's an impressive list, right? So just the expansion here is really amazing. I mean, you're going to be reaching those who need you. Two to 18 cities, it's just like, that's mind boggling. 

[00:23:35,779] JARVIS SULCER:   Don't despise small beginnings they say, right? So, you know, it's great to see the growth and expansion. For me, what I see is students being impacted, teachers being served and supported. That's in my mind, what it translates to. When it's all said and done, yes, we want to drive revenue, drive growth. That's critical and important as well to any company regards what business you're in, but for me, what's behind that? And that is the impact and the changes of the lives of the students who are receiving support not only from us, but from our partners who are actually on the ground in those communities, supporting them on a daily basis basically through all the initiatives that we collectively do. 

[00:24:16,464] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Sounds so fantastic. I mean so much energy. But like you said, it energizes you right back. 

[00:24:22,379] JARVIS SULCER: Yes, it does. Yes, it does. 

[00:24:24,820] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So one of the things that we've been asking recent folks that we've been interviewing is, OK what about AI? 

[00:24:34,319] JARVIS SULCER: Yeah, Yeah. 

[00:24:35,859] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Well, how do you see this impacting your work or in this case, the work of your students or those teachers? 

[00:24:41,340] JARVIS SULCER:   Yeah, so I think for us, I think it's a couple of things. One, I think it is going to enhance the overall end user experience. Overall, I think just broadly speaking. Specifically, I think for us, the type of tools that can be designed for educators and students to use, I think that's the other area I think AI is going to have a tremendous impact in terms of the kind of tools you can develop, leveraging that technology. I think third is the level of customization that can now be done for students in their learning experiences in their learning styles, where I call it a teacher could have a assistant in the classroom that is customized to a particular student's learning style or any gap they may have in a way that they cannot do now. I think it's going to enhance what students can be able to do in the classroom and outside the classroom. With support of teachers I'm big on teachers, and that would never go away, how much we advance in terms of AI. That human component, I think is essential, I don't think that's going away, but I think the tools that can support, in particular on AI is going to enhance I think teachers ability to support students in the classroom and their learning experience and what they can do. 

[00:26:11,109] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  Speaking of classroom experiences, what classroom experiences had the greatest impact in preparing you for your career? 

[00:26:21,690] JARVIS SULCER: So as I think about as I thought about that as I'm thinking about answering this question, I can no particular class comes to mind, but what does come to mind is the research experience I had as a undergraduate, starting with my first intern at AT&T Bell Labs, where all the people in my group that worked were all PhDs. That was the first time I thought about, maybe if I want to do this cool research, I may need to get a PhD to do it because all the people who are leading the labs and leadership position doing the research. I was basic research as well. I was like, okay, that was the first. Then that was Sandia National Lab. I worked at Sandia National Lab. My first intern with a Sandia Co-op. I did a co-op a summer co-op. And then went to AT&T Bell Lab the following summer. Then what topped it all off was my experience at Cornell. I was still a undergraduate in Louisiana, Southern University, came to came to Cornell for a summer research experience, sponsored by the NSF and worked in a nano, it was called a nano fabrication facility at that time. I know the name has changed now to nanoscale science. I know it's changed. But when I was there was a nano fabrication facility. I think Knight went behind this, and that completely opened my eyes to the possibilities of graduate school because I was actually at Cornell, meeting graduate students, meeting undergraduates, meeting these amazing professors, and my professor who was my point while I was on campus, doctor Steven McGuire, who also was a Cornell alum. He said, you should apply to graduate school. I'm like, Cornell, really? I don't know if I know I don't know. You should apply. You did a great job this summer with your research. Should apply. I don't know. He said, trust me, apply. You'll see what happens. There's no guarantees, but apply. I did, and as they say, the rest is history. So those three experiences in terms of my career had the greatest impact on me doing what I'm doing now. And I'll be forever grateful. 

[00:28:47,290] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Again, it's that personal connection, right? Professor saw something in you, saw the promise there. This is made for you, so jump in. I find that to be such an important connection. Just not being a face in the crowd right in these large lecture rooms, but taking advantage of those undergrad research experiences, if you can or internships really creates an opening. 

[00:29:15,159] JARVIS SULCER: Yeah, that was key for me. It made the greatest different, I think. And I will also say that even earlier on, it was the teachers that I encounter even from Elementary school I still remember my fourth grade teacher's name, Miss Crawford, is where I learned my multiplication tables in fourth grade and I was the first of my class to do it in that was the first inkling that maybe something in math and science maybe in my future. Because I got a candy bar. I got a chocolate candy bar. So it's like the first person in the class to learn all the multiplication table 1-12. And I tell this story all the time because I was competing with a young lady named I think I  remember it was Stacy Jameson. I'm very competitive. I still remember her name. This is fourth grade now, and she was beating me. She was ahead and she got stuck on nine times seven. And that allowed me to pass her, and I got the candy bar. So as I'm sitting in class, everybody else is like, Oh, can I have one? No, I'm sitting eating my chocolate candy bar. And literally, it was there when I thought, maybe math is something in science, I should pursue. I had no idea, I was in fourth grade, but here I am. 

[00:30:26,899] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's the best story. We'll have to reach out to Stacy to see how she's doing. 

[00:30:32,560] JARVIS SULCER: Yeah, I haven't had any contact with Stacy Jameson, but I remember her name. That's how, you know, it was, you know, yeah. But the candy bar in fourth grade, Miss Crawford. 

[00:30:44,140] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Love it. 

[00:30:45,119] JARVIS SULCER: That was the beginning. 

[00:30:46,599] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Okay. We also like to ask people specifically about their sophomore year in college, because that's when you matriculate. You're like, okay, this is going to be my major, and people get a little stressed out or worried. It's a big decision, but it's not a decision that you have to stick with. So what did that look like for you during your undergraduate, which was not at Cornell, was elsewhere, but it got you on this right path. 

[00:31:15,360] JARVIS SULCER:   Yeah What I'm going to here I think it's still applicable for me at a sophomore in college, who was understanding the power of networking. And making connection and building relationships that could be for a lifetime, or that can help you get to that next opportunity. For me, one thing I share with students all the time is, don't underestimate the power of connections and building relationship, meaningful relationship with your professors. If there's an opportunity for you to connect with industry people that come on campus, make every opportunity because it will pay dividends down the road, if not immediately. Could be for internship, the next summer, could be for a full time position three years later, or two years later, could be for a job five years later when you just never know. And so just reflecting back on my time as a sophomore in college, I would say that is something that I really didn't understand till someone shared it with me. You know, and then looking back, all the opportunity that have come my way have been through a relationship, not to mean just applying for a job online or it has been through some connection, some relationship, even getting a Cornell with through a friend of mine who had been who was at Cornell the previous summer in a summer internship. And she said, I met the professor. I think he's from Louisiana, and he went through his PhD at Cornell, and then I reached out to him. And through that connection because she was a friend of mine from my undergrad, who was at Cornell for summer research experience, and she connected me with doctor McGuire, who then invited me to come for the summer to do research, and then I ended up going onto my masters and in graduate work. And then as a sophomore in high school, it was my low GPA of 1.8, which is why I couldn't go to Cornell as an undergrad. You only need one semester to blow it, right? I just brings everything down. But in any case, it wasn't end of the world. And I know Cornell as a school is tough. Engineering, in particular is very challenging. But you have been accepted to Cornell because they believe that you have what it takes to not just survive but thrive at Cornell. And there are so many resources that you can tap into as a student to ensure your success. If you use them. And so as my father always used to tell me, that nothing that's worth it is easy. You have to put in the work. You have to access and working not just study, study, study, that's great. You have to do that, but also the connection, making the relationship, accessing the resources that are at your disposal. Building community, building those friendships with other classmates, and all of those things are part of the work. For me, I would say students who may be struggling or may have a rough year, because everybody at Cornell is smart. No matter what they may come across, they all are smart. All these students are not coming here because they just lollygagged through high school. No, or even graduate school undergraduate. No. These are some of the top students in the country, if not the world that are at Cornell. And so you are among those students in Cornell at the school, see you as the same. And so I think lets know if even they are struggling that they can do it, it's not the end of the world. You're going to look back on your years at Cornell and like, wow, I struggled here, but I made it. And now I'm impacting life through my career, whatever that may be. So that's what I would like to leave with students who are wherever they are in their journey, academically, especially that sophomore year because that's the key year. In terms of whether or not you're going to persist, I think a lot of data out there saying that if you can make it for that first two years, your chances of graduating with a degree, particularly in a STEM field significantly increases because those first two years can be brutal, but it's not beyond the ability to be able to accomplish. 

[00:35:31,150] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY:I love your statement there that the networking, the socializing, the reaching out, connecting with people is part of the work. Right? It's not just the classes, but doing all those other things is part of the work of being an undergraduate. I love that idea so much. 

[00:35:50,449] JARVIS SULCER:   Yes. I didn't know that when I was a undergraduate or even graduate student. 

[00:35:55,809] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY:I didn't either. I did a lot of socializing, but I didn't know it had a purpose. We'll cut this part out. I'm going to hand it over to Christa. 

[00:36:11,870] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  So where do you go to state current to get in, you know, yeah, to stay current with your work in this field. 

[00:36:19,630] JARVIS SULCER:   Yeah, so a lot of I mean, I'm a big fan of HBR, so I use that. I read a lot of I read articles there. I mean, I have Google alerts setup, so anything coming around AdTech, startups, STEM education, and trying to see what's the latest and greatest going on with other sources out there. CNBC, I like looking at the business and business side of thing, what's happening in the markets. So those are top kind of top of mind, where I go for the most part. And my wife does a lot more reading than I do. So I also lean on my wife. Oh, check this out. Do you know about? Oh, no, I didn't. Okay. And then I'll go and read this article and vice versa, but seem like she does more of that to me than I do for her. 

[00:37:04,019] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's a good person. So we have a few of these, like, fast, quick and fun questions here. So if you weren't doing all of this right now, which is plenty, what would you be doing instead? 

[00:37:22,740] JARVIS SULCER:   Instead. If I had it my way and I continued to grow taller, I would have been in the MBA. So growing up a growing up as a as a kid in Louisiana, I had a basketball court go in my backyard, and I wanted to be an MBA player, you know. And so for me, that's what I would have wanted to do ideally, but obviously, you know, the chances of doing that are slim to none. That even doing, they just didn't know the numbers, but the percentages, right. So what I'd be doing probably teaching. I think I would be teaching because tutoring is definitely different from teaching, but I've been tutoring for a long time. Even before I had a tutoring company, I was tutoring since I was an undergraduate. I have a brother that's five years younger than me. So his friends who were struggling with algebra,  algebra two, pre-calc. I was tutoring them on the side, making a little money from their parents to keep me going, gas money or whatever. And then I did some TAing as a undergraduate, for physics classes. And so again, that light coming on for students even though they were my peers and being able to explain something in physics and they take a class because it's on their, you know, in their curriculum, not like their physics majors or whatever, or the engineering majors like, I got to take this physics class, and I don't like physics. I like computers or whatever. But to be able to see that light come on for them. Right? It just did something. I think I wasn't doing this, in the way I'm doing it now, it would be I think teaching. But ideally, I'd love to have been a professional athlete because I love sports. Now love tennis more than I love the other sports. In terms of joy playing, I don't play anything but tennis now. I watch basketball on occasion, watch football on occasion, but now I'm an avid tennis player because they even have this book. You see this? 

[00:39:18,404] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: We Are STEM 

[00:39:19,849] JARVIS SULCER: So, We Are STEM. And so basically it's a notebook. Actually it's a notebook of inspiring quote. Some are quotes from mine, of mine, but they are also quotes from friends of mine throughout my career, who I said, when you were in elementary, middle and high school, what you tell your younger self? What is inspiring quote, your own quote or someone, I prefer a custom quote from you or a quote you can share that you would speak to your younger self. Then I can share this, and then I told him put a notebook together. And so this me on the front cover in the middle. So with the basketball in one hand and other, you can see it now, but the engineering book in the other. So the idea is to encourage young men in particular and I'm going to do another one for women as well, but I was thinking, you can dominate on the athletic field and in the classroom. You don't have to get one up for the other. You can do both. I did it not as a professional athlete, but I did as a tennis player in high school, went to state and also got a full scholarship in physics. So you can do both you can dominate in the classroom and on athletic field. You don't have to get one out for the other. That's why I said I want to be a professional athlete because you see here basketball in one hand and I took all that energy, all that passion for sports and began to apply it to my academics in a way that allowed me to to get to the place I am now, and also helped my parents and others who were on my team, I would call it my village, played an instrumental role in being where I am now. And so I give a lot of credit and honor to those who came before me and the shoulders I'm standing on, I could never pay them back for what support they've given me. From the professors at Cornell, my professors at Southern University, from the mentors, so this is my way, which I'm glad you invited me, because to be on, this is way of me paying it forward. And you can encourage next sophomore undergraduate, grad student at Cornell or whoever else may hear this podcast, that you can do it. I'm no different. I was a blue collar, a blue collar honor student. It didn't come easy for me. So yeah, I'm really happy for this opportunity. 

[00:41:37,999] CHRISTA DOWNEY:  I'm happy to share your story. It's a great story. You're doing wonderful things, making an impact on so many lives, and I'm excited for our young students to hear this. And if they wanted a copy of your journal, is that for sale, somewhere? 

[00:41:53,480] JARVIS SULCER: Yeah. It's on Amazon. The easiest thing to do is put my name in and it'll pop up. I can send you a link to it I didn't include it in here, but I probably should have. But I can drop it into the document. Link directly to it. Did I include it? Yeah, I did. Actually I did. I included it in at the hyper link. In the document. Yeah. If they want to connect with that through Lingo, they can go to Lingo stemlingo.com. We have subscription based product, we have our b2B stuff we do. So yeah, I'm looking forward to more engagement with Cornell. Excellent. Any more questions. This is fun. 

[00:42:35,700] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So at the end of the day, or in the middle of the day. It doesn't even matter. What do you do for yourself or your family to re energize, relax, and make yourself feel better. 

[00:42:49,819] JARVIS SULCER: So for me is at the very beginning of the day for myself. I play tennis at 6:00 A.M. In the morning, because the only time I have to play. So I play about an hour, three or four times a week. So it's the one thing I do to relax, to get my mind straight for the morning because I'm a morning person. I don't even need a alarm clock to get up. I just automatically just wake up even though often I do not get up, but 6:00 A.M. I play tennis. Then on almost every Thursday, I take my daughter who is seven, and Sonja, my wife, we also go to our club, indoor tennis club, and we play. I work with her. I'm not sure she will become the next Serena of Coco Gauff, but she's having fun and while she's still having fun, I'm going to continue to expose her to tennis. Then for other ways I relax with my family. We go to the movies, read books, vacation, definitely Caribbean. My wife is part, not part, she is Guyanese. She's from the Caribbean, and we love going to the Caribbean. We got a Caribbean vacation planned the next couple of months. So that'll be nice. Just hanging out, I mean, cherishing every moment with the family at home, relaxing cooking dinner, going out to dinner, doing lunch together, the family on the weekend. So I'm watching shark tank a lot my daughter loves shark tank, so we all watch it and do dinner, or just watch it just for relaxation and to learn something as well. And about some of the products sometimes, it's really cool. So yeah. 

[00:44:35,699] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Well, thank you so much for coming online with us today and having this talk. I mean, what an enjoyable thing to just learn like your trajectory and the way that you're paying it forward in the local communities in the STEM community and the tech community. It's all it's amazing. So thank you for your time. 

[00:44:57,399] JARVIS SULCER: Thank you for the opportunity again for having me on your podcast. Really appreciate it Christa for reaching out and connecting and following up. Really means a lot to let to share a little bit of my story that would hopefully encourage someone else on their journey. 

[00:45:13,420] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Thank you for listening. If you are enjoying these conversations, please follow, rate, and review on your favorite platform. Join us for the next episode, where we will be celebrating excellence and innovation among engineers whose impact contributes to a healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable world.