The heartfelt image has stayed with me.

It was a Sunday afternoon slightly more than three years ago. I had been on the job at Carnegie Mellon Today for about eight months. My laptop computer was at the Alumni House, and I wanted to do some work that evening, so I went to pick it up. When I arrived on the Pittsburgh campus, the sidewalks were overflowing with hordes of students, even though it was the kind of muggy August day that called for either air conditioning or a swimming pool. However, freshman orientation had begun, and skyrocketing temperatures weren't going to derail the many group-related activities.

I grabbed my laptop and was scurrying back to my car when I witnessed an outpouring of emotion that I've not forgotten-a mother and daughter locked in an embrace that befitted the end of an era and the start of another. It was evident to me that the mother, quietly sobbing, was actually the one who needed to be comforted. The daughter stroked her mom's hair ever so gently while the father, a few steps away, looked on helplessly. 

Three years have passed since that tearful goodbye. If all has gone well, that young woman is a senior now, having nearly fulfilled her major's academic requirements, and possessing a clear vision for what career path she wishes to pursue upon graduation. After editing this issue's stories, I thought about her and whether her hopes and dreams have changed since that tearful good-bye hug with her mom.

When Andrew Robb (HS'11) said good-bye to his parents, he had every intention of becoming a world-famous opera singer. Derrick Smith (E'80) planned to be an engineer. In China, Qi Lu (CS'91, '96) wished to study engineering, too, but the government's strict, arbitrary requirements forced him to settle for an alternative field of study: computer science. And Dawn Weleski (A'09) never envisioned a kubideh sandwich as a form of art.

For all four, the future turned out to be far different than what they thought it would be back on the first day of undergraduate classes. Their journeys to unexpected successes are chronicled in this issue's feature stories. 

  • Lu's "Bing It On" (pages 14-18) 
  • Robb's "Andrew Robb and the Supremes" (pages 20-23)
  • Smith's "Engineer That Could" (pages 26-29) 
  • Weleski's "They Shall Beat Their Swords into Silverware" (pages 30-33)

A couple of months ago, the Pittsburgh campus welcomed the Class of 2014 to freshman orientation. No doubt, plenty of the more than 1,500 students (from 15,487 initial applicants) know exactly what they want to accomplish with their lives. And, no doubt, like the subjects of our feature stories, more than a few will change their minds during the next four years. Look for some of their fascinating stories in the years to come as they figure out what they really want to do when they grow up and join a Carnegie Mellon community that already boasts Nobel laureates; billion-dollar hedgefund managers; and winners of Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, and Grammys.  

-Robert Mendelson,
 Executive Editor