To say that Ben Yan is a people person is both totally accurate and not nearly descriptive enough.
Last spring, Yan was selected as the first student CEO of the Saxbys Experiential Learning Café in Penn State’s Business Building, home of the Smeal College of Business. As part of the role, he spent the fall semester managing and leading more than 70 students, some of them older than the 19-year-old sophomore marketing major. In November, as his assignment was drawing to a close, Yan discussed his experience and his outlook on learning and life.
“My favorite part about this job is being responsible for a group of people and having a real effect on how their day goes. The best feeling for me in this job is seeing someone come into work really excited and then leaving and saying ‘That was a great shift,’” he says.
“This experience is way beyond anything in the classroom, in terms of management, to actually have real people that you’re dealing with, real characteristics, and personalities. That’s something that’s really hard to teach in a classroom. I have 70 different personalities and there are 70 different ways I have to talk to someone to get the best out of them. Everybody has their own unique drives, and you need to find what those are to work the best with them.”
What works best for Yan’s high-energy demeanor is to allow his intellectual curiosity to lead him into his next learning experience. Those experiences have ranged from joining the Penn State Beekeepers Club to joining RAM Squad, a hip-hop breakdancing group — “I just wanted to do something outside of my comfort zone and try something new. Now, I love it.”
It will extend to his living arrangements next year. He plans to live in co.space in State College. Co.space is a collection of diverse social entrepreneurs, educators, designers and more who call themselves changemakers. It’s a collaborative community where the free flow of ideas and inspiration is encouraged.
“The goal for living there is just to meet other people who are probably going to inspire me a lot, in terms of their passions,” he says.
“In terms of people, that’s what I admire the most in someone, … having a passion that they’re… driven about, and they’re going after that. It’s going to be really inspirational for me to do my own thing, whatever that may be, in the next five to 10 years.”
That time frame may also allow Yan to visit a number of different locations. He has a growing list of destinations he wants to visit in order to learn more about local customs and cultures (see related graphic). At the start of the past winter break, Yan boarded a bus for New York, caught a flight to the Middle East, and then spent the break backpacking across Israel and Jordan. He celebrated Christmas in the Wadi Rum Desert with the Bedouin, a group of nomadic Arab people. It seems no trip or task is too big for Yan to take on.
“He’s an exceptional person. He had to take on the startup of a complex operation at 19, and with his leadership it has thrived,” says Shawn Clark ’99 Ph.D., the Michael J. Farrell Endowed Professor for Entrepreneurship. “But that’s Ben. He believes the world is full of opportunities.”
Being the first Saxbys student CEO has presented opportunities to Yan that, he admits, aren’t always available to other students.
“I definitely say this has opened up possibilities for me, way beyond what I could have thought,” he says.“I’ve been talking to members of the Smeal Board of Visitors, exchanging ideas with people ….”
Among those conversations was one with Jean Oelwang ’87 MKTG (CEO and president of Virgin Unite). Oelwang personally knows someone Yan draws leadership lessons from, Simon Sinek, a British-American author, motivational speaker, and organizational consultant.
“Simon is probably my biggest inspiration in terms of how I act at work and things I try to achieve,” Yan says.
Oelwang invited Yan to a gathering of CEOs, chief cultural officers and leaders of important startups (100% Human at Work) in New York for which Sinek was the keynote speaker.
“It was kind of surreal. Simon was introduced by Jean and, in her introduction, she gave me a shout-out and made me stand up. I was like, ‘Whoa!’ My mind was kind of blown,” Yan says.
“I met him after his keynote. He is just as, if not more, charismatic in person as in his videos. He shares intuitive information that makes sense to make the workplace better for the people you’re leading. It clicks with me.”
Conversations with business leaders like that, as well as fellow students in the café, seem to fuel Yan’s passions.“Sometimes it doesn’t matter to me as much what exact thing I’m doing as long as I’m learning and working with people. That’s all that really matters,” he says.
“A big part of my enjoyment in my job is being able to build a culture from the ground up and creating an environment where people really enjoy working. If that’s what it means to be a CEO in a big company, to be able to have that kind of impact, that would be something I would be interested in.”
He applied lessons learned from one of his Smeal introductory courses — Associate Teaching Professor of Management and Organization Ron Johnson’s Management 301 course — during his tenure at Saxbys.
“Actually, a lot of things in that class crept into my mind. We had a really interesting lesson on what it means to be a leader versus a manager. I had to be both a leader and a manager at the same time, depending on who I talked to and what the situation was,” he says.
“A light bulb went off for me — ‘Wow, we talked about this. That’s what I’m trying to do.’ So, I went back to the lesson to figure out what I needed to do in each situation.”
Yan’s roommate, Royce D’Souza, says he’s seen changes in Yan since he took on his job of running Saxbys.
“I’ve noticed that’s he’s become more oriented toward others, become more driven to help impact other people’s futures. He has understood the long-term impacts of what is happening and is taking a more be-better approach, be better than the people around you,” D’Souza says.
“From a life perspective, he’s still confused about what’s in his future, but he’s more satisfied and comfortable with the confusion.”
Yan started his Saxbys journey intending to major in marketing. Now that he’s completed that commitment, he’s still not sure where his academic journey will lead him.
“I think I know that I want to work with people. My favorite part about this job is being responsible for a group of people and having a real effect on how their day goes. Having them say they enjoy coming to work every day? I don’t need anything more than that, honestly,” he says.
And, as D’Souza alluded to, he seems genuinely pleased that he doesn’t know what life has in store for him. At the same time, he seems certain that whatever it is, he’ll enjoy learning on the journey.
“I’m excited that I have no idea what I will eventually do. It’s kind of an analogy for when I’m traveling. A lot of times when I’m going somewhere it’s not about the destination,” Yan says. “The more valuable part of that experience will be the journey. I don’t know what my end goal is, but I’m pretty excited about the things that will come along the way. That’s part of the fun of it, the little surprises.”
—By Andy Elder ’87 COM
