Undergraduate Program | Humans of Stern: Dean Geeta Menon

 "Let’s make everything better for each other. Do something good, and leave an impact."

How do you find quiet time in NYC and escape the hustle?

I go to Union Square Market. It’s crowded, but at the same time it’s a lot like being in a non-New York place. It’s got the green thing going on, then you look and it’s got the Barnes & Noble right there. I like Battery Park, too, I sometimes go there on a walk along the water. It’s extremely peaceful, and it’s gorgeous to watch the sunset, so little things like that make a lot of a difference.

What’s your favorite place to eat?
Dosa Cart! It’s always crowded, one of my favorite places at Sullivan and 4th Street. He’s always booked up, but he has my number! I love little hole in the wall places like that.

What brought you to NYU Stern/NYC?
NYU and NYC occurred for me together. My first time in New York was for my job interview at Stern. It was a different time, there was no internet, no cell phones… even making a decision as to which school to go to in the U.S. was difficult because to choose which school you wanted to go to, you’d go to the U.S. consulate and look at all these large books of colleges in the America. I only applied to schools with no application fees, and chose University of Illinois! Everything is so different now - there’s such a transparency now when choosing schools. I came from India to the U.S. in 1986, and I went to the University of Illinois to do my PhD. When I was on the job market the choices that I had included NYU Stern. I’m from Mumbai, so Illinois-Urbana Champaign was very off the beaten path. I was really thrilled to have the opportunity to come to New York. They put me up at Plaza Hotel and I remember just taking in New York just thinking, “Wow. This is New York City.” Being an Assistant Professor was my first job in academia, and now I’ve been here for 25 years. It’s like I came here and didn’t want to leave. Besides my years at Stern, I went to Philadelphia, I went to UPenn for 2 years in 2008. I went there and I missed New York and NYU too much so I came back. I couldn’t get enough NYU. So that’s basically how I got here, I came and I couldn’t get enough of it. I moved around a lot as a child, I went to 10 schools before I finished 10th grade because my father was in the Navy. So New York is truly my first home, my stable place.

What is your fondest/best/favorite/most interesting/etc memory during your time at NYU Stern?
I think of my personal and professional lives as having completely collided at Stern. It’s home to me, both my personal home and my professional home. I had my son in my first year here at Stern, which was really interesting because it’s really difficult to juggle a tenure track job with a child. It was a test but it was a positive test. When the school calls and says your child is sick, what do you do? You bring him to work. At that time it was also thought of as unprofessional for women to bring their kids into work, but my colleagues were so nice. I would bring my son into work, he’d play with the toys on the floor and I still have all of these floor puzzles in my office now even though he’s 24 years old. I lived in the apartments behind Stern for 21 years and I have very fond memories of living there. I used to be able to see my telephone blinking from my window, and when my son was young, the babysitter would call and I’d go to the window and wave to him.

The other great memory I have is of my marketing colleagues. My best friends are in the marketing department, and I got tenure together with one of my best friends, Professor Morwitz. We joined one year apart, and we went through the entire tenure process together. That’s something I’ll never forget. It’s a very important time in an academic’s life to get tenure, it’s a big moment and an acknowledgement of all of your hard work. As an academic, you don’t have a 9-5 job, you work all the time. I don’t think a single day goes by where I haven’t done something. I don’t just kind of switch off. It’s just not how we’re wired. If you’re going to be in academia, you don’t have weekends and weekdays, you just work. You set your own goals and you’re self motivated, so it’s a different kind of profession. You’re not looking for anyone’s approval, at the end of the day you’re working on things that matter to you. I’ve always been someone who’s interested in building community and also institution. I really care about that. So for me at Stern, it’s really been important for me to see it progress along and become a stronger and stronger institution.

You said that as an academic, you set your own goals. What are some of your goals?
I wouldn’t say I’ve ever achieved a goal completely, there is always more to go. I really believe in opportunities. Certain things present themselves to you as opportunities and you capitalize on it. You should be doing things that you feel that you want to achieve. Each person has a different standard. For me, knowledge is really important. I love doing work that creates more knowledge, research is really integral to who i am. On a much larger level, I feel like everyone leaves an impact on the world in some shape or form, and we need to choose that impact. For me, if I’m able in my current role as dean to impact the students among us, 20 years down the road there’s going to be someone else in my position that is so happy that doesn’t have to worry about some of the things I worry about, like scholarship money. The goals keep evolving. A goal has to be something you’re pursuing to feel more fulfilled.

What’s your best kept secret or something your students wouldn’t expect about you?
When I came to the University of Illinois, I had no idea what an American was! I wanted to know what to expect from my companions before I left India, so I watched soap operas to try to teach me what Americans were like. I expected people to be like “The Guiding Light.” I remember scheduling my classes around The Guiding Light so I couldn’t miss it. I realized that this was not an accurate representation of Americans when none of my friends were being cloned or anything crazy like that. Also, I have a Masters in Economics. Most people assume I’m a psychologist, which is true, but I got my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics.

Do you have any advice for your students?
My biggest piece of advice may be corny but it’s something I believe - pay it forward. Anything, no matter how big or small, makes the world better off. It’s easy to come to Stern, be a student, get a job, and go away, but I think that there’s an additional responsibility to invest in the school and leave your own type of legacy. Let’s make everything better for each other. Do something good, and leave an impact.