{"id":4002,"date":"2021-12-14T09:20:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T08:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cerge-ei.cz\/?p=4002"},"modified":"2021-12-28T15:48:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T14:48:05","slug":"for-me-cerge-ei-is-very-much-like-a-family-with-multiple-generations-says-michael-jetton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cerge-ei.cz\/?p=4002","title":{"rendered":"People of CERGE-EI: For me, CERGE-EI is very much like a family with multiple generations, says Michael Jetton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Jetton<\/strong> has been working in various positions at CERGE-EI since 1993. He served as Head of Alumni Office for several years. What were almost three decades of CERGE-EI like and how does he see our alumni community? We talked about this and much more in our Blog Interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been living in Prague since 1993. What brought you here? Did you originally plan on living here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I finished my undergraduate degree in American government and politics at George Mason University (near Washington DC) in the summer of 1992. I had an internship at the Democratic Party HQ during my last year and I was working with the assumption that I would try to turn that experience into a job on Capitol Hill in DC. Right after graduating, I spent a month traveling around Europe by train. During that trip, I visited a friend who had moved to Prague a few months earlier. As a result of having that personal contact here, when I passed through Prague, it really stood out as a highlight of that trip. One year later, I decided to come back and see what it was like living abroad. I initially thought I\u2019d give it a shot for a year and ended up never leaving.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been involved in CERGE-EI since 1993.\u00a0What was it like back then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CERGE and EI had just formed their joint workplace agreement in 1993 before I started working here. As a result of that agreement, CERGE moved from what is now the Hotel Ol\u0161anka to our current building. There were only a few cohorts of students then, so I got to know pretty much everyone to some degree after a few weeks and a beer party or two. Prague was of course a very different city back then but everyone was happy to be here!<\/p>\n

Since you have worked at CERGE-EI for almost three decades, you must have a dozen of interesting stories. Can you share some with us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThree decades\u201d sounds like something from a history book! One story that I remember has to do with the background profiles of our first few cohorts. Those students didn\u2019t really have much of an economics background \u2013 most students had either a PhD or a Candidate of Science from the pre-transition times in technical fields like mathematics, cybernetic engineering or physics. We had a large number of visiting professors in those first years coming to teach for a semester or academic year.<\/p>\n

It was interesting seeing how these visitors\u2019 expectations were challenged and shaped during the time that they spent in Prague. The topic of comparing students at CERGE-EI and their home institutions would sometimes come up in conversation. In those early years, some told me that while the students here lacked a \u201cpre-loaded\u201d sense of economic intuition, our students\u2019 technical skills were much stronger compared to their students back at home.<\/p>\n

I recall one story in particular where a visiting professor told me that he had made a glaring mathematical error on the blackboard and didn\u2019t notice it until he heard a bunch of students giggling about it.<\/p>\n

Another story from 1993 – there was just one room on the 3rd<\/sup> floor (the one next to the small staircase) that had a pair of computers connected to the internet. I remember one older staff member asking me why all of the foreigners were always going in that room. I explained that we were using email, and that we were communicating with our families abroad since international phone calls were so expensive (and unreliable). I had the hardest time explaining what email was to her, but to be fair, I also had a hard time explaining what it was to my parents in the US.<\/p>\n

Who do you remember the most from CERGE-EI in the past?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I suppose the easiest way to answer that would be to mention some people who I met in those early days who are still working at CERGE-EI. Kre\u0161o \u017digi\u0107, Daniel M\u00fcnich, Marie Bohat\u00e1, Michal Kejak, Lucie Vasiljevov\u00e1, Martin Po\u0161tulka, Jan Hanousek and Jan \u0160vejnar are all people I met in my first weeks and months at CERGE-EI and I see them in the hallways to this day. Pretty soon it will be 30 years from when I met them all so it\u2019s very much like a family with multiple generations. And of course there are countless people who have made a mark on me who have graduated, moved, retired, and, sadly, passed away.<\/p>\n

What are the most interesting projects you have worked on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first job was working for Jan \u0160vejnar in the main secretariat, which was then on the 2nd<\/sup> floor. I have had several different positions during my time at CERGE-EI, although all were deeply connected to the core academic mission.<\/p>\n

For the past 13 years I have worked with the Teaching Fellows program, which has introduced me to an enormous number of talented people teaching all throughout the region, many of them current CERGE-EI students as well as our alumni and other external participants.<\/p>\n

For more than 10 years, you\u2019ve been developing the CERGE-EI alumni network as Head of Alumni Office. What are the beginnings of developing an alumni network?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the US, and increasingly in Europe, alumni play an important role in the long-term development of universities. Based on our size and academic discipline, CERGE-EI more closely resembles a stand-along department than a large university with different fields of study. So the number of our alumni is very small in comparison to US universities\u2019 alumni programs.<\/p>\n

That had advantages (familiarity, close networks) and disadvantages (scale). Alumni are a university\u2019s best quality indicators, and they are also our ambassadors who move around professional networks globally. Alumni also benefit from our continued development as a more mature institution. I always thought of alumni status as being a kind of \u201cpost-student\u201d status \u2013 the relationship is still very important, it\u2019s just that the day to day aspects of that relationship shift a bit.<\/p>\n

How do you think the alumni community has developed in the past years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not at all surprised at how many success stories we have had among the alumni. Being admitted to CERGE-EI and getting through the first two years is a significant accomplishment, and finishing a degree here is a testament to our alumni\u2019s talent and intellect. As a young institution, the value of a CERGE-EI degree in 2021 is largely determined by the alumni who have gone out into the world before. I think graduating students from CERGE-EI have an easier time finding meaningful positions because of all of the talented alumni who have come before them and helped establish CERGE-EI as a strong academic program globally.<\/p>\n

This year, CERGE-EI celebrates its 30th<\/sup> In your opinion, what is the strongest message of CERGE-EI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the top graduate schools in the world have reputations which were formed over many decades or centuries. CERGE-EI is by comparison a very young institution, and it is difficult to emerge on the world stage in a short amount of time. That being said, the research profiles achieved by our faculty and researchers and the accomplishments of our alumni since our first PhD graduate in 1995 are a tremendous achievement. Reputations take time and effort to develop and are even harder to maintain, but I\u2019m confident that the future is bright for CERGE-EI and for the region where we work more broadly.<\/p>\n

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Michael Jetton has been working in various positions at CERGE-EI since 1993. He served as Head of Alumni Office for several years. What were almost three decades of CERGE-EI like and how does he see our alumni community? We talked about this and much more in our Blog Interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-interview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t