Mentors and students gather on campus

For nearly a decade, Mike Walsh (BS ʼ81) has been offering career advice to Techers. His gift to establish the Career Advising and Experiential Learning Discretionary Fund creates more opportunities for students to connect with alumni mentors.

Three times a year, Mike Walsh (BS ʼ81) travels from his Bay Area home to Caltech to advise undergraduates on their careers. The retired entrepreneur counsels third-year students on how to land their dream internships, encourages first-years to find their passion before choosing a career, and coaches aspiring start-up founders to embrace failure on their path to success. With each talk, Walsh taps into his nearly 40 years of work experience, sharing his wins, hard-learned lessons, and the times he felt like he was “running into walls.”

“Sometimes when you’re at the top of your class, you don’t really have a model of what to do next,” Walsh says. “Alumni provide possible paths for students, and we’re happy to share our real experiences with them.”

Walsh, along with Phil Naecker (BS ’76) and Claire Ralph, director of Career Achievement, Leadership, and Exploration (CALE), has reinvigorated alumni mentoring at Caltech. The triannual flash mentoring event he attends, CMS-EE-Finance Mentoring Days, has grown since its inception in 2016. Over a thousand students have received guidance from alumni, but Walsh believes even more can be done. Walsh and his wife Martha Soukup have pledged $100,000 to establish the Career Advising and Experiential Learning Discretionary Fund at Caltech. Their no-strings-attached gift provides Caltech with the flexibility to respond to student needs and pursue new initiatives. Ralph will use the funds to launch the CALE Alumni Mentoring Program in conjunction with the Caltech Alumni Association this academic year. It will provide undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars with alumni mentors who understand their highly technical career paths, according to Ralph.

Walsh and Soukup’s gift bolsters the success of the Initiative for Caltech Students, a fundraising campaign that aims to raise $250 million to enhance every aspect of the student experience, including $25 million for career advising.

“Mike is one of the most supportive people I know,” says Ralph, who is also a lecturer in the Computing and Mathematical Sciences Department. “He will pitch in when I need him, and he will always advocate for students. This gift is another example of why Caltech is fortunate to have Mike as an alumnus.”

The Changing Dynamics of Career Preparation

A generation ago, a phone call from a professor could guarantee a student a job or admission to graduate school. Today, the process has changed, and it has become longer and more complicated than ever, Ralph says. This trend increases the demand for career advising and mentoring.

“Our students are so incredibly technical that, by the time they graduate, they’re closer to master’s level students,” Ralph says. “They really need someone who has been on that same path who can help formulate a career plan.”

Walsh understands Caltech students’ academic journey. He helped launch the $6 billion digital coupon industry in the late 1990s with Coupons.com. Walsh and his co-founder Steven Boal continued to innovate for their company, later renamed Quotient Technology. Pairing Boal’s strategic vision with Walsh’s technical expertise, they transitioned the company’s offerings from print-on-demand coupons to coupons, rebates, and promotions scanned on mobile devices. The duo also positioned Quotient as a purveyor of consumer data and analytics. Yet, Walsh is quick to tell students that he changed his option three times and had a B- grade point average at Caltech.

“Graduating from Caltech is still the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Walsh says. “What I want students to know is that it’s going to be a lot easier once they get out and that they’re really going to stand out to employers.”

Walsh also understands students’ personal journeys are different, Ralph says.

“As we strive to become more diverse, it’s also Caltech’s job to make sure students feel comfortable,” Ralph says. “Mike has thought about these issues. He will explain why a lack of opportunities in the past has led to all-white male panels today. He’s a great example to others of moving past one's own discomfort.”

A Compassionate Mentor

Nivetha Karthikeyan (pictured left, BS ʼ20) met Walsh (pictured right) at an internship workshop in her first year. At the time, she felt the pressure to craft the ideal Caltech experience: participate in a summer internship, conduct research, and join clubs.

“I left that conversation with Mike feeling reassured and heard,” says Karthikeyan, who studied computer science and history. “He was intimately aware of the frustrations, pressures, and joys of being a Caltech student, and extended an enormous amount of generosity and understanding toward young people starting on that same path.”

Instead of creating the perfect computer science major resume, Karthikeyan focused on the resume that was perfect for her. She cofounded TechReach, a group that matched Caltech students with nonprofits that needed technical assistance, and Walsh served as the club’s mentor. Over time, Karthikeyan lost interest in creating algorithms and code, either in industry or academia. Her passion was studying computing’s impact on the world. She is currently a PhD student in the History of Science and Medicine program at Yale University, specializing in the social and political dimensions of technology.

“In the years since I graduated, Mike and I have continued to exchange emails,” Karthikeyan says. “He has been as generous as ever, supporting my career transition and sharing advice with friends of mine from college. I think of him when I connect with current students and can only hope that I’ll be able to be as helpful as he is.”

The way Walsh sees it, volunteerism and philanthropy are not just acts of altruism and a source of joy, but an obligation.

“Caltech has selected brilliant kids,” Walsh says. “It’s on us to ensure they are successful."