Carol Kuntz '84, Homeland Defense Chair at the National Defense University, returned to her alma mater for the first time in 10 years Nov. 9 to talk at the Alice Cook House on "I Didn't Know Much About Experience Until I Got Some."

Kuntz, former assistant to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney for homeland security affairs and the editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun while she was a student, offered suggestions for students to consider when thinking about life after Cornell.

"First," she said, "you live in very interesting times." Citing changes such as Sept. 11, global warming and growing technology, Kuntz urged students to be confident that they could handle challenges they would face in their careers.

"These are issues to grapple with that won't be solved in 10 years," she said, relating a challenge that she had to face in 1989 when she was working on defense strategy at the same time as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Kuntz also advised students to not only look at the subject matter of their work after Cornell, but also at how the job is done.

"We don't talk enough at universities about different styles of working," she said. Whether working in groups, alone or on conflicts, Kuntz told students to find their own styles. While in her senior year at Cornell, Kuntz said that as the chief editor at the Cornell Daily Sun, she learned to work under a deadline and gained skills that still help her "turn out a memo faster than anyone else.

"I have done interesting work," she said, "but it has all been shaped and strengthened by things I did here at Cornell."

Kuntz advised students to think carefully about the choices they make. "You get the life you make," she said. After Cornell, Kuntz said she chose to attend the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where she received her M.P.A. She is currently completing her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focusing on the implications of broad changes in the strategic environment for biodefense policy.

In discussing personal choices in her career, like balancing her work with family, Kuntz, who is married with a fourth-grader and a first-grader, said, "If I had to choose between having a senior job in the White House or being a mother, I would choose being a mother."

Kuntz ended her talk by reminding students to appreciate their time at Cornell. "The skills that you get here at Cornell, both in and out of the classroom, will equip you for the challenges that your generation will face," she said. "You have a wonderful opportunity here."

Julia Langer '08 is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.