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| Max Smith, in front of Center Ithaca on the Ithaca Commons, has made both the community and the campus his home. Charles Harrington/University Photography |
Cornell provided Max Smith with a stellar academic education. But some of Smith's most valuable lessons were learned off campus at the Community Dispute Resolution Center (CDRC) in downtown Ithaca, where he worked as a direct-care assistant. The center provides alternatives for peacefully mediating and resolving everyday disputes.
"We are going to miss Max tremendously," said Leslyn McBean, CDRC program coordinator and Smith's supervisor at the center. "He's the model of everything a university student should be academically responsible and community-minded. Max didn't just go to school here, he became an important part of the community."
Smith is headed for law school, where the mediation and arbitration experience he gained at CDRC will provide him with a valuable perspective on the legal system. CDRC also helped to shape his social conscience while providing the groundwork for his long-range goal of serving the public through law.
"CDRC is where I really developed a desire to make a difference," said Smith, a government major with a concentration in American studies. "I met a lot of different types of people, made a lot of community contacts. I feel as much if not more a part of Ithaca than of Cornell itself."
Smith started as a summer intern at CDRC and was quickly invited back. He assisted McBean as a direct-care assistant on Lemon Law arbitration as well as custody and visitation cases. But, McBean said, Smith gladly undertook whatever assignment came his way.
"Whether it was conducting intakes, helping a person who walked in off the street and couldn't speak English very well, running an envelope over to family court or just answering phones, Max did it all with style," said McBean.
If his supervisor finds any shortcomings in Smith, it is his chronic modesty. Easygoing and easily overlooked in a sea of students clamoring for attention, Smith pursued his Cornell degree with quiet determination.
"He was a strikingly serious, self-reflective and exceedingly polite student," said Elizabeth Sanders, professor of government. "Call it 'teacher's intuition,' but I've always had a feeling Max is going to do great things."
Smith is the son of Haitian immigrants who came to the United States in 1970 seeking a better life. His parents met in a Haitian high school in Port au Prince, where Smith's father served as principal and his mother was a general education teacher. Once in the United States, Smith's parents had to retool their careers: His father went into the real estate business, while his mother worked in a factory and later as a practical nurse. Getting a good education was a family imperative, said Smith, one of four children.
"My father and mother enrolled us in the best high school in the area and made sure we applied to all the top universities," Smith said.
He planned originally to pursue a degree in business or economics. His parents, rocked by financial setbacks in the real-estate recession on Long Island, persuaded Smith to set his sights on an academic path that would lead him to a secure career. But as his freshman year wound down, Smith realized that the "prudent" track was the wrong track for him.
"The fact is I didn't enjoy economics, and I couldn't see myself pursuing something I didn't value," said Smith. "I took several arts classes and came across government and American studies. Those classes inspired me and so I decide to explore that field. It turned out to be the best academic decision I ever made."
Smith also got involved with CU Image, a student group that promotes minority enrollment, and he was a member of the Pre-Law Society. But Smith surprised even himself when he joined a defunct fraternity struggling to regain its charter.
"That was about the furthest thing from my mind when I came to Cornell," said Smith. "But a friend of mine joined and then another friend joined and I came on with a couple of other guys, and we helped get the charter re-established."
Smith became the fund-raising chair for Kappa Sigma, and the house was named most improved chapter. It was a place where Smith learned to "agree to disagree," he said.
"I never came across such a diverse group of people before, and it really tested my social skills," said Smith. "We were not a theme house, and personalitywise, we often clashed. But that was what was so great about it having to work together with people I didn't necessarily agree with opened me up to a part of Cornell I never would have known about."
And his work with CDRC likewise introduced him to a world most students never see. Smith's mix of town-gown experiences will serve him well in the future.