When Isaac Wong ’00 was a high school senior considering college options, he came across some research on Wi-Fi networks by a Cornell faculty member. In 1995, the ability to project a wireless signal over 50 feet without a cable was breakthrough technology, and it captured Isaac’s imagination. This faculty research catapulted Cornell’s College of Engineering to the top of Isaac’s college wish list. He applied and was accepted.
Isaac knew no one at Cornell and didn’t have the opportunity to visit campus before classes started—which made his move to Upstate New York especially memorable. After leaving Hong Kong in a typhoon and sitting through a grueling 35+-hour flight to Ithaca, he arrived in a place that was worlds apart from his urban roots in Hong Kong. But what struck him the most was how welcome he felt in his new community.
His first-year roommate, who was from Rochester, New York, helped orient Isaac to everything from local dining, to navigating campus, to American slang. Isaac recalls learning the word “awesome,” which is how he felt about his first semester at Cornell.
“People were so nice, so friendly, and really embraced me and made me feel welcome. I got to meet people from around the world, and from very different academic backgrounds,” Isaac says. “For example, my roommate studied physics. We had a little bit in common—we were both good at math. But he was more of a theoretical type of person, whereas I was much more practical.”
Collegetown builds community
Looking back on his Cornell education 25 years after graduation, Isaac feels that Ithaca’s location was key to fostering a sense of community. The fact that students from across campus gathered at the same eateries and played on the same fields helped them forge strong bonds—even if they studied different subjects and had different life experiences.
“If you compare a college community like Cornell, where people spend a lot of time with one another, versus some place like Columbia University, it’s very different,” Isaac explains. “I have quite a few friends who went to Columbia, and they had a very different college experience. They didn’t really hang out at the school that much. The Cornell community is, I think, very important.”
Isaac was dedicated to his electrical engineering education at Cornell and had never considered a career in finance.
But a summer internship at a bank piqued his interest in the field. Isaac discovered that finance combined his math skills with his people skills, and it allowed him to dive deep into his affinity for calculating probabilities and assessing risks.
Alumni network opens doors
As graduation approached, Isaac decided to pursue a job at Goldman Sachs (GS) in New York City. He still recalls the mentorship he received from Cornell alum and former GS partner Jeff Resnick ’81. Jeff met with Isaac on campus and coached him through five rounds of interviews to land an entry-level position at the firm.
“I was quite honest with Jeff. I said, you know, I don’t have any background in finance. I’m an engineer. But he kept encouraging me. He told me that I clearly had the skills to learn what I needed, on the job.’”
“I think that was really helpful—him telling me that I could actually do it,” Isaac says.
Jeff continued to check in on Isaac during his first year at GS. This mentorship by an established alum deeply impressed Isaac. “Honestly, that’s what I want to do for other Cornell alumni in my life and my career,” he says.
Over the past 25 years at Goldman Sachs, Isaac has risen through the company ranks to become a partner himself. He’s hired several Cornellians to staff his Hong-Kong based GS team, and he continues to mentor prospective and current Cornell students.
The fact that we went to the same college gives me more confidence in them, because I trust Cornell.
Scholarship recipient becomes scholarship donor
Isaac starting giving to Cornell several years ago, modestly at first and then more generously as his means have allowed.
He is grateful for the scholarship assistance he received to attend Cornell, including a scholarship awarded by his high school, Wah Yan College, where he received the Father Barrett Memorial Scholarship.
In 2024, Isaac was inspired by fellow alumnus, Stanley Sun ’00, who had a long track record of giving to Cornell. Isaac decided to make a larger gift to support Cornell’s undergraduate affordability initiative. In partnership with the Goldman Sachs Gives program, he made an affordability scholarship gift.
He trusts the university to allocate the funds to someone who will benefit from the opportunity to attend Cornell.
“I supported affordability, through a need-based scholarship, because I feel this is really impactful. Looking at how much I benefited from my Cornell experience, I feel like this is an obvious win,” Isaac says. “Once you change a person’s life, that can change a few other people’s lives, and it keeps on paying forward.”
Isaac hopes to encourage other members of his GS team, as well as colleagues at similar firms, to consider how they can leverage corporate giving programs to support Cornell—a place where students from around the globe are pursuing their dreams and research that matters is happening every day.
“A lot of the big corporations, they have these matching programs which help alumni get involved. If you donate a dollar, then sometimes the firm will also contribute,” he says, adding, “That’s actually a very powerful thing, right?”
