Throughout college and in the eight years since graduation, Ben Mousseau (ChemBio’16) has felt grateful for the mentors who guided him. Now a global supply manager at Tesla, Mousseau has been giving back to CU Boulder’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE) since 2019 by mentoring students through the department’s Alumni Student Mentor Program (ASMP).
This year Mousseau was honored with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Mentor of the Year Award for his work with ChBE sophomore, Aslan DeWitt.
“I am very thankful for this award," Mousseau said. “I'm glad that I have been able to make an impact, and I’m always open to having discussions with other students.”
Each semester, the department facilitates connections between alumni and current students through its mentoring program. Students and their mentors meet several times over the semester to discuss professionalism, career advancement and perspectives on engineering.
DeWitt described Mousseau as a “phenomenal” mentor.
“Ben provides advice on a diverse range of topics and supports me through many opportunities," he said. “He is always open to answering my endless questions with a great deal of experience and patience.”
Dewitt also highlighted a tour of a Fresca Foods production line, arranged by Mousseau and led by CU Boulder ChBE alumnus, Ryan Maes (ChemBio’16). Fresca Foods is a manufacturing plant in Louisville, Colorado that produces juice, granola bars, crackers and cereal.
“It was extremely interesting to learn more about the potential career paths in chemical engineering and the problem solving involved,” DeWitt said. “I've gained insights into the possible avenues that chemical engineering can lead to.”
Mousseau answered several questions about his experience and the insights he gained as a mentor.
Do you currently utilize chemical engineering in your work?
After working as a process engineer at Corning, I have transitioned more towards a supply chain management role at Tesla over the last two years, moving away from day-to-day chemical engineering tasks. While I am not writing as many process development plans or conducting experiments, my work still involves chemical engineering. In my current role, we focus on new technologies and products related to glass, including specialty processes such as chemically-strengthened glass. The work involves understanding the ion exchange process and understanding the different coating layers. So although I am not performing chemical engineering tasks daily, my role remains heavily focused on chemical engineering principles applied to our products.
What motivated you to become a mentor for the ChBE department?
After college, I was fortunate to have really good managers and excellent mentors in and outside of the companies I worked for. As a mentor, I want to offer the same level of support and guidance to students, including discussing the various engineering career paths, recommending classes based on the student’s interests and addressing other areas that may not be fully covered during school.
What do you hope to impart to the next generation of chemical and biological engineers?
As a mentor, I hope to provide students with a better understanding of career opportunities. CU has an amazing chemical and biological engineering program. As I work with chemical engineers across my career, I believe CU has one of the best programs in the country. It can be difficult, however, for students to understand how some of the classes correlate to different job opportunities. I hope to provide students with insight to internships and to help them explore the different career paths for chemical engineers.
Also, chemical engineering is a lot of work. I want to emphasize with students the rewards of completing the degree — the interesting work and opportunities that come with it. Additionally, I want to offer advice on effective communication and job interview preparation, the soft skills you learn over time. I want to share some of the lessons I learned with them.
How has the engineering and professional world changed since you graduated, and what new challenges do you see up-and-coming engineers facing?
In the eight years since I graduated, instant communication has progressed, and there is definitely more of a global collaboration across different companies.
Today’s pace of work demands quicker solutions, and it can be challenging to meet the expectations of non-engineers who often expect rapid answers. So being able to understand and prioritize projects to meet your goals and the organization’s goals is more challenging now than eight years ago.
What are some things you’ve learned from your students as a mentor?
I always enjoy catching up on CU’s research. What happens in the labs provides insights into potential technology or products. Understanding cutting-edge research or ideas is always interesting, and I enjoy getting feedback from CU students on these topics.
How would you pitch your fellow alumni on becoming mentors?
I have encouraged my friends to mentor because I find mentoring very rewarding. I’m very grateful for the opportunities I have had, and I believe in helping students set themselves up for success.
I ask my friends to think back on their own experiences, when we were juniors or seniors entering the workforce and had no clue what to expect from our first jobs. While everyone takes the same courses, we didn’t understand the range of career opportunities. Sharing insights on different paths—like quality engineering versus process engineering—can be very helpful for students. If we had received more mentoring or advice back then, it would have provided us with better clarity.
Many of my friends changed jobs within the first year or two after graduation because their chosen career path wasn’t what they thought it would be. Having feedback before committing to a career path could have been beneficial.
ChBE’s Alumni Student Mentoring Program is very good, and I hope to see it continue to grow among both students and mentors.
Chemical and biological engineering alumni interested in becoming mentors can fill out this short form. Current ChBE students seekinga mentor can use this form. Mentor/mentee matches are arranged during the fall semesters.