Educational background: United States Air Force Academy, Economics
Past position: Los Angeles Air Force Base, Financial Manager
After graduating from the Air Force Academy, I worked for several years at a space and missiles procurement base and attended culinary arts school at night. There I decided I wanted to make a career of creating and running restaurants.
Most of the classes I am taking now are for the purpose of entrepreneurship. I am also in a sales class, which is enlightening in terms of rolling up your sleeves and getting into the process. And though I am still scared to death of sales, I am definitely getting more comfortable with it.
Another great stepping stone into the private sector was my internship with PRTM management consultants. PRTM is a smaller company, so I was able to get much more involved with the customers than I would if I were with a larger company. It was a great way to practice those kinds of skills that eventually, when I am running my own restaurant, I will need.
In January I traveled to Indonesia with G-Lab, where we worked with a program called United in Diversity. They were working to set up a university, and we helped to incorporate some of the classes from MIT into their program, including the ELIAS program (Emerging Leaders for Innovations Across Systems) run by Otto Scharmer.
In addition to being part of the sales club, I am also the co-president of the vineyards club. We had lots of events all year long and now we are in the process of planning a trek to Europe over spring break.
I love the people here. Everybody is different and you never know what to expect. It is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It has been hard work, absolutely, but I don’t think that I was anticipating not wanting to leave.
© 2013 MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT