I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I graduated from Taylorsville High School in 1999. In hindsight, I took myself too seriously in high school, but I viewed it as the stepping stone to college. I had a plan and it was my sincere intent to execute that plan. When I was in 8th grade, for some reason I decided I wanted to go to Stanford University. So, in high school I tried to create a balanced resume as part of the debate team, the newspaper staff, in the wind ensemble, student government involvement, and working on the school’s closed circuit television network. I chose classes that would look good on a college application and the letter grade was the most important thing to me. I wasn’t valedictorian, but I had near perfect grades – only getting two A-minuses in my four years of high school.
As luck would have it, my mom said she would pay for me to apply to one “elite” school. I feared somebody else crushing my dreams, which led me to not apply to Stanford, but instead to the University of Pennsylvania. I got accepted to Penn and visited campus and fell in love. So, in the summer of 1999, I matriculated to the University of Pennsylvania.
My time at Penn had two distinct periods. The first two years and the second two years. During the first two years, all of the inhibitions I had controlled while in high school were shattered as I had my first taste of independence 2000 miles from home. I joined the Penn Band and pledged a fraternity, focusing more on the social elements of college than the academics. I didn’t fail classes, but I didn’t thrive either. I was a computer science major during the high of the dot-com era. Everyone was graduating with jobs, so there was little pressure.
Then the dot-com bubble burst and suddenly my 2.5 GPA wasn’t going to cut it. So, I kicked myself into an academic high gear, scaled back my involvement in the Penn Band, focused on more traditional extracurricular activities like Peer Advising and joining our professional organization. I learned to really study and apply myself academically. The result was a 3.5 GPA during the second two years and graduating hundredths of decimal points shy of being able to round my cumulative GPA up to a 3.0. In May 2003, I graduated without any real programming job prospects and went home to Salt Lake City without a clue of what I was going to do when I grew up.
A month later, I moved to Idaho Falls for a temporary job to get some work experience. My dad was the Executive Director of a non-profit organization, Eastern Idaho Special Services Agency (now Eastern Idaho Community Action Partnership), with about 125 employees. They had no IT shop, so they contracted me to get something off the ground. 3 months turned to 6 months, which turned to a year, which finally turned to a permanent position as the agency’s Information Systems Manager. I grew the department from a temporary position without any technology plan two a two person shop with a quarter of a million dollar budget (if you include salaries and fringe). I was in that position for 6 and a half years and was really good at what I did.
Meanwhile, I also decided that I needed to go to graduate school. I decided that my best bet was to get an MBA. So I studied and took the GMATs. I ended up with a score that would almost let me pick my program – if my grades were better. Fortunately, Idaho State University had a program that offered a “Graduate Certificate” in Business. This was basically the prerequisites to most B-School programs, which I would need to complete anyway because I foolishly didn’t take any real business classes while at an arms length reach of the Wharton School of Business. This certificate was literally killing two birds with one stone: I was able to improve my academic profile and get the prerequisites I needed to go to a more prestigious school.
The program required three years of work experience, so during my third year, I took some economics classes that were prerequisites for the Certificate. This allowed me stick my foot in the proverbial academic waters. While taking these classes, I met a girl. We fell in love and during my first semester of the Certificate program, we got engaged. My fiancee told me that I could go to any business school I wanted, provided we moved back to Idaho when I finished. I didn’t see the point in leaving, only to come back, because ISU would have just as strong a reputation in Eastern Idaho as any other school. So, I transferred my status from a Certificate student to a MBA student. I started with a Computer Information Systems emphasis and later added a Management Emphasis. In May 2010, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and am a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.
In January 2010, there was a perfect storm. Professionally, I was getting bored. With my upcoming graduation, I started to look for career changes. I loved working for EICAP, but I was having a hard time staying motivated. I knew I had a skillset I wasn’t using. I wanted an opportunity to focus on people, not computers. Then a position as a Program Director for the Area Agency on Aging in my organization opened up. In many ways this would be a lateral move, but it would also be perceived as a promotion. However, the move came with some risks. The program is was in financial trouble, with the previous director not being able to control the budget. Furthermore, I knew there were a lot of strong personalities in the department. I thought it was an excellent opportunity to prove myself and give me a fresh start within the agency I love working for.
I received the promotion and started in February 2010. So far, it is working out very well. I have been praised by our Board of Directors for my job correcting the budget problems. For the most part, I work with the people very well. I get satisfaction out of using the toolkit I assembled during my MBA program.
I have come a long way from the high school kid with a plan.