About

Progress requires constant learning

I am a college dropout. I dropped out of college because of a lot of excuses. It was expensive, it was hard, it took too much time. After 5 years at Grand Valley State University studying computer science, I dropped out. In retrospect, I still do not believe this was a mistake because it made me who I am today.

After leaving college, I started working in the culinary field. Taking the first job I could find, I worked at a famous hotdog shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I worked until 3 in the morning, selling hotdogs to drunk bar-goers. I hustled and learned everything I could. A spark of passion was beginning to flourish here. After 7 months I had learned everything that I could have learned, and I began a new job. I made the typical transition of selling hotdogs to selling hamburgers. Again, I learned, I hustled, and I worked hard. Like the last job, I learned everything that was available to me and I moved on.

This became a theme of my adult life. Quite a few restaurants and about 6 years later, I brought myself to a high end Forbes 5 star luxury resort – Twin Farms in Vermont. I spent my time here honing my craft – eventually being given the opportunity to write menus, create new food, and run a full bar program. It was at Twin Farms that I was not passionate about cooking, I am passionate about learning. Further, I realized that I missed my roots of playing with technology. During my tenure at Twin Farms I returned to college and received my bachelors in Information Technology at University of Colorado Global Campus.

This move allowed me to leverage my skills in customer service into a career in IT. Months after graduating I got accepted into UC Berkeley’s Masters in Information Cyber Security program, all while working and advancing my career in the tech space.

The story does not end here – I am not done learning yet.