HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
The journey I had for this current destination of the Center for Career Opportunities began during my undergraduate years at Florida State University. Brandon Bowden, the Assistant Vice President of FSU was one of the most influential individuals I had the honor of meeting in the field of higher education. The substantive conversations we often had would lead to pressing questions about my future goals and interests. The responses included poetry, human rights, and equitable access to various institutions of higher education for historically disenfranchised and marginalized communities around the nation due to an audacious and collective effort in education reform. The significant work towards a beneficial and efficient system of education on a national scale is an honorable endeavor I always felt required my active participation. He suggested for me to take a thorough look into higher education because it fits my personality and goals. After careful research involving multiple schools in various regions of the United States, the decision to pursue the Master of Education in Higher Education degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas solidified. Great experience involving a timely graduate assistantship at UNLV Career Services. There, the discovery of my real passion happened: Student Success. During the months after graduation, I applied to an open position at the Center for Career Opportunities at Purdue University, West Lafayette and the rest is history.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
Helping and seeing students succeed is my favorite aspect about this career. I love seeing students come in and leave with renewed confidence in knowing they have the ability, qualifications, and the pristine audacity in confronting any career-related challenge. Helping students become more confident in the resume and cover letter writing process, interviewing, job search, and other career-related dynamics is my favorite part of this job.
WHAT IS THE MOST UNUSUAL JOB YOU EVER HAD?
The strangest I ever had involved all of the retail jobs. It seemed every day there was something weird happening almost every other day. However, it is the bizarre things in life can often prepare one for the real world, so I am thankful for the experiences I had in retail.
FAVORITE THINGS
I like to read essential books filled with original content, traveling to new lands, forcing myself outside of my comfort zone, writing, partaking in intellectual debates, watching movies that make artistic sense, socially conscious musicians, poetry, and living life with inexorable energy.
QUOTE YOU LIVE BY
“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.”
--Christian D. Larson
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."
-- Muhammad Ali
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
--Oprah Winfrey
