What will be your next step after graduation?
CEO, Global Migrations Project
Where will you be living?
Anchorage, AK
In what ways has HES impacted your career and long-term professional goals?
Before attending the Extension School, I was lost. I had left the military a few years before and drifted around working entry-level jobs such as valet or concierge without feeling any meaning or purpose. People told me that without an education, I would most likely never be able to do much else and that I had very little to offer the world. The journey through college was difficult, but it has opened up pathways and ideas on how to live that were closed off to me before. Education pushed me to start my own non-profit and work at trying to bring what I loved about life into the world. Education has allowed me to make a living outside, in the mountains or desert or ocean, filming, writing, exploring, and telling stories. Harvard Extension School changed everything.
What advice do you have for HES students now that you have graduated?
The best advice I could give would be to say that growth comes through doing difficult things. For me, finishing my degree as I tried to grow my life as someone in their mid-30s was the most difficult thing I have done thus far in life. But overcoming the challenges was worth it. I do not remember the long days of hard work as much as the great days after the hard work was done. It was worth every challenge that came along the way.