Cur­rent posi­tion: Mar­ket­ing Ana­lyst II

Cur­rent city: Wau­kee, Iowa

What do believe was the most valu­able part of your expe­ri­ence as a Bright Schol­ar?

The most valu­able part of my expe­ri­ence as a Bright Schol­ar was build­ing out resources and con­nec­tions. The annu­al cer­e­monies allowed me to con­nect with peo­ple from the foun­da­tion and also with impor­tant staff mem­bers from my col­lege. I also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet oth­er schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents and dis­cuss my col­lege expe­ri­ences with them. It was great to be able to share advice with peo­ple I had some­thing in com­mon with.

How did the schol­ar­ship allow you to do these things: Grad­u­ate on-time, debt-free, launch your career and give back?

The schol­ar­ship pro­vid­ed me with finan­cial peace of mind, allow­ing me to ded­i­cate myself to my edu­ca­tion and get both a major and minor with­in four years. I also have the Bright Foun­da­tion to thank for the intern­ship I had between my junior and senior year, which turned into my full-time posi­tion. With­out the schol­ar­ship, I would nev­er have had the resources and expe­ri­ence nec­es­sary to launch my career in mar­ket­ing ana­lyt­ics.

What advice would you give to some­one who is con­sid­er­ing apply­ing for the Bright Scholarship/​Lois Dale Schol­ar­ship?

My advice is to apply, even if you’re unsure if you’ll be select­ed. It can’t hurt to try! In your essay and appli­ca­tion, be sure to include per­son­al insights into who you are and what you hope to accom­plish pro­fes­sion­al­ly. The more the selec­tion com­mi­tee  under­stands about how the orga­ni­za­tion can impact your life, the more you will stand out dur­ing the selec­tion process.

How did your col­lege expe­ri­ence pre­pare you for the post-col­lege work­force? In what ways were you unpre­pared?

Col­lege pre­pared me with a lot of knowl­edge around my area of study. My intern­ship pre­pared me for the post-col­lege work­force by intro­duc­ing me to the expec­ta­tions of work­ing in a cor­po­rate office envi­ron­ment.

One of the areas I felt col­lege didn’t pre­pare me for was how chal­leng­ing it would be to be to go from inter­act­ing with stu­dents in a sim­i­lar learn­ing sit­u­a­tion to inter­act­ing with diverse pro­fes­sion­al team mem­bers, all with var­i­ous lev­els of edu­ca­tion and expe­ri­ence.

Who is your biggest inspi­ra­tion and why? 

 My old­est broth­er is def­i­nite­ly one of my biggest inspi­ra­tions. He was the first one in my fam­i­ly to go to col­lege and has worked so hard to cre­ate a great life for himself and his fam­i­ly. I owe a lot of my suc­cess to his guid­ance. He was the one who pushed me to apply for the Bright Schol­ar­ship. He showed me that, with enough hard work, life could be more than what you were giv­en.