What is your background?: I’m from Cedar Rapids, IA and have been living here my whole 19 years of life. I first went to elementary school at Van Buren and went onto LaSalle Middle School, finally I went to got my high school diploma at Xavier High School. I’m an adopted child who has a great family of 2 parents and 3 younger siblings.
What brought you to Kirkwood and why?: The reason I chose to go to Kirkwood is because it has a great hospitality program and wanted to go into that area of study because of how well it trains and teaches students by using hands-on work instead of it always being out of a book and taking test class.
What is your program of study and what interests you about it?: I chose the hospitality Management program since I have a grandma and uncle running two motels here in town. They are called the Aspen Inn and Budget Inn. I want to help them run the “family” business in hopes to own or manage one of my own in the future. What interests me the most about the area of study is the type of people you can meet while in that business, whether it be someone famous or someone who has had a life of adventure.
Are you involved in anything else on campus? If so, what and why?: I’m currently not involved in anything on main campus but at the hotel I’m in a club called American Hotels and Lodging Association (AHLA). In the club we will go on a trips to conventions or showings of businesses from the inside for my classmates and I help learn what it takes to run a Hotel or similar business.
Are you involved in anything off of campus?: Not much that I can think of other than family gatherings for dinner or for instance every Wednesday I go to see my grandma for a weekly visit to chat and see how each other’s week has been or what is coming up in the week.
What do you do for fun?: The most fun I have on a regular day would be watching nostalgic tv shows as in Superman The Animated Series, or The Jetsons. If I’m not busy doing that I might be on my ps4 playing with some school buddies on a game of our choosing.
Where do you see yourself in five years?: Hopefully a grown adult with good health insurance or a job that provides it for me. What I hope for the most is that I am a better or greater version of the person I am today. I always show compassion and empathy or others, even if I don’t know you all that well, I’m a good listener and will always hear what someone has to say. I also hope I’m in a good position in life and work at a good job and to love the business as I do today.