Bowdoin College, Sustainability and Energy
/My time in high school
Attended high school in the
1990s
Overall high school experience
3/10
Grades in high school
Mostly A's
Favorite subjects
English, History / Social Studies, Foreign Language, Math, Performing Arts, Science
Struggled with...
I almost always did fine academically but had enormous struggles socially. I work with customers at my company now. If you saw my teenage self, you would never think I would be able to talk pleasantly with humans for a living!
Favorite extracurricular
Music
Life since high school
“One of my biggest accomplishments was overcoming a major health issue right after college. It was terrifying, scary, and took several years of intensive physical therapy. The hardest thing was that I looked normal the entire time. Nobody gives you credit for the hard work you put into staying or getting healthy. That experience made me realize just how lucky I had been for my entire life up to then. ”
Attended college / university at
Bowdoin College.
Majored in
I majored in German and minored in music.
Post-graduate education or training
I had a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany to teach English. I also have an MBA in Sustainability and have taken many courses on green building & energy monitoring.
Places lived in US
California, Maine, Massachusetts
Places lived outside the US
Germany
Current occupations / past occupations
I work in customer success at a small cleantech-ish startup. I've spent most of my career in sustainability & energy. Prior to getting my MBA, I worked in design & estimating for a small mom & pop construction company.
Industries I've worked in
- Utilities
- Construction
- Technology
Did your education prepare you for your career or occupation?
Yes
Has your education or career/occupation trajectory ever changed? How?
I never thought I would be where I am today based on what I studied in college, that's for sure.
A little introspection...
To me, being successful means...
Being happy, being grateful, and being able to help others / contribute positively to society in a meaningful way.
My definition of success has not changed over time.
I don't really know. I was lucky that I was never wired super tightly in high school to think of college and grades as my end-all be-all. I do think now I define success less in terms of my personal accomplishments and more about what is important for my community, company, city, and family.
My greatest accomplishment to date and what I’ve learned from it
One of my biggest accomplishments was overcoming a major health issue right after college. It was terrifying, scary, and took several years of intensive physical therapy. The hardest thing was that I looked normal the entire time. Nobody gives you credit for the hard work you put into staying or getting healthy. That experience made me realize just how lucky I had been for my entire life up to then.
My biggest mistake or regret so far and what I’ve learned from it
I regret not spending more time abroad after college. I also deeply, deeply regret that I don't play my trumpet anymore. It was something I loved and that made me happy in all the deepest ways. I've found other hobbies that make me similarly happy, but trumpet was always my first love and I miss it.
An unexpected event that significantly changed my life and how it impacted me
One of my best friends suffered deeply from clinical depression in college and hurt herself a lot. She came a lot closer than I care to think about to making some major life-altering (life-ending) decisions. I was living abroad at the time, and I didn't know her phone number. I remember thinking one night she might try to hurt herself and standing in a pay phone in this big city in the middle of the night, trying to get my calling card to call internationally, calling information over and over again to try to find her number. The next weekend her parents had to come pick her up. 15 years later, it's still very scary to me. We've had all these wonderful times together since. She's in graduate school now doing a program she loves and she's had so many adventures. All these wonderful times we've had together (outings, movies, adventures, barbecues, Giants games) -- all of that might never have happened. My life would have been very different.
