Project Description
Education
Making Learning A Lifetime Pursuit
I could recite my ABCs backwards. I had also memorized several words and could even count to one hundred. As I sat near the back of the classroom waiting for the first lecture to begin, I thought, “This class shouldn’t be too hard. After all, I already speak three languages.” Then, without saying one word, the professor began. Raising her right arm, she lightly tapped her forehead with her hand as though saluting a superior officer.
Her hands blurred every which way – diagonals, zigzags, circles – her eyebrows raised and lowered, her body occasionally tilted as her facial muscles expanded and contracted, all the while her lips mouthing words devoid of sound but interrupted by short bursts of laughter as the class acknowledged that they comprehended. But it was a blur to me. Week after week, I struggled through every lecture of my American Sign Language (ASL) class.
Had I known the nuances, that slight variations in mouth and eye movement are adverbial and adjectival modifiers, that American Sign Language uses facial and body language to communicate grammar, and that head and eyebrow motions also affect meaning – I might have understood those lectures. Perplexed but undeterred, I continued studying as my grade fell. While it would’ve helped my G.P.A. if I had simply dropped the class, I stuck with it because I’ve found that challenging situations often lead to powerful learning opportunities.
I have yet to master American Sign Language, but taking that class, as hard as it was, helped me gain insights I wouldn’t have experienced had I just given up. Not only did I become more familiar with a culture that communicates in such a passionate, visual manner, because of the difficulty I had in learning the basics, I also gained an appreciation and empathy for them that I never could have achieved in any other way.
Experiences like this have greatly influenced my personal learning philosophy, one I’ve developed through years of formal education, hands-on learning opportunities, and dedicated self-study that have taken me across various industries and disciplines, providing different perspectives and feeding my insatiable appetite for lifelong learning.
Wallace D. Loh, President of the University of Maryland, had his photo taken with every graduating student for the class of 2015 during the December graduation ceremony in College Park, Md. It was my privilege to be part of the first graduating class for the James E. Clark School of Engineering's Master of Professional Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship.
Formal Training & Education
The University of Maryland provided an incredible opportunity to repurpose the skills I developed in professional media for application across a variety of industries and disciplines, including the foundational framework for launching and leading innovative startups and corporate ventures. The action-oriented approach that connects students with the University of Maryland’s entrepreneurial community helped me hone my abilities to solve innovation challenges:
Influential Courses:
- Innovative Ideas and Concept Development
- Strategies for Managing Innovation
- Business Modeling and Customer Validation
- Innovative Thinking
- Creative Design, Prototyping, and Testing
- Market Development and Commercialization
- Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship
- Financial Management and New Venture Financing
- Launching Technology Startup Ventures
After years of managing projects across various industries, I deepened my understanding of project management by pursuing graduate-level training at Villanova University in Applied Project Management. The four-course program, designed for business professionals, mid-level managers, and project managers, emphasizes how to develop and lead improvement initiatives for generating measurable growth in return on investment, sales, customer satisfaction and retention, market share, speed-to-market, employee satisfaction, and employee motivation.
I earned the globally-recognized Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential, demonstrating extensive knowledge and mastery of project management concepts, tasks, and techniques that can be applied across industries and methodologies. Credential holders must have at least 3-5 years of experience leading and directing cross-functional project teams, earn a minimum of 35 hours of formal project management education, and pass the PMP(®) certification exam. Sixty professional development units are required every 3 years in technical project management, leadership, and business and strategic management.
When I enrolled in the Spanish program at USU I was planning on either becoming an interpreter or continuing to pursue a career in media. Having previously lived and worked in South America for two years, my classes were a great opportunity to refine my speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills while becoming more acquainted with Spanish and Latin American history and literature, broadening my perspective. While pursuing the required curriculum, I also minored in Portuguese and filled elective requirements by taking a variety of media and communications courses. I also took some graduate-level courses in instructional design. I volunteered as a Spanish translator in the community, worked as a teaching assistant, served as an editor of the university newspaper, and filled three media internships at various publications in northern Utah and southeast Idaho. I was one of 22 candidates selected to attend the prestigious translation and interpretation program at Monterey Institute of International Studies, but at graduation I decided to pursue a career in media instead.
Associate of Science and Art in Journalism - Brigham Young University - Idaho
When I began attending classes at BYU-Idaho (formerly a two-year institution called Ricks College) I planned on becoming a photojournalist, hoping to one day manage a photo department for a wire service or daily publication. Attending this program opened my mind to so many more possibilities. Each course I took, from writing and reporting to design, to editing and visual communication led me to expand my skillset and find ways to market these skills into other disciplines that I would later pursue, including project management, web development, and business. While attending classes, I served as an editor on the campus newspaper, filled a professional photojournalism internship at a daily media company, and freelanced for the Associated Press. I also took several Spanish-language courses, exploring the possibility of a double major.
Certificate of Completion in Photography and Art - Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts
I was among 100 students selected to attend the prestigious 5-week program at Merceyhurst College in Erie, Pa. where I majored in photography and minored in art. Approximately 2000 students competed for the opportunity to participate in a rigorous, three-step process that included an interview and a portfolio evaluation.