The light at the end of the tunnel is finally within sight for the Dec. 15 graduates of Mays Business School.
Each student’s experience at Mays has been unique, each path afterward just as varied.
A committed commute
Some students are already immersed in the real world, and have been for awhile. For example, Shawn Mays is a 44-year-old husband and father who has commuted from Houston since fall 2012, working full-time as an automotive instructor at Universal Technical Institute while working to obtain his degree.
The daily drive is 201 miles from his house to College Station, back to his job, then back home after work. “I did that every day I had class and over the five years I only missed four days of class – and they were all serious events, that’s why I remember. One was a funeral, my wife had surgery, I was seriously ill one time, and the last was due to Hurricane Harvey.”
Mays finished every class he started, and he currently has a 3.704 GPA. “I am proud of everything I have accomplished and of having had the honor to attend Texas A&M,” he said. “If I can be an inspiration to one person, to motivate them to do half the things I have done, it would be heart-warming.”
Other students have an entrepreneurial essence and want to use a graduate degree to help jump-start their ideas.
A bright future
Joshua Arey is an entrepreneurial-minded student; his involvement with Startup Aggieland has sparked his idea for a revolutionary augmented reality app. Startup and entrepreneurship course experiences led him to pursue a job with a local startup owned by a Colombian national who manufactures and markets insulated panels. Arey is providing guidance on U.S. business strategy and is pursuing opportunities with several companies after graduation. He is taking 18 hours this semester to graduate and begin post-college life with his soon-to-be bride, Gina.
Some students have more world experiences than others. Marcelo Lopez is an international transfer student from Mexico eager to be an entrepreneur. He earned a bachelor’s degree in management. Perales interned this summer in Venezuela with the largest producers of dairy and eggs in the country, where he gained insights into their supply chain and strategic business operations.
Some graduates are pausing to give back through nonprofit organizations before pursuing financially profitable careers.
A force for good
PPA graduate Kate Rohrbough is going to work for anti-trafficking organization International Justice Mission in the Philippines for a year before she starts with Big 4 firm Ernst & Young. Rohrbough wants to use her “time and talents alongside others to bring freedom from bondage” and slavery. In her role within the organization, she will have the opportunity to “support the investigators, counselors, and staff” who are working hard to see the end of modern-day slavery.
Philip Mann will graduate from the PPA program and take his CPA exam in January, then will move to Orlando, Fla., to work with the Jesus Film Project. From there, he will travel around the world for 17 months, helping film the movie “Jesus” in other languages, before beginning his career with Big 4 company PwC.
“A close family friend of mine told me about the internship in 2015, and I have been looking forward to it ever since!” Mann said. He spent four weeks during August in Orlando at the global headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ, where the Jesus Film Project (JFP) is based, to receive technical and cultural training he will need next year. “During this time, nine other interns, who will also be serving on the team, and I learned everything from navigating foreign airports without getting lost to coaching voice actors who do not speak English.”
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This story by Breagan Adams originally appeared in Mays Impacts.
