Extracurricular Activities:I did not take part in athletics or student organizations
What career or personal update would you like to give to your fellow Florida Tech Panthers alumni?
In addition to how Florida Tech helped me grow my career working in both Consulting and project management, I've used the skills to help start up my own company. The story of its creation is closely tied to my time at FIT. While you're away from graduation for my degree, I lost my wife suddenly to cancer. It was a devastating and difficult time. I took a semester off but did not want to give up on my progress. Instead, I decided to use the skills I learned and my childhood lessons to develop my career and take new paths. This led me to create RAD Dice and gaming. You see, the year my wife passed, she was making knitted dice bags with metal dragon scales to give all of our friends as Christmas presents. As I approached my graduation the following year, I decided to try and finish that project for her. I quickly found that I needed to gain more aptitude for knitting let alone a more advanced project like this. However, I had purchased a 3D printer for her the year before for her birthday and decided I could use that to help solve the problem. So I found a design for a dice holding Dragon egg and created those to help fulfill that final present for our friends. Everyone loved them so much that I decided that there was something here that was more and could turn into something even better. So, I decided to create a new design for a three-piece dragon egg dice holder and created RAD Dice and Gaming to share them with the world. The RAD Is more than just the colloquial term for something cool or radical, though admittedly, that is part of it. Those were also her initials, which makes it mean even more. So, in addition to my work doing risk Consulting, project management, and helping to build the IT department and marketing department for a private school and Clinic that helps children with developmental delays, I am also an entrepreneur growing this business as a tribute to someone I love dearly. My experience at FIT enabled me to grow and plan this business, and I am thankful for it.
How did your time at Florida Tech help get you to where you are today?
I would tell my fellow Panther alumni that you never know what path your career will take you, but taking the most that you can from the education you learn will continue to help you along your way. I did my studies online and was still able to connect with a great number of my fellow students from around the country and able to learn much not only from the class but from their experiences. This experience helped me earn my PMP certification almost immediately after graduation and has led me to increase my earning potential substantially.
What is your favorite Florida Tech memory?
My favorite memory from my time at FIT has to be our Capstone project and my team's success during that time. You see, we had all been in the same area of classes. Many of us saw each other several times during our studies as we all were in similar degree areas. Many of us came together at our capstone and saw many we recognized, including one gentleman whose name I will leave out for anonymity. This gentleman had been a project manager for many years working with the government and the dod and always had a lot of experience to share, which was very useful but also, at times, gave him a bearing that came off as a bit of I know it all. Little did I know we would have the perfect opportunity to have the last word. Our Capstone project involved a business simulation where we created sneaker companies and balanced our costs, marketing budgets, production quality, and several other factors to make the most successful simulated business. My teammates and I got together and created a strategy that worked well. However, after the first week, we came to find that this other team headed by our experienced classmate was in first place, and we collectively decided that would not do. So we strategized and knuckled down to make hours the best, not just because we wanted first place in the class but because we all collectively wanted to be our competition in this experience, gentleman, and prove our worth. We spent the remainder of that class after that week in first place and thoroughly trounced our competition. The teamwork and camaraderie on that project were outstanding and truly helped us reach a common goal. None of us could have been more satisfied with the work that we received on our project and conquered the more experienced team. We proved ourselves through that exercise. This set me up for further career success and gave me a satisfying end to my Capstone project and time at FIT.
Was there a mentor or professor who had a big impact on you personally and/or professionally?
As I mentioned in my response to what led me to fit, Professor Diaz had a substantial effect on my decision to come to fit and further my career. While I never met him while working full time and going to school at night online to fulfill my degree, the sentiment and reminder that I could do better if I chose to go back and apply myself to this path stayed with me. It helped also that where I was working, I was surrounded by many students who had been through his program and got to see the work that he could accomplish through his students—for someone who might not have the chance to meet again, Professor Diaz had a profound effect on me and my choice to continue my career growth. For that, I am thankful.
Please share any advice you have for current Florida Tech students.
Three things have helped me, and I would recommend them to others: focus on the next right thing, begin with the end in mind, hope for the best, plan for the worst, and expect nothing. When you find yourself bogged down, whether it is due to deadlines, your workload, or matters in your personal life, do not let yourself drown in the ocean but rather focus on the next right thing. Each stroke that you take to continue helps you towards your goal. It is easy to lose yourself in the ocean of responsibilities that you will find yourself in, but if you focus on the next right thing, you can keep your path moving forward. Next, you should always begin with the end in mind. This means knowing where you want to be even if you're still determining exactly where you're currently going. Keeping an eye on where you want to be and ensuring that your actions help towards that end lets you know the heading you need to take to succeed. It also helps to remove distractions by letting you see if your actions help towards that end. By beginning with the end in mind, you know the endpoint you are heading to, and while your Road May waver, you will always know where you are heading and want to be. Last is the adage that I live my days to hope for the best, plan for the worst, and expect nothing. First, we always hope for the best. It's easy to get pessimistic with many complex things that come up in life, and I'm certainly no stranger to adversity. But through it all, I always hope for the best because positive thinking and a positive attitude can often have a more profound effect on our success than we realize. Positive thinking can usually lead to positive results; it does no good to hope for the worst. If it's going to happen, it will either way, but you can at least face it with a smile. The next is to plan for the worst. Things will go wrong; there is no stopping that. As the story of how I started my rad dice and gaming company proves, There will be times when you will experience enormous and unexpected losses. By planning for the worst, you can ensure that even though you were going in hoping for the best, you will be ready. Even if things go wrong, you will be at least as prepared as you can be. Preparedness is the best way to make a catastrophe impact less and cushion difficulties. Always try to have a plan, a backup plan, and another if possible. Things will go wrong, but being prepared will help cushion the blow and let you go further, bouncing back stronger. And finally, expect nothing. Expectations are often pieces that become a reality, but we can usually become too focused on either heavily negative or heavily positive thinking, and both can be dangerous at times. If you are constantly pessimistic and expecting the worst, you can inadvertently cause adverse outcomes. Alternatively, if you do nothing but imagine the rosiest of scenarios and expect things to go well, you will often find yourself unprepared. You may not see dangers hidden by your rose-tinted glasses. Instead, I find it best to expect nothing. The world is nothing if not full of possibilities, and remaining open to those possibilities, be they good or bad, allows you to be better prepared for your life.
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