One of the best and most influential experiences has been my choice to move to Salt Lake City Utah to attend the University of Utah in 2011. Over the last four years I have been able to grow as an individual, student, leader and also as a team member. These experiences have been founded firmly around my student career but more so around the extracurricular activities I participated in. As for my academic choice and direction, this has been firmly planted around business administration. But since business administration is such a common undergraduate degree with my generation I decided to switch things up for a degree path. This helped me to land in the Parks Recreation and Tourism department with an emphasis in Commercial Recreation. Throughout my experience as a Commercial Recreation major I have learned a lot about what potential career paths I would like to pursue and myself. This involved classes, internships and experience in other programs at the U. While working at Snowbasin Ski Resort as an intern in guest services I learned that I do not want to work in the hospitality/resort management industry. My passions align more with innovation in the outdoor industry not the service side of the industry. One year later I started in the Entrepreneurship Certificate within the David Eccles School of Business, which has opened endless opportunity for the future. The four core courses gave me a new look into business in today’s society. In this same year I completed my large, 12 credit internship with Goode Ski Technologies in Ogden Utah. During this internship I the opportunity to work under CEO and President, Dave Goode where I was able to help with the development and prototyping of two new products that have been released to market this summer. The major product release was the new FlexTail, which is bound to set numerous world records this year. If you would like to see the revolutionary ski, go to Goode.com then to the FlexTail. This brings me to today, with graduation looming on the horizon in one week; I will be walking but I will be furthering my education as a Masters student in the Masters of Science in Information’s Systems program. This program can be completed in one year but I plan to extend to 1.5-2 years so that I am able to focus and learn the information thoroughly. The emphasis I am pursuing within the MSIS program is Product and Process Management. I will also take classes from the Software Systems and Architecture emphasis for a more broad degree. During this time I will be working as the production manager at Goode Ski Technologies where I will be able to practice MSIS class material in a real setting. Dave has approved me to help with his production management software that he built in 1990. Today the system is used but it is not efficient and easy to use. A new employee would have to spend 20+ hours learning the codes to use the software, I plan to make it user friendly for everyone so that we do not have to spend 20 hours training a new member of our team. I hope to cut this training time in half within one year. After one year I plan to live in the Lassonde studios upon its opening in fall 2016. At this time I may break off from Goode to venture into the Entrepreneurship world. While I am furthering my education I am also working with the Entrepreneurship and Strategy department in the Eccles School of Business/ Lassonde Entrepreneurship Institute. On the new Intersdisiplinary Entrepreneurship Certificate and the Entrepreneurship Major/Minor. My positions in the department are Admissions Director, Admissions Advisor and Teaching Assistant. Our team is also working to take 30 students to Bangkok Thailand for the upcoming 2015 fall break; I will help with the planning and administration behind this trip.
My greater goal for the long-term aspect is an Entrepreneurial venture started by the end of my Masters. My passion/ purpose statement states “I would like to find a better way to enhance the customer sporting experience because technology can help to make the user experience more enjoyable and safer.” I have two concepts that are currently in the early phases of validation. Both concepts are in the ski industry, one incorporates an avalanche safety system into a cell phone while the other is based around making the ski industry more efficient for consumers that are new to the sport. Currently big corporations like Vail Resorts and Boyne Resorts control the ski industry so this market could be very challenging to tap into. But it is time for some interruption within this market especially the ski instructor market. I look at this like Uber did in their early phases, disrupting a large taxi market was a very ambitious goal but they prevailed over time. An ambitious goal to disrupt big players in a market takes, passion, purpose and a greater goal; my greater goal is to make the process of learning to ski very easy for newbies while making it a safe enjoyable experience. I plan to start building a diverse reliable team over the course of the next year to start developing a company and end product by the opening of the Lassonde Studios in one year.