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Rebecca McCarron Greenhalgh is no stranger to smart wordsmithing, so it was unusual when she was suddenly speechless during an important Zoom meeting.
It was a business proposition that would change the life of Stewart R. Walkenhorst. A colleague was closing up shop and asked if Walkenhorst would be interested in taking over some outstanding retail orders.
Tracey Evelyn Haslam, a 2001 BYU Marriott management grad, was shocked when she took her four children to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
Jared Tate, a 2016 strategic management graduate, would rather build ties with his family than put on a tie every morning to go to work.
When Isaac Pettit was 14, his uncle gave him an extremely unusual gift--a unicycle. With the promise of $100 if he could learn how to ride the one-wheeler gracefully, Pettit took off.
When a teacher disciplines a grade school student, it is usually because the student was caught passing notes or talking in class. Unless that student is BYU Marriott alum Nate Gardner.
TRUE Africa provides educational and humanitarian sponsorships to orphans and other vulnerable children. “We operate entirely on volunteer efforts, enabling 95 percent of every dollar donated to go toward program services,” Hite says.
BYU Marriott strategy alum Gentry Davies has made a career out of solving tricky projections and analyzing future business opportunities.
After realizing his student apartment did not have a recycling program, BYU Marriott strategy alum Ryan Smith went to work to create his gig economy recycling company Recyclops.
Almost everything is a learning curve when you’re starting a business, and Sandy Whitaker, a 2003 business management alum, acknowledges that there can be plenty of bumps and detours along the way. But as she and her husband, Tim, a physical therapist, worked to realize their long-term goal of opening a physical therapy practice, Whitaker found that navigating the curve was easier because of knowledge and skills she had gathered along the way—from her formal education, her past jobs, and even her hobbies.
When Stephen H. Russell reflects on his life, he is struck by the way seemingly small decisions and ordinary situations have blossomed into extraordinary opportunities. “None of this was part of a strategic plan,” he says, “and I feel grateful when I see all the times Heavenly Father has blessed me.”
Four years ago, BYU Marriott alum Stephen Farnsworth wanted to move technology forward. In order to reach his goals, he took a risk—one that has paid off years later.
Born and raised in Honolulu, Thomas Y.K. Fong has long loved learning about the earth’s natural processes. He originally planned to earn a bachelor’s degree in geology at BYU and then pursue graduate studies in oceanography. But during one midwinter geology field trip to St. George, Utah, a sandstorm blew through the group’s campsite, prompting Fong to reconsider whether his studies had brought him too close to nature for comfort. “Halfway through that cold, sand-blown night, I’m thinking, ‘Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?’” Fong recalls.
In 1968 more than 150 students graduated from BYU Marriott with degrees in business management. Kristi Taylor Lawrence was one of the few women in that graduating class.
With more than two thousand miles ahead of him, BYU Marriott alum Matthew LeBaron started a bike ride across the country to raise money for diabetes research.
Just before heading to the University of Iowa to join the university’s swim team, John Fellows discovered a copy of the Book of Mormon on a bookshelf in his parents’ home in Boise, Idaho. He packed it in his bags, and before long he called the missionaries wanting to know more. The combination of his baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a swimming-prohibitive injury led him to transfer to BYU, where he joined the Army ROTC and discovered what would become his lifelong career.
Almost every May, between four hundred and seven hundred people, attend a Norwegian Constitution Day celebration at the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City and enjoy traditional Norwegian lefse flatbread and Solo orange soda. For more than a decade, the chair of the event’s committee has been 1995 business management grad Steve Affleck, who doesn’t have even a bit of Norwegian ancestry.
Whether he's dealing with career changes, family illness, financial struggles, or even "gnarly teeth," BYU Marriott strategy graduate Nathan Winn has been determined to move forward with a smile.
Whether he's changing his major or leaving the corporate world behind to travel the world, strategy alum Eli Tucker isn't afraid to make changes to his life plan as he goes.
BYU Marriott alumna Michelle Carroll's student job at the BYU Marriott advisement center led her to her strategy degree, her future husband, and a career at Bain & Company in Dallas.
Hearing a mix of languages was commonplace for Everet Bluth, who grew up speaking both Spanish and English on his family’s farm in a Latter-day Saint settlement in northern Mexico. Life at home, Bluth says, “evolved around family, church, work on the farm, school, and sports.” He says he had a typical childhood—except that he started driving farm equipment when he was eight.
Living without a washing machine and other conveniences was hardly what Kim Kimball Fale had in mind after graduating from BYU. She had earned a bachelor’s in business education in 1977 and a master’s in business education with an emphasis in organizational behavior in 1979. But when her husband, Tevita, suggested they move to his native Tonga for a few years, Fale agreed.
Following her grandpa and father, Itza Miller came to BYU bright-eyed and cougar-tailed. As her BYU experience recently came to a close, Miller says she has appreciated the moments that guided her towards the people she calls her strategy family.