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Alumni Spotlight ROTC Strategy
After completing his undergraduate degree in environmental science from BYU, Trenton Blair jetted from soil labs to B-52 cockpits and joined the US Air Force.
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.
As a teenage boy, C. Todd Linton fell in love with airplanes. This moment was the beginning of a lifelong pursuit in the field of aviation.
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.
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, were life changing for 13-year-old Nathan Christiansen. That day would inspire Christiansen to serve his country.
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.
When former BYU ROTC cadet Scott Lovejoy was a newly enlisted medic in the United States Army, he received a surprise visit from his father that changed his life.
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.”
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.
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.
Whether he's flying helicopters across Afghanistan and Iraq or running 100-mile ultramarathons, Jeff Timmons applies lessons that he learned at BYU Marriott.

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.
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.

A fascination with aviation and the bond he had created with his grandfather at a young age would eventually lead BYU Marriott finance alum Trevor Findlay to his future career as an army pilot.

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.

When life threw U.S. Army Brig. Gen. William D. "Hank" Taylor a curveball while he was a pitcher on BYU's baseball team, he found a new course with BYU's Army ROTC program.

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.

Quick transitions between life events have always been part of Merle Allen’s unofficial strategy for most of his life. At BYU’s 1954 graduation dance, the marketing grad, senior class president, and former varsity football player proposed to his sweetheart, Carol Beckstrand. After the MC announced the happy news, Allen says they then rushed to Beckstrand’s parents’ home to “tell her folks so we’d get to them before somebody else did.”
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.
When she first entered the Army ROTC program at BYU Marriott, Anna Hodge could only do seven push-ups. By holding herself to high expectations and unwavering dedication, Hodge became a highly skilled and valuable cadet who could do seventy push-ups.