Over my professional career, I've grown to love working with college students and early professionals because I believe that what one does early in their career has an oversized impact on how their career develops over the long term. Plus they feed me. Working with students and early professionals was not what I imagined myself doing as a career. My first love was boxing, and growing up, my dream was to be the next legendary world champion. That didn't happen. However, along my journey, I discovered, rather late, that my true passion is to help others. I found my joy to help others during my last deployment to Iraq in 2006, where I oversaw humanitarian aid distribution to the people of Ramadi, Iraq. Working with the local leaders and getting to know the city's residents brought me peace, ironic since we were in a combat zone. My contract with the Marine Corps ended in 2006, and after eight years of active duty, I decided to move on.My post-Marine Corps professional journey has given me insights into what I want to do as a professional and how I want to help others. I was a personal trainer but realized that I hated sales, though I loved working with clients. I've lobbied in DC which was enough to know that I didn't want to be in politics, I did national level advocacy through radio, TV, podcasts, and print, which was fun and stroked my ego, but it still wasn't "that thing." I've done over 100 community service projects across the nation, and though that was personally fulfilling, it still wasn't "it." I stumbled into talent development, and what I've discovered is that I love serving students, I enjoy working with students to get the skills they need to achieve their post-graduation goals. I look forward to coaching them through the process of building their professional brands. I support them as they develop their network through outreach and informational interviews. I celebrate with them when they sign their job offer or accept their seat in graduate school. After almost ten years of doing this, seeing a student leave my program with a degree in one and a job offer in the other still excites me. Moving forward, I am going to complete my Master's degree in Organizational Leadership where I am specializing in Instructional Design, and looking forward to applying my 10 years of talent development experience with Instructional Design and UX Design to create intuitive learning experiences for learners everywhere.