BYU: Everything I Didn't Know I Wanted

I didn’t originally want to go to BYU. I thought of it as the school “all the Mormon kids go to,” and I’ve never particularly liked following the crowd. It was a good school, but I had lofty aspirations for an engineering program closer to what I considered “elite.”

Then, during my senior year of high school, I took the ACT, even though none of the schools I was interested in required it. BYU did. When applications came around, I figured I should at least apply. Just in case...

After the acceptance letters arrived from several schools, I prayed about where to go. The answer became increasingly clear and undeniable: I needed to go to BYU.

My five years there weren’t exactly smooth academically, especially compared with my high school experience. But some of the classes that stayed with me most were outside my major: two entrepreneurship classes, woodworking, and History of Creativity. I spent a couple of years on the SAE Mini Baja team and three playing baritone saxophone in the University Band.

There was also hiking, weekly skiing, downhill mountain biking in summer, and plenty of sporting events, especially football and gymnastics. My family and I are still big BYU fans.

And, somewhere in all of that, I met my wife. That part worked out particularly well.

A few years after finishing my undergraduate degree, I got the itch to go back to school. An advanced degree had been part of my plan since early high school. What changed was which one made sense.

I no longer wanted a master’s in mechanical engineering. I’d learned more about what interested me and where my strengths were. With several years of work experience behind me, the possible pay increase also didn’t justify the cost.

I considered engineering management, but an MBA fit better. I’d been drawn to entrepreneurship since childhood, and I wanted to be seen as more than “just an engineer” when it came to developing products and starting a business. I wanted the education and, yes, the piece of paper that might open the door for me to prove it.

First came community college classes to fill the pre-business gaps in my engineering education. Then came Florida State: the best combination I found of business-school reputation, price, and convenience.

With a full-time job and a new baby at home, it was a different challenge than I was used to, but many long nights got me to my goal.