-: I became very involved in both Greek life
and student leadership.
Those experiences and the
both the faculty and the college of business
and the administrative leaders in student affairs
helped me grow during my tenure
such that when I graduated I had
an internship in the governor's office.
I later learned that one of those original
hokey mentors got me that internship
or maybe got me to the position
where I could get it for myself
but he got me in the door
because I was late to the process for that internship.
And then I eventually got a
full time job in the governor's office.
I got that job because of a lot of reasons
I would like to think I was qualified
and all of those things, but during the interview
I knew, I had done my homework,
I knew both of the people that were interviewing me
were Tech graduates.
During the interview, at the end,
the senior gentleman said,
"What have you learned at Virginia Tech
that could help you be successful in this position?"
and without missing a beat I said
I can stand up and sing the fight song.
And he leaned back in his chair
and the interview went on for another
five or six minutes but I was pretty confident
that if I was gonna get that job, I had just gotten it.
And I have found throughout my career
that my Virginia Tech connections,
whether they are older mentor style connections
or a contemporary's, that that's a very tight network
sort of committed to each other's success.
And that's been my experience from the beginning.