This past week, the Hope College Alumni Association, along with Career Services, sponsored two workshops for students and community members to attend. In addition, awards were given to the two speakers for the excellent achievements that have accomplished in their short careers.
The two speakers, Matt Scogin (’02) and Maxine Gray (’04), have both done some amazing things in their lives. Currently Matt is the Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff at the New York Stock Exchange. Maxine Gray, now works for Starbucks as a recruiter. In addition, she manages a Twitter page, LinkedIn site, and Instagram account for the HR department at Starbucks.
Listening to these two alumni of Hope College was extremely encouraging to me. Seeing how successful Matt and Maxine reaffirmed my decision to attend Hope College. It helped me remember that Hope does really prepare students to lead lives of leadership.
The topic that Matt discussed was leadership. It was apparent through everything that Matt said that he truly believes that anyone can be successful if they are willing to work hard. Living in America, we have access to some of the greatest resources in the world. According to Matt, those of us living now are living in an extremely unique time where we can learn about anything and everything; however, many times, we do not take advantage of our opportunities.
At the end of his lecture, Matt left his audience with the following advice, which I really liked:
- Dare to be great!
- Lead for the right reasons
- Find what dissatisfies you, and make a difference
- Start now
- Have a plan, but don’t be so blinded by the plan that you miss out on great opportunities
- Consider the non-conventional path
- Follow your passions