WHY TUCK?

I came to Tuck interested in learning how to be a leader and a change-agent. I wanted to know how I could apply more rigorous business acumen and leadership to identify, invest in, and scale innovations to positively affect students growing up in underserved communities whose current school systems are not adequately providing for their needs. Despite the specificity, complexity, and non-traditional nature of my goals, as soon as I said this was what I wanted, everyone at Tuck went out of their way to support me on my journey.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

I helped start the Tuck Social Venture Fund, led the development of panels at the Private Equity and Business & Society Conferences, and served as co-chair of the PE/VC, Education, and Golf Clubs. All of these disparate leadership opportunities helped me feel a lot more confident in who I am. Now that I'm going back into the real world, I'm fully equipped to be the change agent I wanted to be when I came here.

CHANGING A BROKEN SYSTEM

I'm the first-born son of immigrant parents who came to the U.S. to give my sisters and I better educational and economic opportunities. My middle-class upbringing, my parents' education levels, and the fact that I grew up in a safe community with strong public schools, made my understanding of the American Dream everything Hollywood and Madison Ave sold it as—a simple equation in which hard work = success. But it was my first-hand experiences through Teach For America that showed me life outcomes had a lot more to do with “birth-right” than I originally thought. Despite the constant challenges and lack of opportunities in front of them, the students I was teaching were working harder than I ever had; their work ethic and willingness to take any chance to improve their standing in life is what inspires me to make real system level change in how we support all students, regardless of demography.