Hello everyone! My name is Nathan and I am a 25-year-old Saint Louis native. I have spent every year except for my undergraduate years here and hope to continue building my life here after graduation.
My siblings have always been a strong part of my life growing up. Like any kid, I lacked any sense of originality, wearing whatever clothes my brother thought were cool and watching whatever movies my sisters liked. During my big copycat phase, I would always tell people I wanted to be a businessman like my father. My view on the career path was a bit naive as I mostly remembered the Rams and Cardinals games he would take me to with clients and their children and the take your kid to work days where I would sit in his office eating my favorite candy, Whoppers.
After graduating from the University of Missouri–Columbia in 2022 with degrees in Biology and Psychology, I was unsure what I wanted to do with my life. I spent the year working as a Senior Crisis Counselor for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline, an organization I had volunteered with during my undergrad. My recent decision not to pursue medical school led me to look at several post-graduate master or doctoral degrees. I ultimately settled on an Olin business degree because I knew I wanted to pursue something challenging, and flexible, that could help me to build my future career in my hometown.
Mental health has always been a passion of mine and spending years working on the crisis line showed me just how important strong friendships can be for your mental well-being. This past year I took over as the President of the Olin Zymology Club. This organization combines the Beer and Mead Society and the Wine Club from last year to host happy hours and other events to foster stronger relationships among classmates. My goal is to expand this organization even farther across Olin and Wash U as a whole to allow for more connections and friendships across programs and class years. As it stands now, the club hosts two happy hours and month and is looking for more ideas and events to help build a more tight-knit Wash U graduate community.
As I finish up my final semester here at Wash U, I am eager to create even more lifelong friendships and help foster an organization that can help the community for years. Upon graduation, I will return to Nestle Purina where I spent my summer gaining experience and meeting incredible people in brand management. During the summer, I was invited to a Cardinals game with colleagues and spent some time eating candy at my desk, so maybe my childhood dream wasn’t too far off.
I can’t wait to see more people at the Zymology Club events! Cheers!