#AlumniSpotlight: Nate Weston

 

Our grads go on to do great things, and this alum is no exception! Meet Nate Weston, 2013 graduate. Nate is currently a Geospatial Ecologist with the Beaver Watershed Alliance.

Why should students choose UACCM?

As a non-traditional student, UACCM is the perfect environment for reintroduction into an academic environment, especially for students seeking further degrees at a university. UACCM has a welcoming, friendly atmosphere with helpful staff and faculty who are passionate in their encouragement of student development above and beyond mere conditioning towards a vocational degree. Nine years after graduating UACCM, I still enjoy the friendship of numerous UACCM faculty members and encourage students interested in furthering their education to attend UACCM.

What is/was your favorite thing about UACCM?

UACCM helped me pursue my dreams of achieving a higher education, giving me the confidence to overcome challenges and pursue opportunities I'd have previously been too overcome with paralyzing self-doubt to even consider.

How did UACCM prepare you for your career and life today?

My experience at UACCM helped me prepare for my career and life today by giving me the confidence to establish beneficial habits, endure challenges, develop and manage my own academic goals, network with peers and mentors, and develop achievable career and life goals.

What advice would you give yourself as a student?

Research your intended career goals and "reverse engineer" your degree path! Develop achievable "graduate/transfer," "5-year," and "10-year" plans as milestones.

Serious-talk time. I graduated UACCM wanting to be a chemist. The limited career options, incredible competition for meager opportunities, and apparent lack of satisfaction among potential mentors put me into a near-catastrophic crisis. It's a horrific internal dialog for a student balancing life, work, incredible academic standards, and self-expectations which made me feel I was on an inexorable crash course to my life's goals imploding. It was not a happy time which could have been avoided with more awareness of career paths.