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StartingJob: Technical Writer
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Year: 78
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Success. What do we mean by success, and what is a successful life? Is it a degree from a prestigious university? Is it wealth and material possessions, or is it recognition or fame? It?s funny, you eventually learn, sooner or later, that after a certain level, these things matter little.

I attended Bard for only my freshman year before I transferred to a college. What? Isn?t Bard a college? No, I?d not bestow such an insult on Bard. Bard is an experience, an experience like no other. The college from which I graduated prepared for my career. Bard prepared me for having a successful career and, more important, for being successful in living my life.

I can?t keep this brief enough to explain the depth and detail supporting these truths. I entered Bard in the Fall of ?77. I was admitted based not on my scholastic HS success, but on the conviction and passion I carried in my love for the visual arts. I was an OK student, and could have attended most any typical college, but I wanted a program that would allow me to focus on what I loved to do while also helping me prepare for a career. Frankly, Bard won?t help you with the latter, which is why I left after one year, but if I had to do it all again knowing what I know now, I?d still spend at least one year or more at Bard.

Leon Botstein, in my freshman orientation, espoused one central theme: The time you spend at Bard is learning how to become your own best teacher - for life. Now in my mid-50's, those words have guided me through life. That was a truly profound notion because it wasn?t just a generic platitude coming from this young college president - he meant every word of it, with true conviction. You?ll read from others that you?ll get out of Bard only what you put into it. Again, I?ll wager Leon Botstein is still giving that same spiel to incoming freshman more than 35 years since he laid it on my incoming class, and I am certain he still says it with the same passion now as he did then.

Unless it has changed drastically since I attended, (and I doubt it has), Bard isn?t for those that are looking for structure, or for those expecting to be guided through a college experience. You have to be extremely independent, intellectually curious, self-directed, and self starting, else you?ll be lost and frustrated and think the place sucks. Yes, the people are beyond eccentric ? and you had better love that as this place isn?t for the meek. It is a somewhat isolated place, not just geographically, but intellectually, and experientially. You also better enjoy solo time with yourself, your creativity, and your thoughts. Academics? The professors at Bard are top-notch, but they are not going to spoon-feed you; quite the opposite. They are there as creative and intellectual resources that you either leverage or let waste.

I launched into a successful career in high-tech thanks to an excellent college education and degree I received from Marist just a few miles down-river from Bard. Ironically, the way I gained entry into the high-tech corporate world wasn?t as a result of my Marist education, it was though my visual arts skills? something I honed while at Bard. I parlayed that into a high-tech career opportunity by combining what I received from both schools. I attribute my long-term career success in the corporate world to my ability to learn, think, and reason independently ? attributes I leaned in my freshman year at Bard.

I am now starting the 33rd year of my career in high tech. I wasn?t recruited from a name-brand college nor had any help or connections. I used my creativity to make an entry point. There I was, in new engineer training with cream of the crop recruits, mostly valedictorians, from the most prestigious schools in the nation. Most of them could run circles around me technically. I was able to compete because I questioned everything ? again, critical thinking that began at Bard. Three decades later I am in a corporate leadership role having had a significant hand and role in creating today?s digital world. I now lead many of the people with whom I was recruited and others that followed.

I do not consider my career achievements or material acquisitions as barometers of life success. Success is the joy of waking up every day and having purpose and using my creative talents. I?ve been extremely fortunate to pursue what I love, both professionally and personally. Those pursuits morphed over the years, but I never followed the script. No one that goes to Bard and makes the most of it are the type of person that follows a script. I didn?t just take the path less traveled, I made my own path most of the way. That is the most valuable lesson I learned in life, and I learned that at Bard.

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