My U of M family

In greek life we have a term called “legacy” which means you are related to members of the that particular fraternity or sorority. Although I myself am not a legacy of greek life, I am a legacy of the University of Minnesota and a career in business. My family is comprised of my dad, mom, older brother, and me. Last year around Christmas time, I realized how our entire family revolved around the University of Minnesota: I had been attending classes at the U of M through PSEO and had just been accepted into Carlson, my brother had just graduated from Carlson in May, my mom was teaching a class at the University and almost finished with her PHD, and my dad was an alumni and as we joked, a financier to the family for our education. Even more alike is our concentration in business. My dad is a director at Honeywell, my mom works for Medica, my brother is an entrepreneur who is moving to Chile for six or more months to launch his business internationally, and I’m planning on a career in marketing. Busy? Yes.

Looking deeper, I see how my choices in life have been shaped by the influence of my family. My parents sent me to private school k-8^th grade to have a structured and difficult curriculum. In high school, my parents encouraged me to volunteer, join National Honor Society, DECA/BPA (business clubs), and speech team just to name a few. Although I made the final decision to be a part of these clubs, I was encouraged and positively reinforced to do so. I know I would have gotten a much different reaction from my family if I told them I was joining the heavy metal club. Being typical parents, my mom and dad only wished the best for me and encouraged me towards those fields that had been successful for them. Although they would have been accepting of other career options other than business for me, they were obviously happy I chose to go to Carlson and peruse business. I believe their comments and advice, although in my best interests, were biased due to their lives and personal experiences. So although I’m not a greek legacy, I do have a legacy that is deeply enrooted in my life which I’m expected to live up to.