No one in his family had ever attended college before Nate. Nate remembers the advisors in high school talking to him about college. “I just wasn’t ready to listen. You know that blank face you put on when someone is talking and you just don’t think it pertains to you.” Living paycheck to paycheck with his wife and newborn in Walla Walla, Nate knew he had to create a new path. ‘The future is so far away, the past so close’ struck a chord with Nate. He started attending the local community college in a journey that was to lead him to his MBA at EWU.
In searching for his path, Nate was drawn to electricity. “There was a magic to it. You can’t see it but get in its way and you sure know it’s there.” He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering. With his engineering background, he felt if he was to get ahead in the private sector, an MBA was the way to go.
“I want to say that the student family housing at Eastern made a huge difference in my success. Not only did we have a comfortable place to live, we had a network of support built in, with the other families, all the kids living there,” Nate says with gratitude. Now Nate’s wife is attending college and he has convinced his brother to pursue a college degree as well. There is little doubt that Nate will have his children thinking about college from a young age.
