Green to yellow… orange to red… The leaves changing colours remind me that its fall… again. While I am totally aware that the four seasons cycle every year, it is still taking some time to get used to it coming from a place where the “atmospheric thermostat” is set at around 80oF and sunny with clear skies most of the time. Ahh yes…Jamaica: my island paradise, white sand beaches, reggae music and… Brrr!!! *back to reality* I run inside to grab a sweater to provide some comfort to the chilly nights that are fast becoming colder and a harbinger to winter that should follow (Noo!!!). I jokingly ask my friend “can’t we just have winter every other year?”… sigh… seasons… and changes.
It has been just over a year now since I have started the TEAM program at the University of Rochester—a major change and transition from what was my norm. For me it was likened unto a new season, a new chapter in my life. An exciting one! A challenging one. But overall, so far, a rewarding one. Here I have had the opportunity to get the best of two worlds (yes! to have my cake and eat it too ☺). I always had the drive to one day start my own business but I was always a science and engineering “geek” and if I was to start any business it would have to be in this arena. The TEAM program allowed me to see just how “compatible” technology and business are and when the two meet, how profitable the relationship can be.
So I’m just about getting ready to finish my program, sealing the “marriage” between energy engineering and entrepreneurial business (who says opposites don’t attract?) and at the end of putting these two together, I get ready to face another season. When December comes I will not only be bundling up for the winter but I will be getting ready to transition into the working world. It will be a season with many unknowns—but it will be one that I am prepared for because I have had good foundation here at the U of R. I hope to gain some experience in the renewable energy field before trying my own venture (and hopefully being wildly successful at it)… but that, is another season.
– Levon Whyte ’13 (MS)
“Scribendo cogito- I think by writing”