Vanessa Davis will graduate this December with her degree in Supply Chain Logistics after excelling for several years at the University of Houston's Technology Division in the Cullen College of Engineering. In her own words, she describes her path to UH, and the people that helped assist her along the way.
The reason I selected UH for my degree was because of the wide range of majors to choose from, and the accessibility to multiple campuses, supplemented with online classes. This provides me with an opportunity for remote learning as well as traditional classroom settings, with support from the entirety of UH's educational system.
With UH there are a number of Master's programs that will be complementary to my Bachelor's degree, as I will start on it, as soon as I am eligible for educational assistance with my new employer. There was also the allure of being part of the Coog family, and establishing a resume that includes a university steeped in Texas tradition and globally recognized.
Higher education has been promoted within my family for my entire life. It was never a question of "will I attend a university," so the focus in my earlier years was preparing for the next phase of my education.
I am not one of those students that can go on cruise control and ace all of my classes. I have had to apply myself with many long days and late nights that included a part-time job. There were years preceding my time in college that I had academic struggles and even utilized tutors during summer breaks.
My mother is my role model, as she initially was a stay-at-home mom with my older brothers. She then went to nursing school and became an RN, before returning to school and earning her Bachelor's degree in nursing in 2017 at the age of 57. My brother returned to school and received his MBA from Temple University at the age of 40 while holding a full-time job and raising his two children.
With these experiences, I have a family culture that promotes education as a lifelong process that can be rewarding and achieved in many ways. Education and hard work have been the keys to support generational change in our family tree, and I embrace the opportunity to carry on what is now a family tradition. I hope that my nieces and nephew will follow in my footsteps by going to college just like I did.
Group projects have created an unique learning opportunity for me to experience being part of a team and they are an excellent feature of the UH educational programs. This is very similar to what will be expected of me once I start my career – being a team player. Some projects will require that I take the lead, while others will require that I follow the team leader and provide support where necessary so that we collectively accomplish our goals. Multiple strands woven together are always stronger than a single strand.
I have accepted a job with Matrix Service Company as an expeditor, which is in consistent with my degree in Supply Chain Logistics. I will begin this new journey in January, but not before taking a family and friends vacation to celebrate this milestone in my life! I plan to be enrolled in an MBA program in Fall 2024.