Andrés Jimenez
Paly, Class of 2019
Foothill College, Class of 2021
San Diego State University, Class of 2023
Foothill College, Class of 2021
San Diego State University, Class of 2023
Andres will be graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in business
administration from San Diego State University. What was your experience like in college? Did you feel prepared? Paly definitely prepared me for college. Because of the work I had done at Paly, it was a pretty easy transition. After Paly, I spent two years at Foothill College, earned an associate’s degree, and then transferred to San Diego State. My goal was to stay on the same college timeline, meaning I would graduate with my bachelor’s degree in four years. I’m happy to share that I am now on track to graduate in May with a degree in business administration from San Diego State University. How was the transition from Foothill to San Diego State? San Diego State has a tougher workload and is more time-consuming for sure. But it has helped that I have a passion for learning about business, and I have really enjoyed all my business classes, especially my accounting and marketing classes. One of my favorite non-business classes was Hispanic culture. I also took a few writing classes. Although I don’t always enjoy writing, I think being able to write well will help me in my future career in business. How did programs such as AVID and Rise Together Education help you on your path to college? Being a part of the AVID* program during my years at Paly made such a difference in my high school experience and helped me prepare for college. Paly’s college advisors were helpful as well. Crystal Laguna, my Paly counselor, showed me ho to navigate the college process. My main Paly scholarship, which allowed me to pay for college, was my four-year scholarship from Rise Together Education. Kimberly Schwan, a mentor with Rise, checked in with me several times a year while I was at Foothill and San Diego State. I appreciated those phone calls because it just gave me a chance to vent a bit whenever I was feeling any kind of stress about college. It was nice to be able to talk about it with someone. *AVID is an elective class offered at Paly for students who are often the first-generation college students Have you had a chance to explore any business careers while at college? Last summer, I was hired as a Frito-Lay Sales Management Intern at their offices in Boise, Idaho. Living in Idaho for the summer was a huge change from living in California. California obviously has much more diversity, so it was a bit harder for me to relate to life in Idaho, but I was happy to have the experience to intern at a major U.S. company and learn about Frito-Lay’s business. Before the Frito-Lay internship, I worked part-time in sales at Footlocker and also worked with Gatorade on the Stanford campus. In high school, I played football for four years, so getting a chance to support the athletes at Stanford as part of the Gatorade team was a cool experience. What are your plans after graduation? I feel confident that I will be able to find a job in business in the next few months. I’m exploring different options right now and plan to attend the upcoming job fairs at San Diego State. But my main focus for the spring is to keep working hard in class so that I’m ready to graduate in May. Congratulations to Andrés on his upcoming graduation! |