Philanthropy and Education.

One of my most rewarding experiences came early in my career when I led the Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA) Chinese Language program and launched an English training center in northeastern China. As a student, I spent a semester immersed in an intensive language program at Dalian Foreign Language University. After graduating, I returned to manage the BCA program, helping other students experience China through the same lens of language, culture, and independence that shaped my own perspective.

During that time, I also co-founded an English language school in the port city of Bayuquan. Native English speakers were hard to find in the region, and the local government welcomed the idea of filling that gap. I partnered with a local businessman to build the school from the ground up designing the curriculum, securing teacher visas, and managing operations until we opened with strong demand and community support.

Living and working in China gave me more than cultural fluency. It gave me a front-row view into how things move, how goods get manufactured, how decisions get made on the ground, and how critical relationships are in making supply chains work. That experience continues to shape how I approach sourcing, negotiations, and planning today. It taught me to respect the complexity behind every product and to stay connected to the human side of global trade.