Unlike most 11-year olds, when Corie Walsh was still a little girl she decided she wanted to become an aid worker.  Flash forward a dozen years, and today she's much closer to achieving her dream.  But when she was still in high school, Corie thought her professional dreams were unraveling. She was rejected from 9 of the 12 colleges to which she applied.  One of them included her top school -- Georgetown University.  Instead, Corie ended up going to Colorado State where she worked her butt off her freshman year and got a 4.0 which she used to transfer to the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill as a sophomore.  While at UNC Corie continued to work her butt off and double majored in Peace, War and Defense as well as Global Studies.

Unlike most 11-year olds, when Corie Walsh was still a little girl she decided she wanted to become an aid worker.  Flash forward a dozen years, and today she's much closer to achieving her dream.  But when she was still in high school, Corie thought her professional dreams were unraveling. She was rejected from 9 of the 12 colleges to which she applied.  One of them included her top school -- Georgetown University.  Instead, Corie ended up going to Colorado State where she worked her butt off her freshman year and got a 4.0 which she used to transfer to the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill as a sophomore.  While at UNC Corie continued to work her butt off and double majored in Peace, War and Defense as well as Global Studies.

Hannah Braaten has read her way through the publishing industry all the way to the top where she works as Editor at St. Martin’s  Press. Hannah discovered her love for publishing at Wellesley College-- where she initially thought she would pursue a career in politics-- but switched to English after taking a class with an incredible English professor.  She'd always loved book stores and in fact, worked in them during high school and college.

Hannah Braaten has read her way through the publishing industry all the way to the top where she works as Editor at St. Martin’s  Press. Hannah discovered her love for publishing at Wellesley College-- where she initially thought she would pursue a career in politics-- but switched to English after taking a class with an incredible English professor.  She'd always loved book stores and in fact, worked in them during high school and college.

Marie Appel grew up in a town of 300 in a lower, middle class family.  She was the first in her family to go to college and scored a scholarship that allowed her to go to Harvard for only $8,000 for her entire four year education.  While she was at Harvard, Marie earned extra money during various breaks by cleaning the dorms, specifically the showers, using a credit card to scrape off the soap scum on the walls.  But she also participated in amazing experiences at Harvard, like the sailing team, which she believes helped her develop resilience, organization and teamwork -- life skills.

Marie Appel grew up in a town of 300 in a lower, middle class family.  She was the first in her family to go to college and scored a scholarship that allowed her to go to Harvard for only $8,000 for her entire four year education.  While she was at Harvard, Marie earned extra money during various breaks by cleaning the dorms, specifically the showers, using a credit card to scrape off the soap scum on the walls.  But she also participated in amazing experiences at Harvard, like the sailing team, which she believes helped her develop resilience, organization and teamwork -- life skills.

Sanam Rastegar speaks 5 languages -- 3 of them fluently.  She also had 3 interesting summer internships at Independent Talent Group Limited in London, Maclaren and Hermès that she believes helped her hone skills that she's putting to use now in her job as a Senior Associate at McLarty Associates, a boutique firm specializing in international strategic consulting.  In those internships, Sanam got to try her hand at marketing, merchandising and assisting other full-time employees in important tasks.

Sanam Rastegar speaks 5 languages -- 3 of them fluently.  She also had 3 interesting summer internships at Independent Talent Group Limited in London, Maclaren and Hermès that she believes helped her hone skills that she's putting to use now in her job as a Senior Associate at McLarty Associates, a boutique firm specializing in international strategic consulting.  In those internships, Sanam got to try her hand at marketing, merchandising and assisting other full-time employees in important tasks.

Ladan Davia graduated from Chapman University in 2014-- yes, 2014-- with a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science.  Her dream, or so she thought, was to become a hard news reporter. Fortunately, she realized before she graduated the quality of life (there isn't any) of an entry-level hard news reporter wasn’t for her. After landing a job at Entertainment Tonight she decided to scrap the whole TV thing altogether.  It wasn’t until she started searching for another job online, one that would ideally match her interests, that Ladan realized something was missing. She spent hours browsing multiple job search sites and still couldn’t find a good fit for her professional interests. Instead, she got recommendations for jobs to be a gardener or a nanny. So, being the bad-ass 20-something that she is, Ladan decided to do something about it!

Ladan Davia graduated from Chapman University in 2014-- yes, 2014-- with a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science.  Her dream, or so she thought, was to become a hard news reporter. Fortunately, she realized before she graduated the quality of life (there isn't any) of an entry-level hard news reporter wasn’t for her. After landing a job at Entertainment Tonight she decided to scrap the whole TV thing altogether.  It wasn’t until she started searching for another job online, one that would ideally match her interests, that Ladan realized something was missing. She spent hours browsing multiple job search sites and still couldn’t find a good fit for her professional interests. Instead, she got recommendations for jobs to be a gardener or a nanny. So, being the bad-ass 20-something that she is, Ladan decided to do something about it!