“Life is a funny, fickle thing.”
That’s how recent CIA graduate 雷蒙娜Nahapetian describes her journey from aspiring law school student to the food industry and Masienda, a 加州-based purveyor of top-quality heirloom Latin ingredients. As the wholesale accounts manager, the online store and fulfillment manager, 也是马西恩达的记账员, she is committed to the company’s mission of sourcing ingredients that yield exceptional flavor, promoting agricultural biodiversity and sustainability, supporting small farmers in Mexico.
“I had all the aspirations of utilizing my degree from UC Berkeley to follow a career in intellectual property law,雷蒙娜说. “I took the LSAT, applied to law schools,, just before accepting my offers, I hesitated. I wanted something else in life.” After declining her law school acceptances, she began reevaluating her path and took a few community college courses, 包括烹饪方面的. That’s when everything clicked. “I began looking for schools to continue my culinary education她说。. “A friend had recently graduated from 中情局在灰石, with her input and that from a few other alumni, I decided the CIA was the college for me.”
After studying culinary arts at Greystone, Ramona transferred to 美高梅mgm纽约总部 为了赢得她 CIA bachelor’s degree in applied food studies. She built a flow hive for an apiary project. She developed a pollinator plant program for the on-campus Teaching Garden. And she made connections with her professors that she is forever grateful for.
“教师 truly is the most valuable aspect of the AFS program. Their hunger to create an ever-expanding curriculum and strive for better and greater things for students is endearing and admirable,雷蒙娜说. “Dr. 甄, Dr. 墨菲, Dr. Costura, Dr. 福勒斯特 made my short time in the bachelor’s program fantastic by pushing us and believing in us so we could harness our true capabilities.”
Ramona’s professors also connected her to Good Food Jobs, which is where she discovered Masienda. 在她的位置上, Ramona supports and maintains the Masienda team’s connection to its restaurant clients, coordinates the distribution and delivery of corn and 豆子。. She also handles the distribution of online goods such as dried kernel corn, 豆子。, 牙买加(传家宝木槿), 还有新鲜的玉米饼.
“I’m excited about working at Masienda, because it is a startup with boundless possibilities她说。. "随着我们的成长, more opportunities present themselves, with our upcoming launch at Whole Foods, we are anticipating a great leap in our capabilities and size.”
And who knows where life will take Masienda and Ramona next? Whatever the next big adventure is, she’ll be ready for it.