Career Bookends: US Peace Corps Stints Take Darden Alumnus Around the World
After a 29-year career at IBM, Mike Messick returned to the U.S. Peace Corps, where he spent years helping rural schools in South Africa.
Mike Messick’s 29-year career at IBM was book-ended by years-long stints in the U.S. Peace Corps, serving in roles as diverse as advising small businesses to training secondary school teachers and from Bridgetown, Barbados to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
In a profile by the Darden Center for Global Initiatives posted to its Global Voices of Darden blog, Messick talks about his experience at Darden and around the globe.
Since graduating from Darden, I have worked overseas for eight years total. Working in other countries has allowed me to realize that, at the end of the day, almost everyone has similar ambitions, goals and desires for their families, their children, their grandchildren. My time at Darden built the foundation upon which my overseas work could take place. Many, many times while struggling with my work abroad, I thought about lessons learned in Monroe Hall from Darden faculty including Almand Coleman, John Colley, Bob Fair, Chris Gale and others. I traveled with Coleman’s “Financial Accounting” textbook and carried [Professor Louis] “Rader’s Rules” with me everywhere — and still do to this day! The two rules that I’ve etched into memory are: “never run out of money or credit” and “if you don’t get the facts, the facts will get you.”
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