Aaron Carvell '99 currently serves as one of the heads of Old Home Distillers, a family owned distillery in Lebanon, New York. In our conversation, we chat about taking risks, the joys of family, being a trombonist, and building community wherever you go.
When I feel myself starting to become risk averse and say "ooo this is making me feel creepy, I’m not sure I want to take this opportunity, you know, what if it’s not what I expected?" I have to remind myself none of its ever been what I expected. And I just gotta keep saying yes to stuff and it keeps working out.
Caroline Fan '03 and Kevin Hsueh '03 live just outside of St. Louis. Caroline is a startup consultant, community organizer, and founding President of the Missouri Asian American Youth Foundation. Kevin is an infectious disease doctor and faculty member at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They share some of their community work, joys of gardening, introduced us to their dog Pixie, and talked about how journeys have failures and that is ok.
C: If you wind up at Williams, right, you’ve generally been a really excellent student and had success in many things...
K: You’re going to fail no matter what.
C: It’s just about learning from your failures and eventually picking yourself up and sometimes it takes longer than you think but you cannot expect that everything you do is going to be a smashing success, right, and so you just have to go and do the things anyways
K: And if everything you do is a smashing success, you probably aren’t challenging yourself enough.
Eze Redwood '06 calls Kansas City home. He helps small and mid-sized companies with marketing needs as VP of Lillian James Creative and also helps run two Wings Cafe locations. We talked about finding your passions, taking risks, and being given a chance to do more from others who believed in him.
I know that for people who really want to be game changers and single handedly impact the world around them, you’ve got to be good at different things and have exposure to different things because you never know when you’re going to need it.
Alex Sherman '13 currently lives in Cleveland, OH and works as a speech pathologist. In our conversation, we chat about her work, trivia, fostering kittens, and the importance of listening to connect with others.
One thing I really internalized from Williams was the importance of listening to others and understanding where they’re coming from and their viewpoints.
Outstanding meetings with Ephs from all over. Such an epic adventure you are undertaking! Safe travels.