By Nicholas Knoth

As leaders in many fields including medicine, media, law, foreign affairs, and business, UCC Old Boys have and continue to impact the world in profound ways. As such, UCC has a vast network of well-accomplished alumni that are an inspiration to many students. 

Nonetheless, five year-eleven students thought more could be done to take advantage of this invaluable resource. This is why Matthew and Marshall Wong, Emanuel Paduret, Patrick Szente, and Mario Jovanovic started Industrious. With the mission of providing insight into different industries from the perspective of well-accomplished Old Boys, Industrious will serve as a useful resource for students to learn about careers and find inspiration. 

Last week, Industrious had the chance to host an exclusive interview with Brad Rose ‘07 to learn more about the balance between athletics and academics in competitive environments and hear some of the lessons that Brad had to share. 

During his time at UCC, Rose was an active student-athlete who played for the varsity soccer team as a year ten and quickly became a key member of the team. After graduating, he took his talents to Yale University and, after a few years of working in various management positions at Maple Leafs Foods, studied at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Now, Rose works as a manager at Deloitte Consulting and specializes in Digital and Customer strategy. 

In the hour-long interview, Brad generously shared many lessons he learned during his time playing division one soccer at a very competitive university. One message I found especially interesting was that about facing adversity. When it comes to facing adversity, Brad emphasized that “it’s all about how you respond to adversity, to making mistakes, and hold yourself accountable to doing better.” Rose then shared a story about his struggles with various injuries during his soccer career at Yale to demonstrate how he responded to adversity. 

After a strong first season as a scorer and a leader on the team, Rose knew he would have a prominent role on the team in his second year. During his first game back, however, Rose suffered from a concussion which led to a mix of other injuries that ultimately prevented him from playing to his full ability. As Brad described it, it was a very poor season that destroyed his confidence. Although this was certainly not what Brad nor his team was expected, he didn’t let this setback ruin the rest of his university soccer career. After working tirelessly in the offseason to regain his skills and confidence, Rose came into his junior year more prepared than ever. He had a strong comeback and quickly earned back his starting spot. This story highlights how Brad didn’t let an adverse situation define his future but rather chose to create his own. Although this story revolves around soccer, the lesson carries over into many aspects of life.

This point is especially relevant now as I’m sure many of us have faced adversity this past year whether that be in the form of not being able to play sports, having trouble learning to the fullest extent online, or not being able to see loved ones. Brad’s message was that it is how we respond to challenges like these that make us successful, whether that be in high school, university, or beyond.

With so much experience with athletics, academics, and business, Rose had many more insights that he shared during the interview. This is why, if you are interested in any of these fields or just want to hear some valuable advice from a distinguished Old Boy, I would encourage you to watch the entire interview. The recording can be found here. To ensure that you don’t miss out on future interviews, I would also suggest following the Industrious Instagram account.

Building on this successful first interview, the Industrious team is working hard to secure more interviews with Old Boys like Brad Rose. Personally, I am really looking forward to hearing the next interview and am sure that many other boys are too.