What was your major or focus of study at PVCC?
I took an English class with Nino Pascolati, my English professor at PVCC, and everything changed for me as that one class inspired me to become an English major. I love literature and writing, and he always made time for me during office hours whether it was about literary criticism or whatever we happened to be reading.
What were one or two of the most memorable aspects of your student experience at PVCC?
What I remember most about my student experience at PVCC is the care and amount of time professors spend with their students. Professor Michelle Marion always took the time to respond to my numerous emails about assignments or anything related to class. And I probably sent more emails than most of my classmates!
How would you describe PVCC to others? Would you recommend PVCC and why?
The professors care about each student and do everything they can to help them succeed. As a student, I always preferred smaller class sizes, so any student who wants support or feedback from their professors can get it here.
What piece of advice would you give to PVCC students?
It’s said that only three percent of all people write down their goals. The other 97 percent who don’t write them down work for the three percent who do. So write down your goals – make them measurable, with a timeframe, and for all aspects of your life including: financial, professional, educational, relational, and personal goals. You’ll be amazed at what you will start to accomplish by doing this one simple thing.
Tell us about your journey after leaving PVCC…
Since leaving PVCC, I started working in politics and worked in some capacity at the Arizona legislature for the last 16 years. I was the legislative liaison for the Arizona Department of Corrections for three years along with another three years on House Majority staff where I helped with communications for around 35 legislators. I’ve served as a state representative and state senator where I represented Glendale and north Phoenix. I’ve concurrently taught history, literature, and Latin for the past nine years as well. I’m currently teaching conversational Latin, full-time at Heritage Traditional Academy in Laveen. Meanwhile, I’m also running for Mayor of Glendale – boyerforglendale.com so life never seems to slow down!
How would you advise students on how to choose their educational or career path?
Find an industry or profession that you enjoy most and figure out a way to make a career out of it. I’ve always enjoyed writing, so I ended up as a journalist and later editor-in-chief of the student newspaper at ASU West. I couldn’t have done this without my English and writing classes at PVCC. This has helped me in every aspect of my life whether as a legislative liaison, a staffer on a winning national presidential campaign, as a state legislator, and now as a Latin teacher and candidate for mayor.
In your career journey, what has been one of your greatest successes and one of your greatest challenges?
My greatest success so far was helping firefighters who get cancer while in the course of fighting fires. It took six years of fighting the Insurance industry at the Arizona legislature, but I was finally able to get a bill signed into law that gives firefighters the health and workers comp benefits they’ve certainly earned. Now, instead of fighting a massive bureaucracy, they can simply focus on getting healthy. My greatest challenge has been battling those whose interests don’t align with good public policy whether that’s certain industries and their well-paid representatives or legislators who care more about re-election than what helps people.
How did your experiences at PVCC either directly or indirectly impact the work that you do?
Having professors who cared about me as an individual helped me to push through towards my degree even when I was working three jobs, and it also helped spark my love for literature and writing, which has changed my life in no small manner.