Ryan Driscoll

Freshman year I met a man named Allen Kronick at a networking night. While I did not know it at the time, Allen would have a great impact on my professional life.

Allen is a Senior Business Advisor at the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC). The MSBDC is an organization that specializes in helping entrepreneures grow and operate their businesses. After I spoke with Allen at the networking night we met about a month later for an interview. Soon after the interview I was hired as an intern.

Working as an intern involved creating and explaining financial statements for clients, reviewing businesses plans and participating in client consultations. My favorite tasks was to participate in these client consultations, which involved listening to a client’s plans or problems and brainstorming possible solutions. Working at this internship sparked my interest in helping small businesses owners.

I loved seeing the passion and drive these entrepreneurs put into their businesses. The potential for growth and development excited me. I was helping to build something important. My work had a direct positive impact in the growth of many different businesses and the happiness of business owners. This work meant a lot to me.

A few weeks ago Allen invited me to an event hosted by the MSBDC about acquiring loans for small businesses. Thomas Cebula, a commercial loan officer from Westfield bank was giving the presentation. In this presentation Cebula talked about his career at a smaller more local bank. He referred to helping clients improve their credit so that they could qualify for loans. He also referred to his finance educational effort in order to help people understand credit better. The event I attended was one example of this. Everything he said about his career was something I wanted out of my professional life. He worked with people to solve problems and help people. The local nature of the bank also appealed to me because you know the people and businesses you are helping.

From these experiences I've learned a great deal about myself. I will seek out opportunities to help people by using my talents to solve problems. My goal is too work for a company that does work to help people through thier services and through thier community efforts.