George Tyros

I grew up in the shadows of an industrial chair manufacturing city. Where once stood massive factories which employed thousands of people, now stand supermarkets and fast food restaurants. When the career and skilled jobs were replaced with minimum-wage and part time employment, middle class families found themselves traveling further and further away to find work and eventually packed up and relocated. The fact was, the city’s chair factories and their management couldn’t keep up with foreign competition producing cheaper furniture to be bought in discount stores for a far lesser price. This devastated the economic stability of my city. The infrastructure and public buildings which were built on the foundation of the success of the chair manufacturers became too expensive to maintain. The public school system faced major budget cuts from diminishing property tax revenue. The city is sinking and the situation worsens as the years continue to pass.

I’m different from my friends back home. They cannot wait to jump ship and get out of town after college, while I cannot wait to get back.

I chose to study operations management at the University of Massachusets, Amherst, after learning how vital the operations manager is to keeping businesses successful. It is their job to keep up with the market’s demand, create a reliable supply chain, ensure consistent quality and a range of many other vital processes within a company. I want to excel in and take as many of these courses Isenberg has to offer to enable me to help the company which employees me to continue to operate successfully and provide careers for a stable community for years to come.