Alumni Spotlight: Ryan Walters '11

After graduating from Berwick in 2011, I attended The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. It started out as the quintessential college experience. The fall of my freshman year you might find me throwing the football around on our quad, what we called the Sunken Gardens, studying for mid-terms in the oldest academic building in the country, where Thomas Jefferson was taught, or meeting with our chancellor Robert Gates, a former Secretary of Defense. Berwick prepared me well for this storied next chapter in my life. However, in the spring of my freshman year I suffered an accident – in the blink of an eye – that left me paralyzed below the waist. This propelled me into a career of purpose and one that holds many proud accomplishments. Joining a Big Four consulting firm in 2017, I immediately began to build a brand in the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion spaces. Both have resulted in incredible impacts – from front-line support of the country’s pandemic response, to helping our clients build more inclusive cultures for employees and customers. My proudest accomplishment is the work I have done around the latter. In this role I have helped large companies like Marriott design an inclusive Room for All across their 7,000+ hotels worldwide and supported a Silicon Valley based transportation company with their go-to-market strategy.

Berwick did so much for me in my four years on the Hilltop. Our school shaped my leadership style, allowing me to build critical skills while in student government. I was also able to build strong communication skills through the public speaking competitions I participated in and the need to persuade classmates and teachers in my role in student government. Yet, the two things I received from Berwick that stand out the most to me are my drive and passion. BA is a collection of talented and smart students and teachers who create an academic environment that is rigorous and rewarding. This instilled in me a fire in my belly to not be satisfied with ok, instead striving for exceptional. As I mentioned earlier, purpose is extremely important to me in my career. I would not have been able to find my purpose without passion, which is rooted in my time at BA. In twelfth grade I found a passion in psychology thanks to a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Cindy Briggs. Her AP Psychology class launched me on a trajectory to studying marketing and psychology in college. Her influence is a large part of why I am building a career in the healthcare field.

There are so many memories that tug at my heartstrings from my BA days. One experience that comes to mind is when a group of teachers, friends and I traveled to Kentucky after my junior year to visit our pen pals at Lassiter Middle School. The trip contained all of the elements that made my time at BA so special – purpose, new and exciting experiences, old / new friends and genuine laughter. We did everything – traveled to the University of Kentucky, visited Churchill Downs, ate at Joe’s Crab Shack overlooking the Ohio River and, of course, drank big red soda. We made lifelong friends with the students from Lassiter that trip (and the next summer when they visited us in Maine) some of whom I still keep in touch with to this day.

I encourage current students to spend time appreciating what they have today. So much of our life we are looking ahead to what we want or behind to what we had and forget to be grateful for where we are today. One exercise that I practiced while at BA was what I call “futurecasting.” Every so often I would imagine I was 5-10 years older and reflect on how I felt in the current moment and what I would say about the experiences I was living when I grew older. Now that I have reached that age, I find it was a very positive exercise that strengthened my sense of self and increased my gratitude.