Introduction

My name is Travis Crafton. I am an IT project manager for GE Energy, a division of General Electric. My educational journey has been something a long and winding road. I attended various community colleges in my home state of Kansas and also spent a semester at Emporia State University. 6 months and one wedding engagement later, it became clear that commuting from Wichita to Emporia was not a sustainable path to my undergraduate degree. I returned to Wichita and began to work full time with the intention of saving some money and returning to school “later”.

As is often this case with later, it took longer to arrive than I had planned. After a break of 3 years, I enrolled at Tabor College and earned my undergraduate degree in Management and Organizational development. Not wanting to lose momentum I immediately enrolled at Baker University to begin working on my MBA. It wasn’t long before I began to feel the effects of pressure at work and the strain of trying to balance life at home with a growing family. I decided that I wasn’t able to commit fully to continuing my education at that point and decided once again to take a break and finish “later”.

In this case, later meant a break of about 2 years before I enrolled again, this time at Southwestern College. I completed 4 courses in the MBA program at Southwestern before I hit a major roadblock. Along re-embarking on my MBA, I had also recently started a new job. With the new job came new projects and unfortunately a fair amount of travel. I found that I was unable to effectively manage the workload between school, work and travel and once again, I felt that I had to step away from my schooling and come back to it, yes…later. 

8 years, 2 kids, a new job and a cross-country relocation later I began to feel that the time was right for me to finish what I started. Even though I knew that it would be difficult and that I would face all of the same pressures that I had faced before, I felt that I owed it myself professionally to make this commitment and earn my graduate degree for the advantage it would give me in my career. I felt that I owed it to my children to set an example of a man who keeps his commitments and isn’t afraid of hard work and sacrifice. Finally, I felt that I owed it to myself personally as a person who values learning and the ability to think critically above almost anything else. I knew that there would be no better time than now. 

In the end, the MBA program at Southwestern was as challenging, at times even difficult, as I expected it to be. I struggled to find the time for my assignments. I sacrificed time with my family and I put many of the more enjoyable aspects of life on hold in pursuit of this degree. I now have the opportunity to look back on the past 15 months and reflect on what I have learned and how I have grown through this challenge. This portfolio will illustrate that growth by exploring my understanding of key business concepts, the legal and ethical implications of a global business environment, how I have developed advanced communication skills both verbal and written and finally, my commitment to becoming a lifetime learner.