Simply a Matter of When — Bequest

Jonathan Bauer '83

I graduated from Lawrence over 30 years ago... barely seems possible... I'm still so young!

My professional career took a number of turns in the early years. At Continental Bank, right out of school, I joined an IT and Accounting three-month training program. I didn't have accounting and I had a modest IT background from Lawrence... but I was taught how to learn and "connect the dots." There were a few of us liberal arts graduates in the program and we all performed very well. Not that I was surprised, but while a number of finance and accounting majors struggled, we were able to understand what the bank wanted and come up the learning curve very quickly. I changed jobs after four years, and went to a boutique, technology consulting company. I loved the work and the challenge of solving different problems every day. While there, I started my graduate degree from a very reputable school. The educational experience was nothing compared to that of Lawrence. While balancing work and graduate school provided a challenge, the academics were "easy" by comparison. I was again reminded how good of an education I received at Lawrence.

I joined Deloitte over 21 years ago... it seems hard to believe. It's been a wonderful journey - full of new challenges every week. While some problems are more complicated than others, the approach to decomposing problems and cogently writing or speaking to a resolution are fundamental skills I learned in so many classes at LU - Professor Dreher comes to mind frequently. Given my tenure at the firm, I've worked with many people from a variety of schools and backgrounds. We all encounter challenges, we all get stumped along the way - but my educational roots have served me very well.

Lawrence gave me the fundamental set of skills I've needed to perform my job for many years. Sure I've acquired additional knowledge along the way, but the blocking and tackling that is needed to address the problems encountered day-in and day-out came from that wonderful campus on College Ave in Appleton, WI.

The decision to join Legacy Circle was easy. Quite frankly, it wasn't really a decision - it was simply a matter of when. I give Lawrence a great deal of credit when considering why I've been successful. Giving back in this way seemed a pretty obvious decision and a simple way to say thank you.