We love to learn from our alumni and this global Alumni Engagement blog features Penn State’s remarkable global alumni on a weekly basis. This week we interview Tomas Villalba ’18 for our weekly Global Alumni Spotlight column.
What made Penn State stand out as the place you wanted to pursue your graduate degree?
I had first-hand knowledge about Penn State’s academics because my sister is a former graduate. Through her experience at Penn state I realized Penn State had everything I wanted for my master’s degree, excellence in academics with a multicultural environment that allowed me to broaden my career path.
What is your current job? What has Penn State’s education (education and student leadership experiences) supported your capabilities toward your current career?
I’m currently working as a Project manager in the engineering department for a food & beverages company that works in numerous Latin American countries.
Penn state reinforced 3 core values that helped me boost my management and leadership skills: Excellence in everything I do, Responsibility for my work and actions, Respect for everyone. During my MBA, both the faculty and my colleagues taught me a great deal of this core values.
Both extracurricular activities as vice president of the photography club and a Latino club member gave me a different perspective of leadership positions, previously I had the vision from a work standpoint. I think I learned a great deal of humility during my stay on Penn State which wouldn’t have learned other way.
Tell us about a couple of Penn State moments that carry with you now.
The first thing that comes to my mind is a personal moment that has transcended for the last five years. I met my wife during my grad studies at Penn state while interacting on different student activities.
We first met during my student orientation (She was my student guide day on day one at Harrisburg Campus), and later on, we bonded during many activities of the Latino club.
What’s one thing that Penn State alumni can do to support today’s students?
I think Penn State is doing great supporting its students. They offer different organizations that help each and every one of us (even after graduation). Instead, I would encourage each student to take advantage of this support, I can assure you it will ease your life inside and outside campus.
Tell us a bit of your current life, such as your family, hobbies and/or community engagement.
I´m living in Bogotá, Colombia since 2019. I´m married to my wife Daniela since 2019 still no children on sight but happy with 2 little furry ones.
As mentioned before, I’m happy working as project manager for the engineering department for a food and beverage company, specializing in subjects such as automation, logistics and continuous improvement of processes. On my free time y like to exercise, travel and going out with my wife. I love landscape and architecture photograph.
What skills or traits should our students develop to help them succeed in a global job market?
Penn state should encourage every student to develop core traits that make students better professionals. In this new world where we use words such as pandemic and war, everything seems skewed out from normality. Traits such as resilience, excellence and tolerance are important.
Resilience to help you adapt quickly and accordingly to constant change, excellence to deliver always perfection (even in difficult circumstances) and finally tolerance to respect every opinion you encounter (even if it’s different your yours).
What are your two pieces of advice for our international students to become a global-minded citizen?
Enjoy and take advantage of the multi-cultural environment that Penn state offers. In order to become a global citizen you have to immerse yourself into different type of cultures, learn from them, and understand different points of view. The Penn State international student’s office is a great place for this and my advice is to take most of it while you’re studying.
Do you plan to visit Penn State after the pandemic is over? If so, what would you like to do after you arrive on campus?
I would love to visit campus someday with my wife, we had such amazing moments and met awesome people there which we would l like to meet someday soon.