In this episode, Colman Benson from the class of 2024 speaks with James Scott from the class of 1995. They connected back in the fall of 2022 to speak about James' path from Ohio to Holy Cross to the Marine Corps, culminating in his current career in banking. They speak about how a clever marketing commercial changed the course of James's career path and how you're never too old to reinvent yourself. What's even better, the friends you make on the Hill and the Holy Cross Alumni Network will always be there to support you on your journey. Interview originally recorded in December 2022. --- James: Two skill sets there will never be a shortage of, at least not in our country, and that's storytelling and problem solving. Those are the two skill sets that you'll never have a shortage of in terms of the workforce. You can do those two things, you can do them well. You can do just about anything you want in the industry that you want. And sky's the limit. Maura: Welcome to Mission Driven, where we speak with alumni who are leveraging their Holy Cross education to make a meaningful difference in the world around them. I'm your host, Maura Sweeney, from the class of 2007, Director of Alumni Career Development at Holy Cross. I'm delighted to welcome you to today's show. In this episode, Colman Benson from the class of 2024 speaks with James Scott from the class of 1995. They connected back in the fall of 2022 to speak about James' path from Ohio to Holy Cross to the Marine Corps, culminating in his current career in banking. They speak about how a clever marketing commercial changed the course of James's career path and how you're never too old to reinvent yourself. After 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, James chose to try something new and tackle a different challenge in his career. He landed in banking, first with Santander Bank and now as Vice President, Business Relationship Manager at Bank of America. The good news is that no matter what you choose to do, the core skills you learn at Holy Cross remain relevant. What's even better, the friends you make on the Hill and the Holy Cross Alumni Network will always be there to support you on your journey. Colman: Thank you for joining us. James: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me, Colman. So once you reached out to me, it was one of those callings where I felt like, hey, any conversation helps anybody, my words, my journey, give somebody some type of inspiration, I'm all for it, right? So anyway to give back to the Hill, I do what I can, whether it's small or medium or as big as it can be. Colman: Very excited to be interviewing today. Just a little bit about your Holy Cross experience. I know that you were part of the football and the track team, and I think that was the last undefeated football team until this year, the team of 1991. So can you just describe your time as a student on the Hill and what you enjoyed in some of your extracurricular activities? James: I'm a graduate of 1995 Holy Cross, not Catholic, not from New England, certainly not from Massachusetts. So my journey began out in the Midwest in Ohio, and then my connection quickly with Holy Cross became through a coach who was recruiting out in Ohio, recruiting football players. And I happened to be on the radar and took a flight out to Boston. Now, this is where it gets kind of a little interesting because I actually thought Holy Cross was in Boston the way they gave me the tour, kind of showed me along the Charles River and all through downtown. So I got super excited and then I guess I got distracted. I fell asleep on the ride from Boston to Worcester. Next thing you know, I'm on this beautiful campus. So right away, I just had a connection with players at that time. Met a couple of professors. Very good friend of mine at the time was Margaret Freije. And so that was almost instantaneous connection. I flew back home, excited to tell my dad that I think I found the colleg
