Red Bull Can You Make It: Brett Looney ('08)
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Brett Looney (left) with his Red Bull team and a friendly driver
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At the ripe age of 20, UW Foster School of Business student and
St. Joe's alum Brett Looney has already traveled far and wide. His enthusiasm for challenges and reaching his goals is impressive. This spring, Brett set out along with two UW friends, Dylan Siegal and JP Simons, on a unique adventure: the Red Bull "Can You Make It" challenge across Europe. Their team (Socks Crocks and Birkenstocks) was one of only ten U.S. teams chosen to attempt a journey from a European starting point to Berlin using only Red Bull as currency - for everything!
Brett and his comrades crafted a video as part of their entry; the video uploaded only 48 hours before the deadline. The UW team finished sixth in the West region, and was ultimately picked as one of the 10 U.S. university teams among the 100 worldwide teams. Brett's starting point to reach Berlin was London; other teams departed from Paris, Milan, and Vienna. An added hurdle was the requirement to hit at least six "checkpoints" that included challenges to collect more Red Bull "currency."
Brett enjoyed a certain advantage with the challenge: he has experienced foreign travel since high school. While at St. Joe's, former academic vice principal Rick Boyle nominated him for the Congressional Youth Leadership Council leadership conference in Bellevue. Brett subsequently attended the National Young Leaders State Conference, the Congressional Youth Inaugural Conference for President Obama's inauguration, and the Global Young Leaders Conferences in China (2010) and Europe (Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, 2011).
Needless to say, the Red Bull challenge called for a lot of marketing, negotiation, and ingenuity. Brett hopes to pursue a career in marketing, so he definitely applied the skills he is learning. He noted that the guys often faced rejection, but inevitably persuaded folks to help them on their quest. The Socks Crocks and Birkenstocks reached Berlin a day early!
Brett shared that his St. Joseph School years fostered his leadership skills, and that those first experiences with the Congressional Youth Leadership Council beginning with the recommendation from
Mr. Boyle got him going on his true passion - a love for travel. He still keeps up with a core group of friends from St. Joe's and returns each year for the alumni basketball tournament. It's evident that many more adventures await him.
Check out the Red Bull Can You Make It website as well as local KOMO 4 TV coverage of Brett's adventure.
Craft Brews Elevated: Nat Cutler ('92)
Nat Cutler is stirring up the San Francisco restaurant scene with his two ventures, The Monk's Kettle and The Abbot's Cellar, which he co-owns with business partner Christian Albertson. Nat paired up with Albertson after getting to know him thanks to their then-girlfriends, now wives. With an Economics degree from Claremont McKenna, Nat was a natural "business side" guy to complement Christian, the operations guy that had worked in restaurants and bars all his life, including some very beer-specific places in Boston and Colorado. Plus, "I had always kept the dream of running my own bar or restaurant in the back of my mind," he admits.
So, the Monk's Kettle opened its doors in 2007: a neighborhood tavern with great food that focused on craft beer. A few years later, with the addition of a new chef, the partners stepped out to open a restaurant in 2012 to showcase his talents, a place where the food could really take the forefront - The Abbot's Cellar. Nat confesses that he has "certainly never lacked for confidence" and adds that "failure was not an option." So, hours of hard work and sweat equity went into building his business. He did everything from learning the ground floor by taking a busser job to traveling to Belgium to research beer and food to, finally, establishing a successful restaurant that provided the chance to open another one on a much larger scale.
Nat describes his path to current success as "slow and winding." After St. Joe's, he went on to Bishop Blanchet High School and then to Claremont McKenna. He returned to Seattle, worked as Advertising Coordinator at the Puget Sound Business Journal (where he met his future wife, Theresa), tried to get a band going (!), and trained to be an EMT. When he met up with Christian Albertson and his idea plus experience for the restaurant, Nat declares, "I was in." He is still all in, with a growing business and a young family - wife Theresa, a Palliative Care nurse at Kaiser, and daughter Dottie Kay.
Does Nat give St. Joseph School any credit for giving him a start down this road? "Of course," he says. "SJS laid the groundwork for who I am and the values I hold. It was the place that really made me feel comfortable in my own skin. I think the first time kids are consciously aware of that fact is massively significant ... I was also a member of the first kindergarten class there, with Mrs. Andrews as my teacher." (Nat's mom, Barb Cutler, is the St. Joseph School librarian.)
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| Nat in the first row, second from left |
Nat and his partner would like to grow the business in California and perhaps further. Look for a Monk's Kettle near you one of these days?
One Leg at a Time: Max Andrews ('01)
Max Andrews, St. Joseph School staffer, set out in May to conquer the Pacific Crest Trail. His goal is to reach the Canadian border by September 8. Below are a few excerpts from his blog.
For additional entertaining installments, click here.
"The Pacific Crest Trail, we'll call it the PCT, is a network of trails that link amongst themselves to traverse from the Mexican border in California to the Canadian border in Washington. It's funny, when I tell people what I'm doing this summer, I usually get one of two reactions: "That's amazing" or "Why?" Lately, as I prepare to hit the trail, I have been asking myself the same questions."
"It was senior year of college when someone first described the PCT to me. I was sporting a Seattle ensemble in San Francisco: a big 'ol flannel and a beard. I figured, if I look like a guy who would do that, I am a guy who would do that. With that notion, I locked in the promised to do it and swallowed the key. The college years are full of romantic ideas and high hopes, some of which actually become tangible. My high hope of hiking the PCT, however, wouldn't become a reality until five years later. Until Now."
"The last few days in Seattle were interesting. My anxiety waxed and waned, depending on what numbers the clock showed. One of the fabulous aspects of hiking the PCT is getting into all of those nitty-gritty details that are attached to its underside, like barnacles on a boat."
"The trail is a lot like camp. New excited faces, nicknames, and common struggles. It's hard to push my body this hard and be this far from the reality I know, but it's been a hell of a ride."
"To accomplish walking 27 miles in a day you must be very disciplined. I usually wake up around 5:30am every day, so I can hit the road by 6:30am, or earlier. I usually make breakfast and a coffee, but leaving after 7am is "sleeping in." Each walking "stint" is for 2 hours minimum, but lately I have been doing 2.5-3 hour sessions. Breaks between these can be 15 minute to a half hour, but lunch can be up to 2 hours and has a 25 minute nap. This day usually runs until at least 7pm, but often goes until 8 or 9pm."
"We distracted each other well until about 10pm or so when I saw another bobcat. This one looked to be the size of a Labrador. He didn't like bumping into us either and bolted from the trail. I was even more on edge. From this point on we mostly discussed creepy, "what if" scenarios that kept us looking over our shoulders every few moments. Finally, it happened. We came to a point on the trail where something just out of sight was hissing. Loudly. "Max, please give me my hiking pole." The animal was big, or so it sounded. Armed with trekking poles held like spears by cavemen, we slowly moved forward. We kept our spears angle toward the noise until we had passed it, then went back-to-back for about a quarter mile. I didn't sleep well that night. You would think that would be the end of night hiking for me, but it was just the beginning. Free Refill and I teamed up for the next couple days, hiking early in the morning and late into the evening to avoid the heat. Over the next week or we crossed the outskirts of the Mojave Desert this way, covering 24-28 miles a day with waterless stretches of 13-20 miles. My legs ached and my feet were destroyed, but all was better than drudging though 95-100 degree heat with rattlesnakes and no water."
"On the day before my birthday, I was finishing a 25-mile stretch when I came across my first bear. He was more scared than I was, bolting down the mountainside, but I was still a little shook up. About the size of a St. Bernard, the bear was black with a brown nose. He was really more beautiful and amazing than scary."
