Beaver Reflections:
I had an excellent Beaver experience as a lifer. The school’s small and intimate size allowed me to be engaged in leadership activities, which was extremely beneficial to me as I was somewhat shy coming into Beaver. For example, I got involved with the Student Council as the treasurer. All of my English classes were a ton of fun and helped me think creatively. My 10th-grade history class called Revolutions has provided me with an interesting perspective on the world. I also remember taking physics, which was very interesting and a great introduction to the world of engineering, a topic I studied later.

What is #happeningnow in your life:
After studying civil engineering at Duke and graduating in 2012, I worked in construction management for three years. It turned into a lot less of the computations associated with engineering but a lot more of the concepts and working on real-life situations with budgeting and scheduling. One of the cooler projects I got to work on was the Capitol dome restoration. After that, I changed paths and moved into an energy efficiency start-up. The company uses data to nudge people to make smarter decisions with their electricity. Following this, I joined some of my colleagues in starting another company called GetUpside. I joined as employee 20 and we are now up to about 120 people. GetUpside helps people save money and connects local merchants and users. We are mostly in gas sales now but hoping to expand into restaurants and groceries in the next year or so.

“I’ve always cared about the environment, and I wanted to help people make good decisions.”

– Liz Cobb ’08

Advice to current Beaver students:
Don’t be afraid to take a chance on something, especially at a place like Beaver. There are so many interesting people at Beaver that if you’re interested in something, someone else probably shares your passion.