Alumni: Mercedes Ayers

26 years old Mercedes Ayers, who graduated from La Salle in 2010 chose a completely different career path than her fellow students. Even though she obtained a bachelor's degree in business and administration, she is now working as a airline pilot. She is employed by Ameriflight LLC. Mercedes lives in San Juan in Puerto Rico and there she gets to enjoy the beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean from her balcony every morning while she eats breakfast. Mercedes normally goes to the airport around 10am and when the cargo is loaded into her aircraft, she is ready to takeoff. She normally flies around the Caribbean for 5-6 hours and she also stops at several of the islands in the area including Barbados, Trinidad, Curacao, St. Kitts and Antigua. She typically gets back to San Juan around 7pm and spends the rest of her day relaxing until it’s time to do it all again the following day. After Mercedes graduated from La Salle, she did not expect to work as an airline pilot. She actually began working as a marketing assistant in a SAP consulting firm before she decided to change paths. As Mercedes chose a completely different career, she has not had much use for her knowledge from La Salle in her professional day-to-day work. She believes the most useful skills she obtained from La Salle are leadership and critical thinking skills along with risk assessment and management, which she needs for her job as a pilot. However, as her career required extensive technical training, the good study habits she formed at La Salle helped her a lot. As for recommendations to current La Salle students, Mercedes recommends to “follow your heart and follow your dreams. Don’t let yourself be limited to the path of least resistance.”  

A new addition to the blog this year is the alumni network. I have, and will continue to interview several professionals who graduated from La Salle. Here in the blog you can read summaries from the interviews and gain inspiration for where the degree obtained at La Salle can take you.