Jason Jones ’19

I got out of the Navy four years ago and found an engineering position at a company that I really want to grow with. We’re one of the largest suppliers of printed circuit boards in the world—from consumer electronics to medical, automotive, aerospace, and defense products. There’s a big role for sustainability in manufacturing, and Yale’s sustainability track offered me the best option for an education in this growing field. Eventually, I envision being in a position where I can help determine how we best utilize resources at my company’s different sites.

At my company, a significant portion of our revenue is coming from China right now. I’m hoping to one day be assigned to China, and that’ll mean picking up my family and relocating. I’m going, myself, in June for a week, as part of a Global Network Week for students in the executive MBA program. I’ll be studying at Fudan University in Shanghai. We’ll be doing site visits and immersing ourselves in the Chinese business culture. My company already has facilities in Shanghai, so I’ll be visiting those for the first time, too.

I have twin eight-year-olds, a boy and a girl. We share a bond that we’re all in school. They’ll ask, “Dad, did you like school? Do you have recess?” I try, as much as possible, to get them involved in what I’m doing. I bring them to campus to visit my classrooms or go to the Peabody Museum or one of the other great museums at Yale. Every excuse I have to involve them, I do, because it serves two purposes: One, I get my work done, and, two, they feel involved and learn something. It’s a win-win.

In the Innovator course, we had an assignment to take a C-clamp and two wooden planks and make a coat rack. I brought it home and I was playing with it, and I said, “All right, kids. Help daddy with my homework. How can you make a coat rack?” They just got right in it and started building. It was neat to see that.