Bosch Reserve Spirits Scholarship

My professional journey in the whiskey industry began at Maker’s Mark Distillery, where I joined the bar program with a foundation in hospitality and spirits. Having bartended throughout Louisville, Kentucky, I understood service and whiskey cocktails, but Maker’s Mark challenged me to see a cocktail as more than a drink. Under the influence of lead cocktail curator Leslie Ross, I learned flavor development, balance, culinary techniques, and how a cocktail could communicate the story of a whiskey. That environment sparked my interest in sensory analysis and innovation. I experimented with unconventional ingredients and ultimately developed six cocktails for the Maker’s Mark Distillery Homeplace menu. This experience transformed my understanding of whiskey and made me increasingly interested in the relationship between flavor, hospitality, education, and storytelling. After approximately a year and a half, I wanted to understand what happened after whiskey left the distillery. I began representing Bardstown Bourbon Company and Green River Whiskey at festivals, retail tastings, and community events, gaining exposure to sales, marketing, and the three-tier system. Wanting to build further experience, I reached out directly to Wes Henderson, Bourbon Hall of Fame member, co-founder of Angel’s Envy, and founder of True Story Whiskeys. That outreach led to becoming the first brand ambassador for True Story Whiskeys and Saga Spirits Group. I pursued placements, supported sales, developed cocktail programming, and created experiential concepts, including Smash the Ordinary, a cocktail competition encouraging bartenders to reinterpret the traditional bourbon smash. I later expanded into multi-brand ambassador work through Bee Scene Agency and Fort Lane Marketing, representing portfolios including Suntory Global Spirits, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Good Boy Vodka, Surfside, and Jeptha Creed. Working across categories strengthened my understanding of consumer behavior, brand positioning, experiential marketing, and how education and storytelling support commercial growth. My journey eventually brought me to Preservation Distillery in Bardstown as a Visitor Experience Representative. Working within the independent distillery founded by Marci Palatella gave me a valuable perspective on craft whiskey. My responsibilities included educational tours, elevated tastings, cocktail development, events, and exposure to warehouse operations. This allowed me to better understand how production, maturation, hospitality, branding, and storytelling work together. Alongside my professional experience, I have remained committed to education. I completed WSET Levels 1 and 2 in Spirits, became a Stave & Thief Executive Bourbon Steward, earned the Certified Bourbon Professional designation, and became a Certified Whiskey Specialist through the Council of Whiskey Masters. These programs strengthened my knowledge of production, sensory evaluation, bourbon history, and maturation while reinforcing that education in whiskey is never truly finished. My experience at Preservation also helped inspire Her Pour Podcast. Seeing a woman build and lead an independent Kentucky distillery reinforced my desire to highlight voices whose contributions to whiskey are not always given equal visibility. Through Her Pour, I interview distillers, blenders, brand leaders, educators, writers, and other professionals while transforming my own education into opportunities to educate others. Whiskey exists at the intersection of agriculture, chemistry, sensory science, history, craftsmanship, business, hospitality, and culture. Receiving this scholarship would represent an investment in the next stage of a career I have intentionally built through experience, education, and curiosity. My goal is not simply to build a career in whiskey, but to contribute something lasting to whiskey through education, innovation, storytelling, and creating space for the perspectives shaping its next generation.