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Andrew Yacovone

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Finalist

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Winner

General information

Hobbies & Interests

  • Music Composition
  • Songwriting
  • Running
  • Weightlifting
  • Hiking And Backpacking
  • Singing
  • Acting And Theater
  • Community Service And Volunteering
  • Volunteering
  • Band
  • Reading
  • History
  • Writing
  • Chinese
  • Foreign Languages
  • International Relations
  • Public Policy
  • Politics and Political Science
  • Music Production
  • Travel And Tourism

Reading

  • Business
  • Biography
  • Economics
  • Environment
  • Health
  • History
  • Leadership
  • Literature
  • Novels
  • Philosophy
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Science‎
  • Social Issues
  • Self-Help
  • Science Fiction
  • True Story

I read books daily.

Bio

I'm an incoming MBA candidate at The Wharton School, an Army veteran with nine years of service as a special forces intelligence officer and an infantry officer, and a passionate enterpriser of the arts! I have always been drawn to the most challenging jobs. I’m a servant leader who thrives on helping others, paying it forward, and going above and beyond with every task. The military has allowed me to gain global experience – two deployments to Afghanistan and four years overseas in Europe – leading multi-functional, diverse teams through challenging problems. Outside of work I am passionate about music and theater, and have been fortunate enough to use my passion to create impact. While running a music publishing company, playing in a band, and songwriting, I raised $26,000 in a fundraising campaign for the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation. I want to launch “Dog Tag Diaries,” a music therapy non-profit that pairs professional songwriters with veterans during weekend retreats hosted across the U.S. With an MBA from Wharton, I will have the knowledge and skills I lacked while running my publishing company to grow the program and partner with the USO to create an annual showcase event with USO artists that showcase the best songs from our weekend retreats with our participating veterans. I believe I can help my fellow veterans cope and discover why songwriting makes me feel alive: because it is my window back to an overt sense of wonder for the world, allowing me to be uninhibited in my curiosity of what I can create and unhindered by the fear of what I cannot.

Education

University of Pennsylvania

Master's degree program

2022 – 2024

Majors:
  • Business Administration, Management and Operations

American Public University System

Master's degree program

2018 – 2020

Majors:
  • Intelligence, Command Control and Information Operations

University of California-Davis

Bachelor's degree program

2008 – 2012

Majors:
  • Science, Technology and Society
Minors:
  • Philosophy

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Master's degree program
Graduate schools of interest:
University of Pennsylvania
Majors of interest:
Business Administration, Management and Operations
Medical school interest:
No

Career

  • Infantry Platoon Leader

    Military · 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment (U.S. Army)

    Jan 2014 – Jan 2015

  • Infantry Company Executive Officer

    Military · 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment (U.S. Army)

    Jan 2015 – Jan 2016

  • Assistant Operations Officer

    Military · 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment (U.S. Army)

    Jan 2016 – Jan 2017

  • J2 Intelligence Directorate Executive Officer

    Military · Special Operations Command Europe (Airborne) (U.S. Army)

    Jan 2017 – Jan 2018

  • Chief Intelligence Officer in Baltic Sea and High North Analysis and Production Team

    Military · Special Operations Command Europe (Airborne) (U.S. Army)

    Jan 2018 – Jan 2020

  • Military Intelligence Detachment Commander

    Military · 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (U.S. Army)

    Jan 2020 – Present

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Health, Wellness, and Fitness
Dream career goals:
Non-profit Leader
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Advocacy
  • Politics
  • Volunteering
  • Philanthropy
  • Entrepreneurship
Bold Equality Scholarship
Female soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group – an element of the elite “Green Berets” – for the first time in 2016. Yet, when I took over as the Military Intelligence Detachment Commander in 2020, our work environment – an old German World War II building – had not evolved with the new policy: there was no female locker room, nor designated female showers or bathrooms. I immediately consulted our battalion engineers to discuss the feasibility of renovating the building to provide these basic amenities. All major plumbing projects had to go through the base’s Directorate of Public Works (DPW), and all construction requests had been and continued to be denied – and thus, our women soldiers’ right to an equitable work environment was denied. DPW reasoned the unit was projected to relocate – a running joke in the unit because of how many times it had been postponed – so they didn’t need to renovate the facilities. The treatment of this issue was unacceptable to me. We were here now, and our soldiers needed this now. I worked with our engineers to develop the plans and then garnered the support of my leadership to petition DPW for an exception to the policy. I succeeded. Construction began in July of 2021 and, once complete, our female soldiers will have the equitable facilities they deserve. In the meantime, my team and I renovated one of our rooms as an interim female locker room and lactation room for the nursing mothers in our organization.
Bold Listening Scholarship
Actively listening to someone is synonymous with actually understanding and engaging with what they are communicating. As an active listener, I start my process of understanding by preparing for a session with prepared questions and a cursory review of any material being presenting. I strive to fully understand what someone is trying to communicate to me via all forms of communication: verbal (message, word choice, tone of voice) and non-verbal (physical posture, facial expressions, hand and arm movements). In addition, when actively listening, I concentrate on the communicator and seek to clarify opaque statements or messages. I indulge in my curiosity by asking them elaborative questions and engage with empathy when appropriate. Listening on the other hand can be seen as a passive process and just one slice of the communication continuum. I listen to a podcast or the radio, but I am not actively engaged in anything. If you are listening to someone in a conversation, you might project a façade of listening and hearing what someone if saying by cycling through the same phrases (“Yeah,” “Uh huh,” “Okay,” etc.), but ultimately you are undermining the façade and showing you are disconnected.
Andrew Yacovone Student Profile | Bold.org