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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: HESSMER BECOMES "CENTRALLY GROWN"

By Eric Duarte (RPTA '13), Staff Writer

In the peaceful, natural lands adjacent to Highway 1, South of San Simeon, RPTA student Carina Hessmer ('12) has found an organic experience as part of Centrally Grown, LLC.

The enthusiastic Hessmer, who transferred to Cal Poly after traveling to Ecuador, essentially developed her own concentration in Sustainable Operations, and she is on track to graduate this coming December. She has joined the team at Centrally Grown in a management capacity and is currently developing plans for a sustainable destination spot in the company's unique, secluded, and spectacular location in Cambria on California's spectacular Central Coast.

Centrally Grown is a sustainable living lifestyle brand with a mission that reads: To create transformative experiences for individuals and communities, inspired by nature, rooted in history, cultivated by curiosity, and advanced by simplicity. "Sustaining the simple life" is their core value, and Hessmer says RPTA has taught her "the art of applying vast amounts of gathered knowledge to create and operate a business."

Hessmer is showing how a unique concentration can fit into the RPTA mission that is built upon providing positive and meaningful experiences to others. She has the title of Operations Strategist, and her main focus is the development of sustainably aimed recreation programming for transformational experiences. Using skills gained from RPTA classes, she is also performing project management, event coordination, and intern management.

With RPTA's vision "to promote healthy lifestyles, protect memorable places, and facilitate life-enhancing experiences," it's refreshing to see a recent graduate and a company contributing to the wellness of the world through experiences. When asked what advice she could pass on to other RPTA students, Hessmer says, "Leading a life that you love is absolutely vital to success."

Words like that are seldom heard in other fields, and it makes us all proud to see Hessmer grasping the power she says that we all have to "create our lives!"

Centrally Grown is set to open officially in the spring of 2013. Once the official website is launched, you can learn more about the company at: http://centrallygrown.com

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