Students have the opportunity to explore the business field through the school’s Business & Finance Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway. However, for Alli Billmeyer, Intro to Business Management teacher, her pathway to entering the business world was not traditional.
Billmeyer is one of the six Business & Finance CTE teachers, and a former student at the University of Stanford.
“My major in undergrad was human biology,” Billmeyer said. “It’s a unique major because you can combine the biological human element with behavioral, cultural, ethical and different conversations … so it’s definitely a holistic approach to human beings.”
The major can segway towards a range of fields like psychology, healthcare and social services, to name a few. After graduation, Billmeyer dabbled in sales and marketing, then applied at a healthcare startup.
“It was called Collective Health, and it helped health insurance be more user-friendly for employees,” Billmeyer said. “In my head, human biology correlated it to the health industry … I was definitely underqualified for [certain positions], but it really forced me to grow. I wore many different hats.”
While working at the startup, Billmeyer’s mindset began to shift.
“I’m very goal-focused, and I had this goal of where I wanted to be at my startup,” Billmeyer said. “When I achieved that goal, I felt very unfulfilled, which was a sign that I was chasing the wrong thing.”
Between struggles with career paths and self-made goals, Billmeyer was drawn back to Torrey Pines High School. As one of the school’s cross country and track and field coaches, Billmeyer took on the role of a long-term substitute and found a passion for education.
“Because I had the business credential, that allowed me to teach a CTE course,” Billmeyer said. “If [someone] has a certain amount of hours in [a profession with the correlating CTE course], [they are] eligible to teach.”
Billmeyer applies insight from her journey to her business electives.
“I tell our students that the most impactful class that I took was a public speaking class, and I was so nervous for it [that] I would turn bright red,” Billmeyer said. “That class allowed me to grow as a professional in my business that I worked for, and in class, we do elevator pitches.”
All six of the Business & Finance CTE teachers came from different educational and career backgrounds, and each brought distinct experiences to the school.
“[Billmeyer] was running a healthcare startup, [Mathew] Feeler was doing commercial real estate, [Teresa] Barnes was doing a marketing company, [Wendy] DeLeon and [Shannon] Taylor did marketing and I did sales for a commercial tree care company … so each of us brings our own unique spin on the business world to our classrooms,” Jake Ashby, Intro to Business teacher, said.
From a human biology major to a CTE business pathway teacher, Billmeyer shows that a major or career path is not linear. This foundation of secondary education is seen as “secure” or “safe,” but it is not set in stone that one will have a predetermined job following their graduate school.
“I knew the [career paths] that didn’t inspire me … and I think [choosing a major] was almost through a process of elimination,” Billmeyer said. “The [human biology] major definitely gave me the room for flexibility because I didn’t fully know what I wanted to do yet, and I think this major allowed me to do that.”
