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For Renaldo Trancoso ’99, life is about crossing borders.
There’s no question that geographic borders fall into that philosophy, but, for the native of Trinidad and Tobago, so do borders societal, cultural, and intellectual.
Trancoso was fresh out of high school when he arrived in Brooklyn to begin applying to colleges. It took him just one year to enroll at Lafayette, where he began seeking a degree in mechanical engineering.
Trancoso, who is currently pursing an MBA from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, admits that his first priority at Lafayette was academics – something evidenced when he graduated magna cum laude. But his schoolwork was just one component of the education Lafayette provided him.
“I thought that in order for me to be able to translate my education at a university, I also needed to arm myself with a sense of community,” Trancoso says. “Once you leave the very protected environment of an academic institution and get transplanted into the real world, you have to have the skills to mange that new environment.
To that end, he began joining academic and social groups, including the Association of Black Collegians. His freshman year, he joined the soccer team and played on the varsity squad for four years, the final year as team captain. As a sophomore, he began tutoring black children in Easton.
Because of his unique background – a black student-athlete from a Caribbean island – Trancoso found that his myriad involvements in campus life served a dual purpose.
“I made conscious effort to really contribute in number of ways, not only for me to learn about those groups, but also for those group to lean about me,” Trancoso explains, “By doing that, I would hope that I helped people to lean a lot more about black students, but also about student athletes, so if there was a perception of how things should be, hopefully I would have broken barriers.”
Indeed, the inroads Trancoso made toward breaking barriers through on and off-campus contributions so represented the Lafayette ideal that his professors and classmates awarded him the 1999 Pepper Prize.
“I think that was actually one of the proudest moments of my life,” Trancoso says. “It was voted on by students, faculty, and staff, so it really was the Lafayette community, and for me, that was a validation of my efforts to really open myself up and have people learn who I am and shed light on any perceptions that might have existed.”
Trancoso’s crisscrossing of borders at Lafayette – from athlete to academic and pupil to mentor – not only helped him learn time management, but developed his leadership skills, both of which contributed to his success following graduation.
“I was really prepared to hit the ground running when I went to work for Merck,” he explains. “I was prepared for the busy lifestyle that came with my first assignment and having that preparation, the job was an easy transition for me. I was able to get promoted, and it just built upon itself. I was recognized for my leadership skills and was able to take different positions in the company.”
His final position during his seven years at Merck’s facility in West Point, Pa., was senior engineer and project manager. He was responsible for proposing capital projects in excess of $1 million, scheduling, and budgeting the projects and managing their execution.
As a project manager, Trancoso was exposed to the firm’s upper management and got a glimpse at a career path he’d not previously considered.
At Purdue his focus is on operations in strategy, which deal with the ideologies of lean manufacturing and six sigma.
“My role coming out of school and beyond would be to look at a company’s operation and find ways for it to become more efficient and effective,” says Trancoso, who will receive his MBA in May 2008. “My ideal job would be as a vice president of operations for a global business. I like the idea of a business that crosses borders, that has to do with different cultures, but also can provide service in many different areas.”
It’s a career aspiration that mirrors his very life philosophy.
“If you really work on developing the entire you, it’s going to benefit you in the long term,” he explains. “If you just focus on education, or just one area, sure, you will get some recognition, but when it comes to being able to navigate life, you have to develop your entire personality and your entire brain – the right and left sides, to find happiness and success.”