Corin Hooper

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1628617999161{padding-top: 300px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”7275″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][stm_title title_tag=”h2″ sep_enable=”true” title=”Interview with Corin Hooper ’00”][/stm_title][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]What are you doing with your free time?
I think I was a student the last time I had free time. Between being a new father and social distancing, my available time is usually taken up by either working a second job or trying to find more work. My wife watches a lot of Bravo, so I have developed an encyclopedic knowledge of The Real Housewives and Shondaland. When I did have free time, I enjoyed endurance racing. Not so much while it was happening, but the feeling of accomplishment from finishing a marathon. Being with my family will always come first, but athletically, academically and professionally, I believe that my stride is only starting to come into focus. I generally enjoy putting in some type of work for my hobbies. I am hopeful about earning my American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) certification in the next couple of years.

What are you currently working towards in your professional career?
I think that everyone develops a grandiose career path in idea and then we are ultimately limited in the execution by ability and available opportunity. At various times, I wanted to be a professional wrestler, then professional athlete, followed by business mogul. I had certain learning disabilities when I was growing up. I was dyslexic, ADHD with hypo-activity disorder, did not know my left from my right until high school, had poor reading comprehension, and had a series of “not-otherwise specified” learning disabilities because they had not been developed yet. As a result, I had to work time and a half as hard as everyone else for the same results. With most of this going undiagnosed, it was harder for me to meet most of the entrance criteria to go into higher paying professions. As a result, while it would have taken a year and a half longer to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, most of the same coursework also applied to regional development. With this being the first time that I had a formal time extension due to my learning disabilities, my grades also increased by almost a full grade point. I had found my calling. After trying to work for a few years in the economy following the Great Recession, I applied to graduate school at Georgia Tech and went on to earn my Master of City and Regional Planning. As an ardent worker, I was able to evolve from a planner to recently becoming a planning manager for a city in Arizona. I am happier being able to help out people and use my skillset to help develop this city than I imagine I could have been otherwise.

What is your favorite Saint Mark’s memory?
Every Tuesday after Monday Night Raw. There was also a class trip to Yosemite. I always had a lot of energy to get out, so that was rigorous. I also think we won our staff versus 6th grade baseball game. We were about 12 years old, so I ‘m not sure how that happens without the staff’s game collapsing.

Who are the role models in your life?
I think that it’s possible we’re living in an age post role model. I think that we have these role models, but as we peel back more information, we lose reverence toward the greatness of people as we discover their flaws. The most we can hope for is complex individuals whose positives outweigh their negative traits. At Saint Mark’s we learned about Native Americans being able to use every part of the animal that they ate, clothed, etc. I think anybody who uses every part of the animal is a role model. When I was at St. Mark’s, the greatest Super Bowl to ever take place occurred, Super Bowl 34 between the St. Louis Rams and the Tennessee Titans. What makes Super Bowl 34 unique is typically the Super Bowl is a scoring shootout, where defenses are not the determining factor. Down 23-16 with the clock winding down, the late Steve McNair threw a pass that would have tied the game. Instead, the then St. Louis, now LA, Rams were able to stop a Titans wide receiver at the one-yard line ending the game. Even though the Titans lost, they came as close to winning as they could have. They used every part of the animal. To me, Muhammad Ali was the one person who successfully used every part of the animal of life. He overcame every obstacle against him to succeed, winning a gold medal in the Olympics, beating opponents like Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton. He stood for Civil Rights, risking everything by avoiding the Vietnam War. He continued fighting until he was no longer able to fight in the United States, finishing his career in the Bahamas. Then despite barely being able to speak, was able to negotiate the release of 15 hostages in Iraq around the time of the Gulf War. He followed this up by taking Ric Flair to Pyongyang, North Korea and created the greatest opening ceremony in Olympics history the following year in Atlanta.

What has been your greatest success?
There has been a lot to be grateful for. I would consider myself to be a phoenix. I have a masters degree, currently work as a planning manager with a great city, but at the end of the day, the one event I’m most proud of is being a father.

What was the best piece of advice you have received?
Live below what you think you can afford. The problem with materialism in general is the concept of buyer’s remorse. You get something nice and in general it takes less than two weeks before it becomes quotidian. You get used to having something, and then you still have to pay for it for years. You have certain waves of minimalism, but these rely on binge and purge cycles. You may be getting rid of items at a loss and still have to pay for what you no longer have. If you do not purchase it in the first place, you will not be left with the bills later.

What advice would you give to the 2021 graduates?
The advice that I would give St. Mark’s graduates is to fail. I know this does not sound like good advice, but ultimately success tends to be the culmination of failures. Through incremental evolution, eventually these failures turn to successes. This process does not occur without failure, and the consequences of failure at an earlier stage are often less severe than those at a later stage. So if you fail earlier on and learn from it, you will be able to succeed. I would recommend putting a large series of tasks in front of you, items that are interesting but seem insurmountable. If you apply discipline and time toward it, ultimately, success will attend your efforts. Measure the level of volatility and risk involved, but do not be afraid to succeed. Take two steps back from the brink of failure, and that deserves to be the appropriate zone in order to succeed. When you see someone successful, you are looking at a specific point. When I was at St. Mark’s, everyone was afraid of Y2K. The other thing everyone had in common was that we all wanted to be The Rock. However, everyone should have wanted to be Dwayne Johnson. I think everyone knew how to emulate professional wrestling, but the message that we should have taken away is never to press pause on hard work. This is the difference between people who are moderately successful and people who are uniquely successful on a generational level. This is how people are the most successful in several categories. It is how people create their own micro-level economy of agglomeration. Find something you have a passion for and develop similar skills around it to be great in similar things. This way it becomes possible to pivot once the road ends in one area, so you can pivot toward something with greater longevity.

How has Saint Mark’s prepared you for where you are today?
I squandered a lot of the opportunities available from Saint Mark’s. Being at a place like Saint Mark’s, you have to take advantage and set yourself up for long term success. When I was in the sixth grade, I did not know that at that time, the long term was my priority. As a result, I only got into one school for junior high. I did not have options. I was there for maybe about four years before it shut down. I spent the last two years at Cathedral High School, a LaSallian School set up to educate the poor of Los Angeles. As I descended into this new environment, I learned that there is not that big of a difference between where you are and poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction. This is especially apparent in Los Angeles County. As a result of this lack of any type of buffer or insurance, I never stopped working. The easy way is to stay on the straight and narrow. It is a lot harder to get back on track after you fall off. You just have to want it and work for it more than you ever think is possible.

Which alum would you like to read about in the Saint Mark’s Alumni Newsletter?
Brady Thomson[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]