撒迦利亚伯恩’s professional journey is the kind of inspirational story that could’ve been lifted straight from a movie script.

我在南加州的一个小镇长大, 鲍恩对大学甚至职业都没有考虑太多. “It just never was really talked about in my family,” he recalls. “我们出身贫寒. My dad raised four kids by himself in a small town; there wasn’t much work [or] money to be made there. 我从未想过长大后要做什么.”

在此期间，PC游戏出现了. 鲍恩擅长玩电子游戏, but he didn’t connect the dots from that to a career in technology. He was content with his early jobs at McDonald’s and, later, Rite Aid. 但在一段让人想起好莱坞情节的旅程中, 一系列的机会, 再加上他天生的适应力和好奇心, propelled Bowen from the familiar aisles of Rite Aid to the high-tech halls of NASA, setting the stage for a future far beyond anything he had imagined.  

鲍恩旅程中的第一个重大转折展开得很简单. His best friend landed a janitorial job with a NASA subcontractor. When he was promoted, he did what best friends do: He recommended Bowen to replace him.

鲍恩花了两年时间支持美国宇航局担任清洁工. Then, he had the opportunity to move into IT as a fiber-optics cable technician.

“When I joined the cabling team, I thought this would be my forever career,” Bowen recalls. “我赚的钱比我想象的要多. I was good at it; it kept me in shape and was a fun job.”

2012年对鲍文来说是关键的一年. 就在那时他和乔凡娜订婚了. 她在鲍文身上看到了他自己没有完全意识到的潜力.

“我一直在扎克身上看到这么多潜力，”乔凡纳说. “他非常上进，是一个解决问题的人. When he was struggling with what the next step in his career would be, 我鼓励他上大学. 我知道他会出类拔萃.”

“她说，‘我知道你足够聪明. 你应该回学校去，’”他回忆道. Initially, he contemplated a degree in theology, inspired by his commitment to the church. But he kept postponing it, finding the contractual nature of the work at NASA unpredictable. 

Every few years, the subcontracting agencies that employed Bowen would bid for NASA work. 不幸的是, 当机构被授予合同时, worker pay like Bowen’s would return to base level instead of reflecting experience, 鲍文的案子是14年.

“The second time it happened to me, I was like, I’m done,” Bowen says. 沮丧的他找到了老板. 通过强调他的技能和对组织的承诺, 他搬进了另一间, 更稳定的位置. 

这是他的事业真正开始加速发展的时候. “我开始从事安全工作, 哪个是更小众的职业, 因为你必须有不同的证书,他解释道.

鲍文获得了这些证书, 从那里开始, 他开始和更高级别的技术人员一起工作. “我开始觉得自己和这些人一样聪明. 我可以做他们正在做的事. 而且他们的薪水也更高。.

What really got Bowen’s attention was the difference in lifestyle. “那些人想出现就出现，想回家就回家. Their life just seemed a little different than mine, because I was punching the clock.”

During this time, a mentor at work echoed the advice of Bowen’s now-wife, Giovanna. “他说，‘你需要回学校.’” With the two cheerleaders in his life telling him the same thing, Bowen listened. One afternoon, he happened to catch a 推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜 commercial on television. “The commercial was something like ‘You can do IT, and you can do it,’” laughs Bowen. “我想, 很酷的. 我要这么做!”

然而，回到学校并不容易. 平衡职业需求和不断壮大的家庭 (包括有特殊需要的儿童), 再加上COVID-19大流行的破坏, 把他的学术生涯延长了五年. 推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜, 然而, 为工作的成年人设计推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜, 所以鲍恩可以在生活需要的时候请假. In 2023, he became the first person in his family to graduate from college with a 信息技术理学学士学位 持有证书 先进的网络安全 和高级网络(后者已不再可用). 

到现在为止, Bowen在IT行业工作了十多年, but the degree instilled the confidence he needed to smash through the remaining glass ceiling. 

这个行业注意到了. Bowen现在是网络系统架构师 诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司. 这一转折反映了他的好莱坞之旅, one of the team members directly reporting to him today is someone whose trash he used to take out while working as a janitor at NASA.

鲍文也注意到了这一引人注目的转折. “我真的活在梦里，”他想. “我制定我的时间表，做我的事情. 我从没想过自己会陷入这种境地. 感觉真的很好.”

对鲍文来说，很多事情都改变了, the accomplishment he’s most proud of is the family he’s created with Giovanna and their four children, 维斯特利, 贝利, 诺拉和艾玛·苏(以他深爱的祖母命名), 他于2022年去世).

As for the future, what does the sequel hold for Bowen and his career transformation? “A 硕士学位 一定是我要做的事吗, 但是现在, 我老婆要上学了，我要退一步. 我们刚生了孩子, 艾玛·苏, 所以现在我要像她支持我一样支持她,鲍恩解释道.

Inspired by their parents’ example, his older children are already thinking about their careers. “They’re picking out majors — my daughter wants to study zoology,” he says proudly.

“Zach’s success in graduating college and accelerating his career has been very motivating to all of us,乔凡娜补充道. “It has motivated me to go back to college [and] has sparked conversations among our daughters about how they want to be college graduates and what they want to do with their futures.”

When asked what advice he’d give his children or the teens he mentors at church, 他立刻回答:“当任何一扇门打开的时候, 跳. Like don’t just open the door; run through the door. 如果你精疲力尽了, 或者这不是你应该走的方向, 继续前行，追随那扇敞开的门.”

Bowen believes strongly in making the most of any opportunity life presents you. “I once thought I’d serve the church by getting my theology degree. Now it’s one of my passions to help the church by keeping their systems secure. When people need IT assistance, I’m the first person with my hand up,” explains Bowen.

虽然他现在可能会暂停他的教育之旅, Bowen still stars in the better-than-Hollywood version of his life. 事实上, he just wrapped up filming: His story is being featured in the latest 推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜 promotional video.

当被问到他怎么想的时候, 就在几年前, UOPX的广告是他获得IT学位的催化剂, 今天他成为了UOPX的代言人, Bowen answers with his signature sincerity: “It was a cool experience. 一旦被释放, it will be awesome to look back on and have that to remember this time in my life.” 

当鲍文进入下一个角色时, 无论是在生活中还是在UOPX视频的屏幕上, it’s clear that the best scenes of this story are still being written.