Beau Ragland is pictured at his residential college at Yale University. The 2016 Marshalltown High School graduate just completed his second year at Yale University.
MHS graduate Beau Ragland completes second year at Ivy League school
With two years down and two years to go, Beau Ragland has reached the midpoint now as a student at Yale University.
The 2016 Marshalltown High School graduate is majoring in economics and global affairs at the Ivy League college in New Haven, Connecticut. He has a strong interest in entrepreneurship, which has grown in his time at Yale.
“A lot of people go into finance at Yale and go to work at Wall Street,” he said. “Ideally, I’d like to do something on my own.”
Ragland is not waiting until he graduates from Yale to dabble in the business world. He has started a company known as Voyista, which helps travelers plan all-in-one, affordable backpacking European and Latin American adventures. Ragland himself has visited 23 different countries in the past two years, so this business is his way of passing on what he’s learned.
“It takes all the hassle out of traveling,” Ragland said of his company.
Beau also lends his business acumen to a Marshalltown business, C Eye Care, which is run by his mom, Cynthia Ragland.
Time at MHS
Beau credits his time at MHS for allowing him to succeed at Yale, especially the dual credit opportunities offered at MHS and Marshalltown Community College.
“Most of my courses my junior and senior year in high school were college courses, which definitely prepared me for going to Yale,” Ragland said.
He also said he was fortunate to complete online college courses offered through the Extended Learning Program at MHS.
MHS Extended Learning Program teacher Susan Fritzell remembers Beau as a gifted student whose love of learning led him to take advantage of the opportunities at MHS.
“Beau really exemplifies a student who took advantage of all the opportunities that MHS has to offer and, judging by his success in college, his involvement paid off,” Fritzell said.
His future
With two more years left in college, Ragland foresees his entrepreneurial interests growing into the future.
“It has unlimited upside, really,” he said of entrepreneurial business work. “You are not constrained.”
To view Beau’s travel company’s website, visit Voyista.com
