Dominic Bueno is the first SNVC Institute for Leadership and Innovation MBA Scholarship recipient.

Dominic has consistently served in the role of a leader in every position he has held, beginning in his first job at age 15 where he supervised, trained, coached, and motivated a team in the challenging restaurant business.  His employer recognized his talent early as Dominic was promoted to this position within three weeks.

When serving our country as an Enlisted Army member, these skills continued to be demonstrated as he guided a team responsible for data and operational management while ensuring compliance requirements of the Department of Defense and the Army.  Later, as an Officer, his role as an Officer Recruiter tested his abilities to “Begin with the End in Mind” (Habit 2) while assessing candidate qualities (Habit 5 Seek First to Understand), and seeking the Win-Win (Habit 5) for both sides.   During deployment he served in a position of managing 40 personnel with a mission of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on issues pertinent to national intelligence, while collaborating with various US agencies.  Analytic and organizational skills are crucial in this role, and Dominic realizes the importance of interpersonal skills as he comments he achieved the above while “maintaining positive working relationships with various stakeholders.” 

Putting Habit 6 “Synergize” to practice, he continued motivating others to meet goals in other positions he held while in both the military and civilian workplace.  Dominic wrote about the impact that open dialogue with others can have with both short and long term strategies.    A reference writes that “Dominic displays the leadership traits of emotional stability, social boldness, and decisiveness” and that he has “an uncanny ability to always remain astutely calm and aware of his surroundings and upcoming trends.” This is truly a description of a leader with strong character.

To achieve synergistic (Habit 6) outcomes, people skills are critical and this requires the practice of understanding others (Habit 4), and having a plan of how to achieve desired goals (Habit 2 and Habit 3).  Dominic continues to practice the above in his current position as a business analyst while being a husband, and proud dad.   He actively seeks to encourage and instill these principles with his family.

Challenging for sure, yet Dominic has the focus on “Sharpening the Saw” (Habit 7) as he fulfills his many roles.   Yes, he is Proactive (Habit 1) with what is important to him, and has shown that he has an appreciation and has demonstrated the “Private to Public Victory” of the foundations of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.    We are proud to award him this scholarship.