Mary Bruce Leigh

Mathematics major
French minor
Class of 2003

(1/25/2014) I graduated from Goshen College with a degree in Mathematics, and a minor in French. I had loved Math for as long as I could remember, and while I learned that teaching Math was not the career path I wanted to follow, I still wanted to complete the degree. I have never regretted doing that, because even though little of my professional life has used that degree directly, it has been a fabulous structure on which to base other knowledge and pursuits.

My career was born out of my French minor. While studying in Strasbourg my junior year of college, the exchange program took our group of students on an outing to a wine cooperative, where I experienced my first official wine tasting. There, wine was presented to me as something with a culture and a history–something that could be studied–and I was hooked. From then on, I made a point of tasting the local wines whenever I traveled. It’s amazing how much you can learn by simply paying attention to what you are drinking.

When I returned to the US, I didn’t know how I would be able to pursue this new interest professionally. I kept studying independently, and around this time the local wine and liquor stores had started hiring wine consultants, and were working to be more than just package liquor stores. They hired me as a part time wine consultant–based on little more than my enthusiasm to learn and my ability to speak French–and I learned an immense about the wine business during my years at Chalet Party Shoppe.

After a few years there–and a break to be second author (ie: mathematical illustrator and editor) on a book my father wrote on interesting Mathematics and its usefulness in Biology, Physics, and other disciplines (which sadly was never published), I got a job at a wine importer in Winchester, Virginia. I worked in importing logistics for 18 months, then moved into wine sales for the same company.

Over five years ago, I decided to go back to retail, and started working with Ace Beverage, the oldest wine and spirits shop in Washington, DC, that specializes with working with event planners and caterers, along with businesses and individuals, to provide beverages for any type of event–from an office party for 10 people to a seated dinner for 2000. I specialize in preparing beverage orders for these events, along with buying French, Italian, and other European wines for the store.

My Mathematics degree has always been a wonderful basis for everything else I’ve learned, and I’ve always been happy to have completed those studies, even though I may not have had the discipline’s most classic career path.