Intern: Rick Mendenhall
rick@phaseline.com | (303) 297-8170

Rick Mendenhall is currently a senior at the University of Denver where he is pursuing a degree in History, with a minor in International Studies. Rick is interning at Phase Line during the fall 2010 and focusing his efforts on assisting The Greatest Generations Foundation.

Who has been your mentor, role model, person who has helped pave the way for you?
My father has easily had the most substantial impact on my life.  The most important thing he taught me was to always strive for improvement. No matter how good you are at something, you can always be better. And if you’re bad at something currently, that doesn’t mean you can’t improve. Some of my clearest memories of my childhood were our weekly chess matches. He would never let me win, which, in retrospect was the greatest thing he could’ve done for me. I became frustrated at times, but he kept pushing me to play with him. Finally, when I was 14, I got that first checkmate. Nine long years it took and when I did it, the only thing he said to me was, “you earned it.” Then he smiled and walked away. That lesson is one I hold dear every day. Not only was I able to improve with practice, but earning something is much more satisfying than having it given to you.

Biggest obstacle you’ve faced:
In high school, I was a terrible writer. My English and history grades suffered because of that, but I refused to put myself down. I knew I could develop my skills; I just had to keep pushing myself. When I entered college, I purposefully chose a fairly writing intensive major, history, in the hopes that it would force some improvement. In the past four years, I’ve written so much that it could all be bound up and passed off as an ancient tome. I mean, not all of it is great stuff, but the amount of sheer practice has done wonders for me (in addition to receiving help from professors; they’re pretty smart people). Today, I wouldn’t consider myself a great writer, but I know I’m better, and I owe that to tackling the problem head on as opposed to running away from it. 

What part of your personality/charm/determination has been crucial to your success? What do you offer that nobody else can?
It might be a worn out cliché, but having a positive attitude has always served me well. It’s true that sometimes things go badly or wrong, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make tomorrow better. Plus, if you’re happy, others around you will be too.

 Philosophy to live by?
Accept the good. When good things come your way, let them in. There’s a lot of bad in this world, but there’s so much more that’s wonderful.

Guilty pleasure/rainy day activity/favorite book/Friday night activity
It’s definitely geeky, but I really love to read comic books. Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the week just because it’s new comic book day. I’m also currently into drawing and playing Ultimate Frisbee. I’m not too good at either activity, but I’m trying to become better.

Greatest Accomplishment:
I think my great accomplishment will be when I finish my senior thesis project this coming winter. It’s my first big research assignment and I know it will challenge me. But I also think it will propel me forward into what I eventually want to do with my life which is historical research.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I hope to go for my PhD in history, so in an ideal world I would be a professor in 10 years. I’d also like to be married by then and live with my wife in a cozy little house with a beagle named Nick Fury.

What is your “once-in-a-lifetime” moment?
Getting a job with Phase Line J But my second most “once-in-a-lifetime” moment would be my semester abroad in Japan. I think I learned more in 5 months than I have in the past 5 years.  I really struggled at first due to my ineptitude at the Japanese language (I had only taken one year of it before I had left for Japan). But one day, I had a fully coherent conversation with a Japanese student at the university I was studying at. It wasn’t forced or rehearsed. I even made a joke and he laughed. It was a tremendous experience. At that moment, I realized that I could communicate with anyone, which was so liberating. It radically altered my human interaction paradigm. People aren’t closed off walls, they’re doors, and language is the doorknob. When I returned to the United States I talked to everyone I could just because I was able to. I’m a certified expert in the English language, why shouldn’t I use it more? And it turns out that people are definitely willing to chat back with you. I’ve met so many interesting individuals since my time in Tokyo, and I owe it all to that experience.