Matt Ramoundos, ’19, hangs his Booth rejection letter from 2016 above his diploma in his West Hollywood office.
From his first visit to Booth, Ramoundos knew that it was where he needed to be. Then came the rejection—and his rejection of the rejection. Ramoundos moved into a hotel on Michigan Avenue, took two Graham School courses at Gleacher Center, proving that he could undertake the rigor of Booth academics, reapplied, and was accepted. He didn’t plan to waste this investment.
“I went all in,” he says. He quit his job, leaving a startup he had founded, and “started showing up to everything— joined clubs, the student body advisory council, everything. We only have so much time, so I wanted to make the most of it.”
During his two years at Booth, Ramoundos worked as a teaching assistant for an estimated 20 sections. And despite having graduated and working full time as principal and CEO of the COVID-19 testing platform CoVerify Health, Ramoundos has continued to come back to Booth and TA for Linda E. Ginzel, clinical professor of managerial psychology.
It all began in 2019, when he ran into her at a staff appreciation cocktail party. As Ginzel remembers it, he came up to her and said, “I want to TA for you.” She was taken aback. She had no idea who he was, but asked around.
A week later, he got a note that began, in Ginzel’s inimitable style, “My dear Matt.” Her TA arrangement had fallen through, and she offered him the job.
She has been sending him a hand-addressed missive of some sort every month since.
“I don’t do transactions,” says Ginzel. “Life is too short. I don’t hire people just to grade for me. I’m a relationship person, so I develop long-term relationships with my TAs.”