Kierra Bonner talks and moves quickly, which helps explain how she's gotten as far as she has since graduating from Wake Tech.

Bonner followed up her Associate in Applied Science degree in Hospitality Management with a bachelor's degree from North Carolina Central University and an MBA from Louisiana State University and then started her own business in Houston. But she says Wake Tech was the foundation for everything.

"My Wake Tech degree has done way more for me than either of my other degrees," she said. "I hate it when people say an associate degree doesn't matter. Mine matters to me."

The Sanford native had dropped out of N.C. Central, saying she didn't have any career plans and admitting she "wasn't mature enough" for college. After taking a year off, she enrolled in Wake Tech's Hospitality Management program, thinking it would be a good fit for her personality.

"I love to be of service to people," she said. "I see that as my purpose in life. I like to make people smile and be happy."

Bonner says her family and her church cultivated that ethos from an early age: "You learn a lot about service in church."

She learned even more at Wake Tech, she says, because of its hands-on programs, such as the class in which she had to work at Flavors, the college's student-operated restaurant.

"You're not just reading books. When I left, I felt I could do stuff," she said.

Jeff Hadley, a former department head for Baking, Culinary and Hospitality programs, says Bonner was a student who was driven to succeed.

"She had a vision when she walked in the door and followed it as she walked out," Hadley said. "She always talked about her long-term plans."

Bonner started working part time at area hotels, primarily in beverage service, while at Wake Tech. After graduating, she was working one full-time and two part-time jobs, teaching herself skills such as inventory management and cost control along the way.

"I wanted to get all the experience I could," she said. "I was young and had nothing but time."

She moved to Charlotte, where she worked with a nonprofit catering service, and then to Texas to work at a Hilton hotel in Houston. But the COVID-19 pandemic ended that "big-girl job" for her and sent her back home to Sanford, where she completed her bachelor's degree online at N.C. Central after transferring all her Wake Tech credits.

Bonner returned to Houston after the pandemic to work for a beverage marketing company because she wanted to try her hand at project management. She continued on the project management track, securing a job at the Baylor College of Medicine but couldn't shake the hospitality itch.

When a friend showed her a flier for a pink party bus in another city, Bonner knew she had found her niche because Houston had nothing like it. Using the business skills she learned from the online MBA courses she took while working at Baylor, she researched every aspect of the party bus business she could, from various styles of buses down to required permits and insurance options. She then put together a business plan, bought and refurbished a bus and launched Life of the Party Bus in April 2024.

"I want it to be an experience people will remember," she said. "From the time we roll up to the time they get off, it's pure hospitality."

Given the color scheme, she says, most of her customers are female, booking the bus for events such as wedding receptions, quinceañeras and end-of-season parties for girls sports teams.

Bonner says she hopes to expand Life of the Party Bus to the point where she can hire full-time employees and have a fleet of buses operating in numerous cities. She has already purchased a mini-bus to serve as a shuttle service in downtown Houston.

She also wants to pass along the skills she learned at Wake Tech, setting up a training program and internships for youths in the Houston area.

"My education has given me so much. I want to give back," she said.