Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. My name is Kyle Baltic, two-time FSU alum and I work locally here at Florida Tax Watch as an economist in the Director of Development. The summer of 2014, I had graduated and I was waiting to start my master's program and I looked for internships. And that's how I ended up at Tax Watch. It was a place where my voice could be heard. It was a place where I had an opportunity to advance myself. It kind of just checked all the boxes I was looking for out of an organization. I remember I was 20 years old, it was Christmas break, I was sitting in my dad's home office. And I was kind of like looking through some different things, thinking about some different things and something kind of popped in my head. And my parents provided some financial support for me as I went through school, which is a sacrifice for them. And I kind of said, I looked at myself and I said, what do I want to do? What's the next step? Then it was law school. So I kind of looked up, right? What do I need to get into law school? And I realized nobody's going to accept me. And I said, why is that? You're in kind of a moment of reflection and I wasn't trying hard. So I said, all right, I'm going to give it one semester. I'm going to work my hardest this semester. I just worked hard for the first time in my entire life going back to like grade school. I got straight A's. And that's when I was like, wow, I can do this. And it was addictive. And I just wanted to work hard because I wanted to give back to those who would help me. There's something different about like walking into a test or even now walking into the capital when I'm presenting in front of the legislature going, I'm prepared for this. And I'm not sure anybody in the room knows it better than I do. Whatever question they ask, I'm building the answer. And when you get that question, you're like, oh, I've already rehearsed essentially five times. That's an amazing feeling. My name is Kyle Baltic and I'm a floor student of my life. Voices that inspire is sponsored by Leadership Tallahassee, a program of the Tallahassee Chamber celebrating 35 years of cultivating community leadership.