Minuteman High School Grad Robin T. Patti Is Honored

Photo courtesy of Robin T. Patti

By Judy Bass

BOSTON - When Robin T. Patti was a student at Minuteman High School in Lexington in the late 1990s, she majored in Culinary Arts and planned to become a private chef. As it happened, however, her career path ultimately took a very different turn that has been both successful and rewarding while still allowing her to use many of the abilities she cultivated at Minuteman.

“I truly enjoy the problem-solving and organized chaos of my present role,” she said, “both of which I mastered at Minuteman because they are required in a fast-paced kitchen environment.”

Ms. Patti, a former Medford resident who graduated from Minuteman in 1999, has been an executive assistant for more than 15 years, the last three at Cambridge-based Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company where she is Senior Executive Assistant to the CEO. In fact, she does her job so well that she was recently named Executive Assistant of the Week by an organization called Boston Executive Assistants (BEA).

“Receiving this award means that when utilizing your resources, having a positive attitude, and creating a plan for your long-term goals, your dreams can come true,” said Ms. Patti. “I believe in hard work, self-discovery, and having big risks equal big rewards. I am proud to be a member of the BEA, proud to be a Minuteman graduate, and proud to be acknowledged for my professional accomplishments.”

One person who remembers Ms. Patti vividly from her days at Minuteman is Joseph Pitta, former Culinary Arts lead teacher and currently the school’s Coordinator of Workforce and Economic Development. "It is no surprise that Robin would achieve this honor from her colleagues,” he said. “Robin was a dedicated Minuteman Culinary Arts student whose work ethic, conscientiousness, and eagerness to learn assured me that she would excel in whatever she pursued."

Ms. Patti reminisced about how she has applied her Minuteman education to what she now does.

“I worked diligently at Minuteman because I was aware of the unique opportunity they provided to students with alternative learning styles such as hands-on experience,” she said. “I entered the co-op program and worked through my senior year while studying. This presented me with great insight as to what life would look like upon graduation outside of a classroom, and helped me to conceptualize my desired lifestyle long-term. I continued to a Hospitality program at my local community college, which was not quite the type of learning environment I absorbed at my best.”

Nevertheless, Ms. Patti’s career flourished. “I became a head hostess at one of Jasper White’s new restaurants, followed by being the banquet manager for former State Treasurer Joe Malone’s high-end steak-house.”

Her flair for doing certain types of tasks quickly emerged, as did the value and versatility of the preparation she got at Minuteman. Thus, the next item on Ms. Patti’s agenda was transplanting those skills into another setting.

“I loved organizing events, managing the all of details with the head chef on the menu; the florist for the bouquets; the entertainment, etc. Additionally, I had a working knowledge of a kitchen - the key players, how hard they worked and how they operated, which helped me communicate clearly with every connection I made. I realized that all I had learned could be used in any career I wanted, quite literally. They were not only professional skills, they were life skills, so I went out and got the job I wanted because I knew I could do it, an incredible sponsorship I attribute to Minuteman and their wonderful reinforcement to their students’ achievement.”

Even a typing class Ms. Patti took in high school, which had negligible significance to her back then, proved to be a decisive part of her training. “I thought it was a waste of time, however, it increased my speed tenfold and catapulted my output instantly, which of course opened up my time to additional tasks and career growth.”

Today, Ms. Patti manages the administrative team at Intellia, an element of her position that she says requires a grasp of teamwork as well as the ability to coax the very best from fellow employees with remarkably diverse interpersonal styles, personalities and talents.

“The Culinary program at Minuteman put an emphasis on working together as a team,” she noted, “and executive assistant roles are largely autonomous, so it can be difficult to form and maintain a cohesive unit. Thankfully, another emphasis in the Culinary program was approaching life and a career with a can-do attitude, therefore, I left Minuteman with a strong sense of character and encouragement to become creative through tough situations to proactively seek a resolution.”

She acknowledges that as much as she loves it, her job is demanding, intense, relentless, and definitely not a breeze. “My profession is not one for the faint of heart, similar to Culinary Arts. It requires a thick skin, the ability to work under pressure, and stern focus.”

Even so, Ms. Patti thrives on the rigorous challenges and hurdles she encounters. Someday, she said she might seek a chief of staff or COO role, but for the foreseeable future, she is exactly where she wants to be, “continuing to blossom,” as she put it.

As for what Minuteman means to her now, “I hold my years there, and all of the educators, close to my heart.”