It may have been the cinnamon crunch bagels. Or the bonus points. But whatever attracted the crowds of students to hear Blaine Hurst, they did not leave disappointed.
Hurst, the executive vice president and chief transformation & growth officer at Panera and the husband of a Grove City grad, delivered a fascinating and lively lecture about the restaurant’s recent tech innovations. In the past several years, the traditional Panera has transformed into Panera 2.0, replete with kiosks for customized ordering, rapid pickup options and mobile orders.
As the self-described entrepreneur in residence at Panera, Hurst has worked daily to “challenge the way we’ve always done things.” From his start with with fast casual restaurant chain, the VP has stressed the mentality of “innovate or die.” For most companies, innovation has simply translated to developments in mobile apps, responsive design and strategic use of big data. However, to Hurst, disruptive innovation requires a holistic view and transformation of the customer experience.
In his talk, Hurst delineated six lessons on innovation that have been instrumental to Panera’s success. These lessons included the importance of an unbound, focused team, the recognition that there is more than one way to innovate and the idea that innovation is a journey.
Panera has certainly seen the positive results of Hurst’s work. In May, the company was named the #1 brand of the year by Fast Casual. In 2015, it was also recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s top 50 most innovative companies. It maintains the leading loyalty program in its industry. But these accolades have not come without difficulties. When Hurst’s team first rolled out Panera 2.0, the websites crashed. And this was at a time when he was striving to get the Board to increase funding. But he fixed the situation by owning the problem. “Stand up with courage when you’ve made mistakes,” he encouraged.
Hurst’s final point was to warn young innovators to expect the unbelievers. Your “commitment can’t waver,” he said. As a leader, “if you lose your head, all others [on your team] will run backwards.” And in an original one-liner, Hurst summed up the difficulty of innovation: “The only person who likes change is a wet baby.” But progress, as Hurst knows and Panera can attest, will never come without change.
To read about more interesting lectures like this one, check out the posts under the Neat Speakers category.
Cliff Hovis graduated from Grove City College in 1989 with a degree in Marketing. He met his wife Lynn (Johnson) Hovis ’89 while at Grove City College, and they have two children who are currently attending GCC.
Cliff J. Hovis, a 1989 graduate of Grove City College, knows that God, family, a good education, and a lot of hard work are the keys to success. He is president of the family owned business Hovis Auto & Truck Supply in Mercer, PA. Cliff is highly involved in not only his business but the automotive industry as a whole. He is on the AWDA (Automotive Warehouse Distributors Association) Education Committee, and a board member for the University of the Aftermarket Foundation. He has received the Mort Schwartz Excellence in Education Award, the Art Fisher Memorial Award, and the Federated Industry Advocacy Award. But his most recent accomplishment is his induction as chairman of the AWDA in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 1st. He also knows that training and education are important tools for his industry; he built a 10,000 square foot training facility to further educate his customers through hands on and classroom training.
With a smile on his face and his family by his side he arose from the audience, as the announcer declared Cliff chairman of the AWDA. His speech was titled “Exceeding the Curve through Hiring, Training, and Developing”, a topic he has been passionate about ever since his Grove City days. He is eager to share with his industry the lessons he learned from those times.
Cliff highlighted some statistics about the automotive industry; it is the third largest employer in North America, providing 4.3 million jobs and contributing more than 2.3% of the U.S. GDP. But in order for youth to be successful in the automotive industry, they need to be adequately educated and trained. Cliff has two children currently attending Grove City College, Clifford ’16 and Grace ’19. After talking with their friends he knew that his industry needed to create an established program for today’s college students seeking jobs after graduation.
As a member of the AWDA Education Committee he recently established a scholarship program for college students majoring in programs that have a direct application to the auto care industry. These scholarships help ease the financial burden of temporary relocation for students who pursue internships more than 100 miles from their permanent address. He ended his speech by inspiring and encouraging everyone in the room to mentor today’s youth, because they are the future of the automotive industry. Cliff is thankful for the time he spent at Grove City and he continues to share the legacy of the principles he has learned with everyone he meets.
Since 1988, the Grove City women’s cross country team has made it their annual tradition to capture the President’s Athletic Conference (PAC) championship title. Their 2015 win was no exception to the streak. This year, the team, lead by three time PAC champion Emily Rabenold (’16), earned a stellar score of 20 points, with five runners placing in the top seven.
What’s the secret to their success? 12-year coach Sean Severson will tell you that it’s the result of hard work and straight priorities; namely, that Christ and teammates come before oneself. Both in life and in running, there is a great emphasis on living for God’s glory. Before each race, the women pray as a team and then agree to pray for the woman on their right during the competition. For captain Stevie Huston (’16), running cross country from this perspective has been huge. “Not only did it teach me what it meant to train like an athlete, it also taught me how to train for something bigger than myself.”
The team has several mantras that reflect this ethic, including “unbreakable” and “focus on what you can control.” To Huston, the former means “not giving up in the face of adversity and being strong for one another, not yourself. But most importantly, I think it means to center our thoughts and mind on Jesus who is truly unbreakable and finding our strength in Him.”
To Maty Zeckzer (’19), focusing on what you can control was an idea that helped her to improve physically and mentally. “I liked this idea because in my past experiences, cross country was very focused on beating the other runners in the race,” she reflected. “You’ll never be able to control the weather, the course, or other runner’s performances, but too often as runners that’s what we like to focus on and worry about. But with this idea, it takes the focus off of others (who you can’t control) and allows you to concentrate on giving your best effort in that specific moment.”
With their priorities straight, the women work very hard at improving their speed and form through lifting, core work, controlled breathing and flexibility. Of course, they spend most of their practice time simply running in preparation for their 6 kilometer races.
Some prospective students are legitimately concerned about the amount of time that participating in a collegiate sport will consume. However, to captain Emily Townsend (’16), “cross country has been my stress-reliever, and the team has been a source of continual love and encouragement in the middle of the difficulties of school.”
And there is certainly much to make the demanding season fun. On homecoming weekend, the team sponsors an alumni 5K for GCCXC veterans. The event includes much reminiscing, great music and lots of chili.
Coach Severson also works hard to include at least one meet per year at a destination location. In October, before competing with over 100 teams at the Greater Louisville Classic, the team had the opportunity to visit the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Later in the month, the GCC runners participated in the Gettysburg Invitational after touring the battlefields.
The women’s XC team has a tradition of working hard, but that tradition also applies to playing hard. On the day before the PAC championship, everyone dresses up in 80’s clothes and runs around campus singing hits from the same decade. It’s a great way to de-stress before the most important race of the season.
Rabenold, who was a 2015 captain and MVP, will miss the warm and friendly dynamic of the team. “There’s no drama,” she says. “Everyone gets along with everyone and there’s no talking behind people’s backs. You don’t find that in a group of twenty girls very often.”
For more information about the women’s cross country team, visit the Grove City athletics website here.
While many college students are invested in obtaining their own college degrees, Victoria VanBuskirk (‘14) is dedicated to funding the education of other young women across the globe.
When Victoria and her sister Ashley were both in college, they founded Flora Stationery, a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships for women in Eastern Europe to receive a college education in their own countries.
Victoria says that the inspiration for Flora Stationery began when her twin sister studied abroad in Kosovo and met a young woman there named Ema.
“Ema had a really compelling story about how she couldn’t afford education due to means outside of her control and how she was also the sole breadwinner for the five members of her family,” Victoria said. “Unemployment in Kosovo, which we learned after learning more about [Ema’s] story, is currently 45% for students between the ages of 16 and 24—the second highest in the world. After hearing about that and hearing about how Ema couldn’t afford an education in her own country and in her own language, that was something that really compelled Ashley because she went to Kosovo on a full scholarship.”
While her sister developed a passion for educating women after her trip to Kosovo, Victoria also discovered her passion for education through her Communication Research Methods class at Grove City College. “Research Methods is really where I found a passion of mine…I remember the moment of finding a webpage about the disparity of literacy in the world—700 million illiterate men and women in the world and 500 million of those are women. That has made me want to pursue education initiatives to help people read and write and know their rights, which I think is really powerful,” said Victoria.
Driven by a desire to make college education affordable to young women in Kosovo, Victoria and her sister developed the idea for Flora Stationery. “We talked about it and thought of making some sort of sustainable way to support scholarship for women who want to study in their own countries to then benefit their own countries,” Victoria said. After considering what product to sell in their business, Victoria and her sister decided on stationary because it represented the idea of school and education.
An important part of starting the organization occurred when Victoria saw a poster for the VentureLab program in the entrepreneurship department at Grove City College. “We worked through the VentureLab program just to get the idea off the ground…bouncing ideas off of different people through VentureLab was really helpful for the first semester that we were working on it,” she explained. Victoria said that her VentureLab advisor, Dr. Mech, supported the launching of Flora in multiple ways. “I think the most important thing that he encouraged for Flora was prayer, actually. Before he made any decision or talked about Flora whatsoever, we would pray about it. I think that just set a really good tone for all of our decisions that we made and all of our conversations. Here, at Grove City, I was able to get that because, at the end of the day, Dr. Mech’s purpose and my purpose was to glorify God through it.”
For Victoria, the greatest rewards in her nonprofit work come from hearing the stories of students helped by Flora and inspiring other people to become involved in the cause. “Next semester we are funding two mothers and two of their daughters, which is so cool to see a full circle,” she said.
Flora Stationery recently received an offer from Keds to create a special line of footwear and accessories using artwork from the students in Kosovo. The collection will be available in the spring of 2016 and the proceeds from the sales go to Flora Stationery.
“We’re really excited to be working with Keds in the spring,” Victoria said, “and we’re excited to be able to share so many stories with people when that comes out…the opportunity to connect more people with our purpose.”
Victoria says that her time as a student at Grove City College helped her to become the person and entrepreneur that she is today. “Looking back, I think that Grove City enabled me to think really critically and enabled me to build relationships with so many different people who inspired me. I think that when you’re surrounded by people who inspire you to be more, you become more, and so you do more. I’m really thankful for Grove City in the fact that I was able to cultivate those relationships that then pushed me to do more and be more for Christ.”
Good chefs follow recipes. Great chefs create their own.
When it comes to finding your calling, there’s not always a recipe for success. As 2002 alumna Anna Watson Carl can attest, sometimes you have to start from scratch. Though she now enjoys a successful career in food and journalism, it’s been quite a journey for Carl—one full of excitement, uncertainty, and a few tossed crepes.
As her passport will reveal, Carl’s world has certainly gotten bigger since graduating from the Grove. Still, she was glad to return to her alma mater to kick off this year’s Communication Pathways speaker series hosted by the Department of Communication & Visual Arts. As Carl whet the appetite of every foodie and aspiring creative professional in the room, her story proved to be one worth sharing.
Photo courtesy of Nate Poekert
Before she could even spell crème brûlée, Carl learned to see cooking as a “way of life.” Back in the seventies, her mother bought a yellow table that became the hub of family life in the Watson household, where little Anna developed a homegrown appreciation for good food, conversation, and hospitality. At the ripe young age of ten, she tried her hand at chefery, whipping up an impressive four-course Valentine’s Day dinner for her parents that “birthed a lifelong passion for dinner parties.” This culinary curiosity didn’t come to full boil, however, until her college years.
When she joined the Grover fold in the late ’90s, Carl’s knack for writing led her to enroll as an English major. But when junior year rolled around, this southern-bred belle’s wanderlust whisked her away to France where she “fell head over heels in love with food.” While abroad, Carl’s eyes were opened to a vivid world of new flavors, fresh ingredients, and rich food culture in which “each meal was treated as an occasion to be relished—never rushed.” She also gained independence and an ability to thrive in uncertainty, both of which would come in handy down the road.
Photo courtesy of Nate Poekert
After returning to the Grove with a kindled passion for food, Carl picked up a French major and Communication Studies minor with hopes of pursuing some sort of creative career that combined cooking and writing. Through an independent study with Professor Betsy Craig, Carl took advantage of the opportunity to explore cuisine as woven through the cultures of Belize, France, and Portugal. She also started a restaurant review column in The Collegian and leveraged her work to land food writing jobs right out of college. The next few years brought a smorgasbord of formative experiences, from working in restaurant kitchens to starting her own catering company, writing restaurant reviews, editing cookbooks, hosting dinner parties, and eventually moving back to France to earn her Grande Diplome Culinaire in professional culinary studies.
Though a self-proclaimed Francophile with a weak immunity to the travel bug, Carl eventually “put down roots” in New York City, where she’s been soaking up the metropolitan excitement since 2007. After starting her blog The Yellow Table in 2011 as a platform to share recipes, inspire gatherings, and nourish stomach and soul, Carl set out to write a cookbook. But as a “medium-size blogger” without an established following, did she stand a chance? Maybe not in the opinion of the agents and publishers she first called up. But that didn’t stop Carl.
In a leap of faith, she began developing content with a small team of designers and wrote a blog series called “The Cookbook Diaries” to document the publication process and garner support. After daringly deciding to self-publish, she launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for the first print run. Knowing this “would require some unconventional tactics,” Carl set out on a month-long road trip, partnering with Whole Foods Market, Volkswagen, and GoPro to throw dinner parties in the homes of fellow bloggers and designers in eight cities across the country, from Raleigh to Seattle. When she reached the finish line, Carl surpassed her $50,000 goal by close to $16,000. Stunned but grateful, she realized afresh that seeking the impossible can be a worthwhile endeavor. “All you need is some creativity and elbow grease—and the courage to begin.”
Since publishing The Yellow Table cookbook in 2014, Carl has continued to let her creative juices flow, generating recipes for Delish and sharing her insight on hospitality through her latest project, The Yellow Table Supper Club. Now living in Brooklyn with her husband Brandon, two cats, and a baby on the way, Carl hopes to keep making memories around the Yellow Table as she inspires others to do the same.
“Cooking is deeply important to me, but it’s community that I crave,” says Carl. It’s no wonder, then, that Grove City was the right choice. Though a cosmopolite at heart, Carl is thankful to have been a part of Grove City’s unique community, affirming that it was “a wonderful, wonderful place to grow in my faith and develop key friendships” with people of “real depth and sincerity” before taking on the real world full throttle.
For current Grovers who have yet to do so, Carl’s advice was encouraging: “You don’t need to have your whole future planned … Instead, try out different things to see what you like (and don’t like), ask questions, work hard, build relationships, find mentors, travel, and don’t be afraid to take risks.” Even if a dream seems too grand, Carl says, “sometimes when you stick with it long enough, doors will end up opening.”
On a chilly gray Wednesday in late September, there’s a special buzz on campus. The time has come for the annual Career Fair—and for students to begin knocking on some doors. Recruiters from across the country fill the Intramural Room with high hopes of finding their ideal candidates, and students clad in suits and heels make their entrance with resumes in hand, ready or not to connect with their futures.
For collegians caught up in the craziness of this thrilling yet uncertain stage of life, preparing for what’s next is undoubtedly daunting, as recent graduate Emily Fritz can attest. “Bridging the mental gap between academia and real-world experience is actually kind of difficult,” admits the 2015 Accounting & Finance alumna, but she found that starting early in the process helped to ease the transition.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to sharpen her professional communication skills at the Career Fair her sophomore year, Fritz introduced herself to Grossman Yanak & Ford, a regional certified public accounting and consulting firm headquartered in Pittsburgh. Making this first connection built the foundation for an ongoing relationship which led to a summer internship and eventually the full-time audit associate position Fritz holds today.
Although her strong work ethic as a student and aptitude in the classroom undoubtedly set her up for success, Fritz doesn’t underestimate the importance of the Career Fair in preparing her for post-college professional life. “Grove City has one of the largest career fairs I’ve ever seen and offers as many opportunities to make professional connections as you can possibly get,” affirms Fritz, who is just one shining example of the many success stories that unfold every year.
With over 160 employers and graduate schools in attendance this year, it’s no wonder that students are raving. Since launching its first Career Fair back in 1999, Career Services has faithfully invested in the development of this annual event which has grown significantly over the past two decades. This year the Intramural Room was packed with booths boasting numerous full-time, internship, co-op, and summer positions for every major in various locations ranging across 23 states. A significant number of alumni recruiters attended the fair, offering fellow Grovers helpful insight from the other side of the commencement-day stage.
The fair’s sheer magnitude for a school of Grove City’s size is certainly unique, but perhaps even more impressive is the breadth of fields represented. From big name organizations that have attended over the years like Ernst & Young, Peace Corps, Teach For America, General Electric, Mylan, Honda R&D, PNC, HP, and Chick-fil-A to government agencies including the Department of Justice, ministries such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes, seminaries like Westminster Theological, and graduate schools including Penn State and Carnegie Mellon Universities, the Career Fair yields a full harvest of positions ripe for the applying.
Another notable organization with a faithful attendance record is UPMC, one of the leading nonprofit health systems in the U.S. Their past recruiters have said that “Grove City College students come in and make an immediate impact for us in helping position our organization in a dynamic and changing marketplace that health care finds itself today.”
Grace Leuenberger was one of those stand-out students. As a Communication Studies major with a special knack for design, Leuenberger found her niche with UPMC as a Creative Services Summer Associate. Upon making the connection as a junior at last year’s Career Fair, she applied and was hired soon after. “I learned a great deal about design and project process and am walking away from my summer at UPMC with a valuable set of communication and marketing-related skills … [that] I feel will serve me well in a variety of professional settings in the future.”
No matter where your passions lie nor how well defined they may be, there’s no better way to move forward than checking out the Career Fair. For upperclassmen on the job hunt, opportunities to connect abound. For underclassmen, the fair presents an incredible opportunity to explore internships and summer jobs and develop professional networking skills that can be of great value before diving into the formal job search down the road.
As the festive winter season approaches, only time will tell what stories unfold from Career Fair 2015.
Entrepreneur, semi-professional soccer player, budding author and 2014 GCC alum – Sam Weber is all of these and more.
Now, living the start-up life in San Francisco, she’s eager to share the lessons of her journey with college students. After speaking to classes at the University of San Francisco and Westmont College, Weber flew home to Pittsburgh for Grove City’s homecoming weekend, when Dr. Powell’s marketing students had the privilege of hearing her story. Weber confirmed what the students have learned in class—the best innovations result from entrepreneurs who addressing their own pain points.
Having started her soccer career at the ripe age of three, Weber is intimately acquainted with the competitive athletic system. When she reached high school, she and her teammates experienced the frustrations and flaws of the college recruiting process. At tournaments, parents would pass out stacks of players’ profiles to any college coaches that happened to walk by. Of course, these same coaches would often be inundated with emails, making the communication pathway clogged, untargeted and inefficient.
Weber had long hoped to address this problem that was so close to her heart. While a sophomore English major at Grove City, the soccer player put her plan into action. What resulted was ProfilePasser, an app that dramatically streamlines the recruiting process for both players and coaches.
Weber remembers several Grove City courses being particularly helpful to her in the development of her company—particularly Content Marketing, Principles of Marketing and Accounting. Additionally, the young entrepreneur was blessed to participate in Startup Weekend, where her idea for ProfilePasser placed third, winning her $25,000 in funding from Alphalab, Pittsburgh’s startup accelerator.
Balancing a business, a full course load and varsity soccer was difficult, but Weber was up for the challenge. During her senior year, Weber got an email about the Inc. Magazine Coolest College Startup in America competition. Weber set it aside, believing that her app was not good enough to place, and “some kid from Harvard” would win. But when she decided to enter, ProfilePasser made it to the final four of the March Madness style competition—a remarkable achievement.
Even while Weber juggled many demands on her attention, she was planning another important task to accomplish after graduation—writing a book. Several years ago, her brother died in a tragic hiking accident outside his Air Force base in Northern Italy. In a Hero’s Steps was inspired by Weber’s desire to trace Zach’s footsteps through Europe and chronicle his short life of 21 years. She finished the first draft of the book last year.
ProfilePasser is not profitable yet, so Weber is paying the bills by working as a product manager for a small startup in San Francisco. However, her app certainly has the potential to grow. Just last year, Weber made the difficult decision to decline an acquisition offer from European sports tech company YouFoot, feeling that the company’s vision did not mesh with her hopes for ProfilePasser. Recently, she partnered with a programmer from her church to take ProfilePasser to the next level. The young entrepreneur hopes to give back to the San Francisco community by giving away subscriptions for her app to America Scores, a non-profit inspiring American youth to lead healthier lives through soccer.
To the students who asked for her top advice, Weber shared that a great team really matters in a start-up. Picking the right people with whom to work—colleagues with a strong work ethic who share your vision—is key to success.
Learn more about Grove City’s entrepreneurship program here.
It may have been the cinnamon crunch bagels. Or the bonus points. But whatever attracted the crowds of students to hear Blaine Hurst, they did not leave disappointed.
