Frostburg Students Learn From Alumni, Develop Leadership Skills at Business Retreat

On Sept. 16-18, the Frostburg State University Student Business Leadership Committee (SBLC) held its annual leadership retreat at Wisp Resort in McHenry, Maryland. The retreat was facilitated by current SBLC members, and provided an opportunity for Frostburg State University (FSU) students interested in business to network with university alumni and enhance their leadership skills.

While many student organizations and university departments offer leadership-focused events throughout the year, SBLC prides itself on offering an off-campus event that provides participating students with a more direct and hands-on connection to alumni whom have found professional success after graduating from Frostburg State. Hannah Llewellyn, SBLC co-president, said she believes that the annual event is unique because it is “a retreat organized by students for students” and because it encourages professional development and networking in a more casual environment. Llewellyn is a junior majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Management, and attended the 2015 SBLC retreat as a participating student.

The weekend-long retreat began on Friday, Sept. 16, and included an evening networking event attended by several FSU College of Business alumni and faculty members. Jessica Smith, a FSU junior majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Small Business Entrepreneurship, was a student participant at this year’s SBLC retreat. She told The Bottom Line that the constant student-alumni interaction was incredibly valuable to her as an aspiring business professional.

With regard to the networking opportunities during the retreat, Smith noted, “It was fantastic to speak to and hear from the alumni about their experiences while in college and how they worked and used their degrees to gain employment and then grow to opening their own successful businesses.” Smith added that the opportunity to learn from accomplished business alumni was helpful as she continues to evaluate her own post-graduate plans.

Day Two of the retreat kicked off with the first of the event’s three alumni speakers, Mike Dreisbach. Dreisbach is the co-owner of Savage River Lodge, and delivered a speech on entrepreneurship centered around the theme of “think it, feel it, say it, do it.” Following the morning alumni event, students launched into a series of interactive team building activities designed to enhance their leadership and management abilities. Smith said that this portion of the retreat, when all of the students were forced to work together as leaders to complete challenging exercises, was her favorite. She added that it was the “hands-on leadership development,” that set this event apart from others she has participated in.

The second day of the retreat concluded with a speech from Frostburg graduate, former SBLC member, and co-founder of the retreat, Dan Bible. Since graduating from FSU, Bible has gone on to become a dispatch manager at the technology company Design One. On the third and final day of the retreat, students heard from Jason VanSickle, Vice President, National Sales Manager, at PNC Bank. VanSickle, who served as president of the FSU Student Government Association during his time at Frostburg, spoke about business ethics and personal finance.

When asked what she hoped this year’s participants took away from the retreat, Llewellyn remarked that she hoped that students had a similar experience to hers when she attended the 2015 retreat. She reflected on her participation last year saying, “It made me feel more comfortable as a leader because I felt more comfortable with the other students in the College of Business.”

Much like the inaugural SBLC retreat, this year’s event gave participating students the rare and invaluable opportunity to meet some of Frostburg’s most accomplished business alumni, interact with them in a casual setting, and grow the critical leadership skills that they will put to work both on campus and in their future careers.

The Student Business Leadership Committee is centered around their three “pillars” of giving, leadership, and alumni-student connection. The organization created the first ever student-endowed scholarship at the university, and has plans to hold an on-campus alumni event sometime in the spring 2017 semester.

Featured image courtesy of: Daniel Ryczek