Six St. Thomas students are launching a unique venture for their Business 200 class: a collaboration with Tiffany Sports Lounge, a local bar and restaurant. The group includes two seniors, Garrett Tesmer and Jack Olson, and four first-years, Dylan Danh, Callan Theis, Marshall Pen and Anakin Yang.
“This is an experience where you can learn way more than sitting in a classroom listening to a professor yap in a lecture,” Tesmer said.
Tesmer and Olson are finishing their final semester of school and said they pictured the fundraiser as a way to apply all that they have learned across their St. Thomas careers. When customers purchase a buffalo chicken sandwich, 11% of the proceeds will go toward the JP4 Foundation’s youth mentorship program.
JP4 is a program dedicated to reimagining youth mentoring by focusing on three components of holistic development: healthy activities, nourishing food, and meaningful relationships.
“All of this, especially for Garrett and I, is building out what we’ve learned the last four years in classes, business, marketing and everything in between,” Olson said.
Tesmer said that not only is the class a great way to apply business expertise, but it is also a perfect opportunity to sharpen leadership skills.
“A huge part of this is growing into a business leader, managing events and connections; it’s something I haven’t had the opportunity to actually do till now,” Tesmer said.
But the process of reaching out to a business wasn’t easy for Tesmer and Olson’s group.
“It started off with Jack and I, and our four other freshman members, Dylan, Marshall, Callan and Anakin, reaching out to a bunch of places through email, and we’d either not get a response, or get some crappy response,” Tesmer said.
Theis said he remembers that emailing process all too well, and said it was one of the group’s biggest struggles in the beginning of the semester.
“I’ve learned a lot about how difficult it can be for non-profits to bring in money,” Theis said.
After many emails, Tesmer decided to take initiative and meet with business leaders in person.
“I was able to meet Jack O’Gara, the general manager of Tiffany Sports Lounge, and he was immediately on board with the fundraising idea. Having that face-to-face chat felt more meaningful,” Tesmer said.
Tesmer and Olson connected with the JP4 program through past ties with their own communities, as well as the nonprofit’s past work with St. Thomas students.
“I worked on some community service projects with JP4 through my business and was really struck by their willingness to provide mentors to underprivileged youth,” Olson said.
Tesmer said reaching out to JP4 was also easy because its executive director was a mentor for him during his high school years.
“Jeff Huth was my high school baseball coach, so I found out about volunteering through him. He’s been a really helpful and useful contact for me in my network,” Tesmer said. “He’s someone I can always rely on.”
Collaborating with Tiff’s made more sense to Olson when he remembered the restaurant’s past promotional meals.
“I think Tiff’s has done a really good job with their last promotion that they had with Nine Lives, with the hot dogs, and they’ve done a good job promoting that on the website and social media,” Olson said.
Olson said the group also recognized just how involved Tiff’s is with the St. Thomas student body.
“You hear about the Tiff’s all the time. I mean, you got Thirsty Thursdays every week, and it’s a sports bar that can draw in a lot of students. I thought it’d be a really good place for student engagement,” Olson said.
Theis said one of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to expedite that student engagement.
“Not many people would want to buy a product just to support a non-profit, especially college students who might not have a lot of extra cash anyways,” Theis said.
Olson attributes much of their group’s successful preparation to the fresher viewpoints provided by the four first-years.
“It’s a good, eclectic mix; the freshmen provide a youthful energy that’s very contagious for sure,” Olson said. “You also want to provide insight that the younger people can rely on.”
The leadership roles described by Olson are featured prominently in the BUSN 200 course, with every class being overseen by peer mentors instead of a professor.
Julie Reiter, the director of the Business Learning Through Service program, said that this is valuable to student development.
“That’s one of the beautiful things about having the peer facilitators be the ones that are leading the classes and doing this work of inspiring students, because it’s not me lecturing at the students about how important it is to volunteer. They are getting this important message from their peers directly,” Reiter said.
Reiter has overseen the program since 2018, supporting students like Tesmer and Olson with their volunteer service experience.
Reiter said the program’s first purpose is to facilitate the impact students leave on the community, which Tesmer said he has found through connections in the project.
“One of my main goals was to learn how to approach business partners and improve networking skills. I’m hitting that by talking to Jack and the director of JP4, and it’s really made me feel connected to the business around our campus,” Tesmer said.
Reiter said the second, equally important goal of BUSN 200 is skill development for the students in the program.
“Nonprofits are businesses, so folks are out there volunteering in a business, and they’re practicing important skills like communication, time management, teamwork, dealing with ambiguity, taking initiative … all skills that can benefit them in their future careers,” Reiter said.
Skills like these are essential for Olson and his aspirations.
“My ultimate goal is to be a general manager of a professional NHL team,” Olson said. “In that position, you have to make big decisions. You have to be organized financially, and a lot of that is what we’re doing now with BUSN 200.”
For Tesmer, the ability to be the face of a business is a skill he believes will be fruitful for his future, in which he hopes to be a district manager for The Home Depot.
“I’ve never represented a non-profit before as well, so being able to build skills like that is a unique opportunity to BUSN 200; you can’t learn those skills in the classroom,” Tesmer said.
The BUSN 200 experience is required for all business majors, and it is one that Tesmer and Olson said they found incredibly valuable.
“‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,’ as my dad used to say. Being able to expand your network and taking those opportunities as they come is important, and that’s what BUSN 200 is all about,” Tesmer said.
“The program is honestly perfect for making you a well-rounded individual and business student, a professional ready for the real world,” Olson said.
Community members interested in participating in the group’s fundraiser can purchase the buffalo chicken sandwich meal at Tiff’s for the entire month of May.
“Even if we don’t reach our fundraising goal, it still means the world for us to involve the people we know at school with the community in St. Paul,” Tesmer said.
Jake Slack can be reached at slac8833@stthomas.edu.
