Clubs helping students, businesses navigate bad economy

FLINT, Mich. – The economy is bad. We get it.

That is the attitude many students are taking these days, with many electing to stay in school longer either to bolster their job portfolios, ride out the bad hiring market, or both. Rarely a day goes by when students do not hear of another company offering buyouts or making layoffs – with the former giving way more and more to the latter. Most frustrating of all is that for students, straight A’s are not cutting it any more.

But according to Suyash Joshi, there is more students can do. The UM-Flint Business Club president has had his hands full this school year with the nearly decade-old club, which has rededicated itself recently to helping students – primarily those in the School of Management – better understand how to navigate the treacherous post-graduation waters.

“We’re involved with a lot of local businesses where we take students to see firsthand about what jobs are out there for them after graduation…helping them get connected to professionals,” Joshi said, referencing trips the club took to visit business branches such as Merill Lynch in Grand Blanc and Yeo Yeao in Flint.

The Business Club currently has about 10 active members and a mailing list of about 50, but Joshi said the students who are involved have plenty of opportunities to meet and rub shoulders with some of the business world’s elite. In 2008, the club visited the Detroit Economic Club, where Joshi said they were “honored” to meet Matt Ferguson, the CEO of Career Builder, a directory-style job search company that has exploded in popularity in recent years. On Thursday, the club made the trip again, this time meeting U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue.

But the chances of a student getting hired on the spot by someone like Ferguson or Donohue are slim, so Joshi said much of the club’s focus has been local.

“A professor came to speak to us about the recent financial turmoil in Fall 2008 from an outside university at one of our meetings,” Joshi said. “(And we) attended the Economic Conference recently organized by the SOM, where top economics professors came to meet and discuss the local community in the Northbank Center in December 2008.”

Laurie Matheny, president of the Entrepreneur’s Society at UM-Flint, which started in the fall semester of 2008, said her club tries to help not only students weather the current economy, but local businesses as well.

“We have a few projects that we are working on right now that are focused on our economy,” Matheny said. “We have teamed up with (economics) professor Mark Perry on a current project regarding price comparisons, and we have also collaborated with some local businesses and are exploring ways to gain them more exposure to the student population.

“I think for businesses, it is time to be creative and find a niche to maintain current business and attract new customers,” she said.

Last semester, the club did case studies involving Isabelle’s Pizza, in the University Pavilion, and the UM-Flint Theatre Department. The club also invited a series of venture capitalists and speakers to tape spots for Michigan Television, whose studio is in the William S. White Building on campus to “share their knowledge with students and the public,” Matheny said.

Matheny said as far as the job market is concerned, education and resourcefulness are still the keys for students looking to break into a tough business climate.

“Obviously for the students (the best thing) would be to stay in school, absorb the material learned, and make themselves competitive on the market,” Matheny said. “We have a lot of talented members with great ideas and are currently using those talents to explore other opportunities available to the students that they may not be aware of.”

According to Joshi, the Entrepreneur’s Society works more with “self-starters” and businesses to foster entrepreneurial goals, while the Business Club is aimed more at educating students about the types of jobs and opportunities available in the field.

Throwing any idea of competitiveness out the window, Joshi called the Entrepreneur’s Society “one of the most interesting clubs on campus.” The two clubs share many common links, including a vice president, international business management major Vanessa Smith.

And some students, like Debate Society President Tuan Mai, just want students to be more aware of the issues around them.

"My main goal of having a debate society was to inform, exchange and challenge ideas," Mai said. "Knowledge is power, and one of the points of attending college is to foster dialogues and students can do it actively or by just listening."

Mai's club is also new on campus and has met just a few times, but already economic issues are at the forefront of most of his group's discussions.

"It would be a shame to leave or graduate from college only to find that you have no job and be surprised at the real world," Mai said. "Students always ask why this is happening, but they never try and prepare or do something about it because they have no clue what exactly is happening."

It's Mai's goal, along with Matheny and Joshi's, to make sure students do know.