The Network
Stef Lazar is a fascinating person. It’s safe to say I would have never have met her, let alone become friends with her, if it weren’t for this student-run job at The Corp.
Stef was the director of purchasing during my tenure as store manager for Vital Vittles, The Corp’s on-campus grocery store. I wanted to interview Stef as part of this book, and I can vividly recall her interview. I remember late in the day after I scheduled to meet with her for our interview, I made sure to grab my second latte of the day to give myself an extra boost. Once we sat down and I began to listen to her background, her interests, and future career aspirations, I realized I didn’t even need the drink. I was hooked. I couldn’t help but wonder just how different we were from one another. I momentarily paused to process this and continued typing my notes.
“When I came to Georgetown, I didn’t know what major to choose specifically, but after I took ‘The Devil in History’ with a Romanian studies professor, it piqued my interest in socialist issues,” Stef said. “Growing up in Romania and then experiencing U.S. democracy was an incredible juxtaposition, which led me to regional studies and made me dive into development aspects of the EU and the future of the union with the turmoil surrounding Brexit.”
We were offered positions in the same hiring class simultaneously. Beyond those commonalities, you must dig deep to find similarities between us. I was a business school student learning about brand management for companies and human resource management, while Stef was contemplating the social organization of countries and dismantling the intricate levels of society.
“My dream job would be a diplomat or foreign service officer placed in a great country with a completely new culture,” Stef continued. “My ultimate goal is to start my own social entrepreneurship nonprofit development of cultural and social development in terms of agricultural vs. rural vs. urban development.”
Before I came to college, I was constantly bombarded with people telling me about the college experience — how I would learn so much and also have my own perspectives challenged and reformed with different views than when I started college. Stef, as well as other individuals raised in completely different backgrounds with different viewpoints, was exactly the type of person who would catalyze this personal development.
“Through my experience at Vittles, I’ve been able to see how food is purchased and wasted in so many different methods,” Stef explained. “I’ve come to understand the supermarket model and infrastructure, and it’s completely different than foreign markets, completely monopolizing their supplies. I’d prefer if we had an agricultural-based lifestyle, but all in all there is too much gluttony in the world and I’d love to learn how to prevent countries from reaching that point.”
As Stef mentioned the huge food waste problem, I thought back to the first time I ever saw some of our nightly spoilage at the store. I had no idea how bad this issue would be for the store until I was hired into the company. There were certain days when we had mountains of expired yogurt that we threw out and baskets full of sandwiches that simply went to waste. Countless other categories of items expired throughout the semester.
I then thought back to another moment: when I was counting all the expired products in the back, and I noticed one of our facility workers come in and take out the huge bag of trash that had accumulated with all the expired food. This sweet, friendly, positive lady was barely five feet tall, and yet she was lifting and carrying bags close to 50 pounds of weight by herself. From conversations with her, I know there are days when she works close to 12 hours doing the same labor-intensive work she does day after day. We have another facilities worker who confided in us that a few months ago he was shot at and had his truck stolen. He believes these events could happen again in the future soon.
These interactions, combined with working the job yourself, make you appreciate the careers of so many blue-collar workers. Ganzorig Batbold, another student manager at Vital Vittles, has also been humbled by this job. “When you work for hours as a cashier or stocking the store, you realize how intensive it is to have interactions with students and other people. It made me realize that I always have to have good etiquette to other people working in the service industry because they work tough jobs.”
I remember when I was trying to solve our spoilage system, among other problems we had, I reached out to Vittles alumni to ask for some guidance on these issues. Every single person I contacted was so friendly, even after so much time had passed since I had seen them. At the start of my term, I decided to try my luck and reach out to alumni who held my position five, 10, and even 15 years ago. To my surprise, almost every single director got back to me and we all had lengthy conversations about the store and its success. I even talked to some alumni about their current careers, and they were able to give me advice that was even better than some counseling I’d received from my career coach.
I will always appreciate the relationships I developed with coworkers, facilities workers, and alumni. I was able to learn an incredible amount, and the support network is invaluable. What continues to amaze me most about this job is how different each of our backgrounds are in these SRB programs.
Outside of this job, my friends all have a similar personality or have similar interests and experiences in some way. At these businesses, that isn’t always the case. Usually you have an eclectic group of individuals banded together by the company at which they are hired.
My own hiring class at Vittles was extremely diverse. There’s Stef Lazar, whom I mentioned above, Ganzorig, a 6’6” Mongolian who loves to use “DMV slang” in his vocabulary, and Erin Villareal, a former Salt Lake City, Utah resident who loves to spend her free time outdoors backpacking, among other equally distinct individuals. None of us knew each other beforehand, and we were suddenly thrust into a completely foreign environment and simply told by our managers at the time that “we’d eventually love each other” and the store.
And the thing is, we did come to love everything about our jobs.
Something magical occurs when students take on these jobs. All in all, student managers are happy and enjoy the experience for many different reasons. However, almost everyone comes to realize that this is more than just a job.
This is an exciting opportunity to go in a few times a week to a stimulating, fast-paced environment that challenges you to be the best you possibly can be — both in a professional sense and as a person overall. Even if you’re going in to bake pizzas for three hours, or you’re stuck in the kitchen chopping chicken for hours, you rally behind the position because you are passionate about what you do. You believe in the values and mission instilled in your company, and you love the people you work with.
The relationships students gain in these programs are priceless to them. These are individuals students can rely on for support, as well as to push them to become the best versions of themselves.
