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Success Stories
Name:
Mark Stasch
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Residence:
Elmhurst, Illinois
Graduation Year:
2002
Major:
Management-Marketing Information Systems
Why did you choose SJC?
I had a cousin who played baseball at SJC, and he
was successful there. I enjoyed my campus visit and thought it was the perfect
atmosphere for me. It seemed like there would be a lot of opportunities
there for me both academically and athletically. I also like the small atmosphere,
where I could receive more one-on-one attention with my professors to greatly
enhance my learning experience. As a student, what were you involved in?
I played baseball for all of my four years there;
the team competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), helped out
with the College's Christmas party for underprivileged children, and held
a variety of camps for young kids and high school students to teach them
the fundamentals of baseball. I was also on the GLVC All-Academic team from
1999-2002 and a Scholar Athlete. Academically, I was a member of Alpha Lambda
Delta and Delta Epsilon Sigma honor societies, and a Computer Laboratory
Monitor, which means I answered questions from students about computer maintenance
and helped them with any problems they might have had when working in one
of the computer labs on campus. The summer after my junior year, I completed an internship with Arthur Andersen, LLP in Chicago, where I was a Programmer/Analyst. I worked with visual basic programming and began several different projects. It was quite an experience. And in 2002, I won the Wall Street Journal 2002 Student Achievement Award, an award I was nominated for by professors at SJC for excelling in my Business classes. I graduated magna cum laude from SJC.
What are you doing now?
I'm a Programmer/Analyst with Follett Higher Education
Group in Oak Brook, Illinois, a company that manages more than six hundred
and fifty college and university bookstores throughout North America, including
Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, and Florida State University.
I primarily work with Accounts Payable in the Finance Department, where
I develop and maintain applications that our home office uses to process
invoices and pay vendors. I also helped to develop and maintain applications
for our home office employees to gather information from our stores out
in the field to send financial data to us, as well as online surveys that
allow us gather necessary information to help our home office complete necessary
tasks. It's a great company that has a long history and many quality people
working for them. My work environment has a Saint Joseph's College atmosphere
to it. How did SJC prepare you for the "real world"?
The diversity of classes offered in the area of
programming languages prepared me to handle all of the resources used at
Follett. I work on a very diverse team that has many projects in all areas
of our business, and we have to have knowledge in a little bit of everything.
I know and use many different kinds of languages and programming tools from
database design, application programming, creating reports, and troubleshooting
for day-to-day issues. Also, the Core Program helped me to develop my communication
and writing skills, skills I have to use every day, whether I'm communicating
with other employees on projects, writing program specifications, or assisting
with technical questions.
