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A Shining Example

When Stow, Ohio Mayor Karen Fritschel delivered her keynote address at the campus’s Grand Opening in April, business administration–management student Derek Waskowski almost missed his “15 minutes of fame.” The mayor confessed that she had consulted a family friend who was a student at the college to see what he thought of his experience.

“I was kind of there, but [I was actually] talking to Angela, the DJ from radio station WKDD,” Derek admits. It was only later that he learned of his role in the mayor’s remarks. “I walk in here and [Student Services Representative] Kim Proctor came from behind her desk and gave me a high five and said ‘Good job!’”

"The teachers here are great…"

Of course, Derek’s distraction at the ceremony was all business. Because he works for his family’s restaurant, Derek has “been on the radio a couple of times and met Angela on WKDD.”

Derek, who also works in a gymnastics facility, is an industrious young man with entrepreneurial dreams of his own. “It’s almost going to be like a Chuck-E-Cheese, but…a different theme, it’s going to be called Kid Castle.” That’s how Derek describes the restaurant of his own he one day plans to open. His medieval-themed restaurant, where kids are treated as “princes and princesses,” already exists in a variety of business and site plans Derek has produced for his business classes.

Derek feels the National College approach to education is just what he, and the region, needed–something other local colleges could not provide. “The teachers here are great,” Derek says, adding “I wanted a smaller class size” than those offered elsewhere. Derek is a great example of a National College student: motivated, enthusiastic, yet serious about both his studies and his future. The mayor couldn’t have picked a better source for her speech