Ashland University the perfect fit for finance student Brian Wolfe
Completing a bachelor’s degree in finance a year early. Check.
Being able to buy a stock and learn about the stock market. Check.
Gaining experience with multiple internships. Check.
Having a full-time job waiting for him after graduation. Check.
Graduating this spring without debt. Check.
Commuting from home and taking online classes so he can continue to take care of his ailing mother and sister. Check.
Ashland University and its College of Business & Economics (COBE) has checked all the boxes for what senior Brian Wolfe wanted in his college experience – and then some.
“What I’ve liked is even though I’m a commuter, I still feel involved in the (AU) community,” Wolfe said. “I’ve never felt left out even though I’m driving 40 to 45 minutes. I know everyone in my classes as well as anybody else would and I know my professors well.”
And AU’s flexibility also has allowed Wolfe to accomplish everything on his checklist for a college.
Internships and full-time job after graduation
Being able to have all online classes for his final semester this spring will permit him to focus more on his latest internship in Orrville at the J.M. Smucker Co. headquarters, which will turn into a full-time job after he graduates.
“I started in May and my initial internship was treasury and insurance,” Wolfe said about his Smucker internship. “I got an offer to come back in the fall for supply chain finance and I got an offer to come back in the spring in the same group.
“I accepted my full-time offer, so I will go into a rotational program, probably not in supply chain finance since I’ve been there for about eight months,” added Wolfe, who worked his way up to the Smucker internship with internships at Apple Creek Banking Co. for a summer and Jarrett Logistics in Orrville for about a year. “They will put me in another group, and I will keep rotating until I find what I like, what I want to do long term.”
Wolfe said he enjoys the people he works with, and the work is interesting and rewarding.
“I feel like I am given meaningful work even as an intern,” Wolfe said. “I’m working alongside my manager, who is a lead analyst. He’s been very good at teaching me everything. He’s an expert in his role. Whenever I have an issue or something comes up that I might not know, we will work through it together.”
That manager, Wyatt Baer, lead analyst for supply chain accounting, said Wolfe has done great work during his internship at Smucker.
“Brian has learned a lot in a short amount of time and his work has been a value-add to our team,” Baer said. “We are excited that he will be returning as a full-time employee.”
Taking care of his family
Like AU, Smucker has provided Wolfe with much-needed flexibility. He said about 70% of the time he can work remotely and can adjust his schedule of about 30 hours a week.
“This week I am flexing some of my hours to take my sister to a doctor’s appointment,” Wolfe said at the beginning of a week in mid-December. “Being able to have the flexibility to be able to get my work done now so that way later in the week I am able to take her to that appointment is important to me.”
Smucker also is close to his home, being only about a 15-minute drive.
While Ashland University is a little farther from the home that he not only shares with his single mother, who was an artist but isn’t able to work anymore, and his sister, who is a year younger than he is and hasn’t been able to work yet, but also his grandparents, who are in their mid-60s, it is still closer than most other universities. He was accepted into several other colleges.
“I wanted to be with my family,” Wolfe said. “My mom and sister are chronically ill – they have a laundry list of things they have had for many years - and my grandparents are getting older. I’m kind of the only one around the house who can do a lot of things.”
Like with his college pick, Wolfe chose Smucker over some other internship opportunities because of its close location to Apple Creek. One was Nestle in Solon in the Cleveland area and the other was Timken in Canton. Those internships also would have involved travel across the country.
Because family has always been a very important part of his life, Wolfe said he doesn’t regret the decisions he has made for them.
“I don’t know any different and I enjoy it,” he said. “They have done so much for me to put a roof over my head and take care of me when I was younger and wasn’t able to so, of course, I would do it for them when they aren’t able to.
“It’s something I’m able to do and I’m young,” he added. “I have no health problems, so I see no reason why I can’t do most of the physical work at home.”
Graduating early and debt free with stock market experience
In addition to choosing AU because of its location, Wolfe said he selected it because most of the 42 CCP (College Credit Plus) credits he earned in high school were through Ashland University.
Taking those classes has allowed the 2002 Waynedale High School graduate to complete his college degree in three years.
CCP classes, living at home and working internships will leave him debt free when he graduates in May, Wolfe said proudly.
Being named an Emerson Scholar last spring will help him graduate without debt. Emerson Scholars receive a $3,500 scholarship. They have to be business majors with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher, demonstrate outstanding leadership and possess the potential to be a high contributor in their chosen career.
He also will graduate with experience with the stock market though the Eagle Investment Group (EIG), where students buy stocks for the university’s stock portfolio.
“That was one of the other reasons I wanted to come to Ashland,” Wolfe said. “I knew about it in high school.
“It’s up to about $2.3 million,” he added about AU’s stock portfolio managed by EIG. “That’s pretty good for a smaller school. I know some bigger schools that don’t give their students that much money to manage.”
Carrie Hartsel, internship and experiential learning coordinator and COBE operations manager, said Wolfe started meeting with her as a freshman and has continued those conversations throughout the past three years.
“Brian is a student mature beyond his years,” Hartsel said. “His initiative, responsiveness and appreciation are impressive for such a young professional. He nurtures relationships with his network, frequently seeking advice from faculty and staff when making decisions about his future.
“He truly is a forward-thinker, consistently planning his next steps and ensuring he has a back-up plan,” she added. “There is no doubt he has an extremely bright future.”