Logan Alexander has done it all at Ashland University
Want to know what it’s like to attend Ashland University as an undergrad? Ask Logan Alexander.
Have an interest in earning a graduate degree from AU? Talk to Logan Alexander.
Ever wonder about taking classes at Ashland Theological Seminary? Logan Alexander can help you.
Want to work at Ashland University? You guessed it, Logan Alexander can tell you about that, too.
“I have been a student at Ashland since the fall of 2014, which is a bit longer than most,” Alexander said. “I’m an MBA student, as well as a grad assistant in charge of university concession operations.”
His extensive academic journey through everything AU, including earning a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from the seminary, a graduate division of AU, will come to an end in May when he graduates with his MBA, ending his G.A. position.
While he still could continue working for AU if another job opened up, Alexander doesn’t plan to take any more classes at the university.
“How does one combine all these different elements?” Alexander responded when asked what his future plans are. “After graduation, I look forward to getting experience in the private sector.
“All my experience has been in the university setting,” he added.
Alexander said his ultimate goal is to step into a classical school setting and use his administrative skill set that he has built up through all his education and experiences at Ashland University and eventually the private sector to help classical schools get more established in the Midwest and be more accessible.
Has he enjoyed his job overseeing concessions operations?
“It has been a rewarding experience to learn and sharpen many different skill sets, hard skill sets of numbers and soft skills of training,” Alexander said about his six years in the position. “I have been able to inaugurate the concessions stands at the Niss and the softball complex. The workload has more than doubled since I started; that has been a fun challenge of the position with support from many.”
The biggest challenge of the job is recruiting volunteers.
“Thankfully, it is a win-win situation because for the university it is a charitable contribution, and for the organization that runs the event, they get a substantial contribution depending on the size of the event, and they get tips,” Alexander said.
Once an organization has been booked, then Alexander has to train its members for the event they are working, supervise them during the event and oversee food deliveries, which he will then adjust for future events.
The organizations include not only groups on campus, but also ones in the community.
“The thing I will miss most about the job is working with the groups I have worked with several times,” Alexander said. “They have stepped in for me when I needed it. There are some groups that really step up over and over, and I have become friends with them.”
“I will miss Fred Geib (general manager of Dining Operations) and others in Dining Services, and the work environment in our little part of the university,” continued Alexander, who added that he has always appreciated Dining Services workers helping him when there was more than one event with concessions taking place at the same time during the times there wasn’t a second grad assistant.
The current second grad assistant, Tobi Adekoya, also is graduating in May, which will leave concessions in transition for a while. Alexander said he has been really grateful for Adekoya’s help.
How was it working while pursuing graduate degrees?
It was pretty smooth, said Alexander, except maybe for his last semester at the Seminary when he started taking prerequisite classes for AU’s MBA program.
“Not necessarily something I would recommend students do,” Alexander said about that overlap of programs. “But, thankfully working with the professors and knowing my concession schedule, I could plan ahead.”
Without a business degree, Alexander admitted it was kind of nerve-wracking starting to work on an MBA. But he also didn’t have any food experience when he applied for the concessions job and that worked out, and so did his MBA experience, which included two specializations: human resources and project management.
What was his undergraduate education like?
“The professors were very dedicated to their students, and that seems to be a trend at Ashland overall, not just in the Ashbrook program,” said Alexander, who came to AU for Ashbrook. “That was something I was looking for in a university, a lower student-to-faculty ratio, and a university that emphasized the teaching role of its professors more than the publication and research roles.”
Until one of his high school teachers in West Lafayette, Indiana, took an Ashbrook seminar and was so impressed that she told her students they should consider AU’s Ashbrook program if they have an interest in history or political science, Alexander hadn’t even heard of Ashland University.
“So, I took an interest and visited three or four times,” said Alexander, who studied history, religion and political science as an Ashbrook Scholar. “With the Ashbrook program, I really enjoyed the personality mix, the mindsets of the professors and the students.
“As a history enthusiast, I really enjoyed that we looked at primary sources, reading the writings of people who were actually there,” he added. “Though that could mean more work to go through multiple sources, it’s very rewarding to interact with those people in their own words.”
Does he look fondly on his overall AU experience?
Without a doubt, yes, said Alexander, who said he learned so much from the setbacks and successes along the way, and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“My time at Ashland has been full of challenges,” Alexander said, “and definitely full of blessings as well.”
