Georgia MBDA Business Center Students – Where are they Now: Sam Naab
Georgia MBDA Students – Where are they Now
Earlier this year, we produced a series of articles focusing on how your group can employ student workers by utilizing the resources provided by the Georgia Tech Career Center. If you were not able to read those articles, make sure to check them out on our blog. To show you that we practice what we preach, this week, we will be highlighting some of the students that have worked with our centers over the past few years and where they are today.
Sam Naab
Sam recently graduated from Georgia Tech in May of 2021 with a B.S. in Literature, Media, and Communication. Working as a student assistant for the Georgia MBDA Business Center, Sam’s role focused primarily on content production – interviewing clients and writing the client spotlight series, piloting and authoring the GT Resource Series on the GT Career Center and GT Manufacturing Institute, and writing articles recapping the 5th Annual Advanced Manufacturing Summit. Sam also performed other roles with the group conducting research projects to support the NextTech Pitch Competition and SEO optimization for our websites.
Like our other student workers, Sam was very involved on campus. Sam was a general member for a number of organizations including the Georgia Tech Tour Guides, Wreck Camp (the extended first-year orientation program), For the Kids (the largest philanthropic group on campus), and the GT Catholic Student Group. Sam also served as Vice President of the Honor Advisory Council and the both the Vice President of Public Relations and Vice President of Development for his fraternity, Kappa Sigma. Sam was very involved with the pre-teaching program at Georgia Tech, and in his senior year, Sam sat as a representative for pre-teaching students on the GT Office of Undergraduate Education’s Student Advisory Board. In his time at Tech, Sam worked as a student assistant for the Office of Undergraduate Admission and as an Curriculum Alignment Intern for the GT School of Biological Sciences before working for the Georgia MBDA Centers.
Below is what Sam had to say about working with the Centers:
How would you describe the atmosphere within the Georgia MBDA Centers?
I had a unique (and completely virtual) experience with the Georgia MBDA Centers, but in just a short six months, I’ve felt myself grow so much as a professional. It’s so inspiring and empowering to be surrounded by an entrepreneurial spirit. Energy that high just begins to permeate into your thinking and actions. The Centers are a busy place with a fast pace, but it was easy and fun to sprint with them during my last two semesters of undergrad. I learned a lot, and I was given so much responsibility that I honestly did not feel like a student assistant but rather a full-time staff member. I am very appreciative for my time with the Centers.
Are there any projects from your time as a student assistant that you’re particularly proud of?
Within a manner of weeks, I was basically the primary content developer for the Georgia MBDA Centers. If someone needed an article written, they would come to me, and I would produce it. I was extremely proud that this responsibility was just given to me. I also pitched an idea on writing content about building internship programs, and I was basically told to run with it. This project became an entire Georgia Tech Resource Series for our newsletter, and I include many of these articles in my personal portfolio. As a writer, it was amazing to be able to spearhead my own projects as well as seeing my content out there and helping our clients.
How did working for the Georgia MBDA Centers contribute to your undergraduate career at Georgia Tech and your professional career after graduating?
On May 31, 2021, I will begin pursuing an M.Ed. in Middle School English Language Arts at the University of Notre Dame on the ACE Teaching Fellowship. By the time this article is released, I will have only been in graduate school for a few weeks, but there are definitely tangible ways that the Centers have influenced me. I spoke earlier about the entrepreneurial spirit within the Centers, and it was the drive of and ambition within the Centers that inspired me to open my own freelancing service. While in grad school, I will continue managing their web content and social media for some of the clients I’ve acquired on my own.
I couldn’t be more appreciative of my work with the Centers. As someone fresh out of undergraduate, I’ve developed a strong, virtual rolodex of business professionals and contacts which will be sure to carry with me going forward. I loved the opportunity to tap into the Atlanta business development scene, and I hope to capitalize on my experience with the Centers after graduating from my graduate program in 2023.