As most kids walk to class clad in nothing more than jeans and a hoodie, freshman Steven Dubis often dons a full suit and jacket, an outfit complete with a Cardinal Glennon ID tag hanging from his collar. Little do many of his peers know that he was easily up to attend a 7 a.m. business meeting.
At only age 19, Dubis is an intern for the Vice President of the Ambulatory Care Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. This branch of the hospital deals with many managerial aspects, which allows this finance/business administration major to get a feel for the business world.
"I get to sit in on a lot of the executive meetings," Dubis said. "Last year I even sat in on the 2004 budget analysis meeting, which was extremely beneficial."
Dubis generally works between 20 and 25 hours per week and is trusted with various managerial projects that help evaluate the hospital's efficiency.
"So far I have worked on three main projects. The first one was assessing the call wait times for patient rooms and the second dealt with a call reminder schedule. The one I am currently working on is a quality overview of the hospital," Dubis said.
In addition to hands-on experience, Dubis has also gained perspective of the business world in the meetings he attends.
"I have learned how the executives communicate with each other in the meetings and how to be efficient in conducting meetings," Dubis said. "I now understand the flow of the 49 different departments of the hospital and the different ways that the government regulates non-for-profit organizations."
Dubis is also enhancing his business knowledge by becoming involved with various business organizations at Saint Louis University. Thus far, he is a member of the honors program, service leadership program, the finance club, CEO and Phi Beta Lambda. Dubis actually co-founded the business fraternity Phi Beta Lambda this year with SGA Senator Charles Flint.
"The fraternity competes in various state and national competitions, and it is different from the other fraternities on campus because there is no business degree requirement. The reason for that is that every profession incorporates different aspects of business and all majors can find it beneficial," Dubis said.
The fraternity has two site visits planned for this semester and community service projects; it will also compete in the areas of business administration, marketing and economics.
Both Dubis and Flint competed in Future Business Leaders of America at Parkway West High School in St. Louis and wanted to continue competing in different areas of business at the college level.
To advance his business understanding even more, Dubis has started many small companies. His main business is The All Around Guys, which specializes in yard work, but also offers various services such as animal sitting, furniture moving and computer lessons.
"The All Around Guys centers around general contracting and landscaping and has been in business for a year and a half now, and during that time it has turned a profit," Dubis said.
Beyond The All Around Guys, Dubis also runs an eBay business. This is a more recent business endeavor for Dubis.
"My eBay business sells wholesale accessories to electronic devices, and it has been pretty successful so far," Dubis remarked.
Furthermore, he is looking to start yet another business. This one would be a product innovation company, which specializes in analyzing a product's efficiency.
"The purpose of this company is to examine different products and try to improve them. So far we have 63 different concepts and none of these are electronic or mechanically inclined," Dubis said.
After starting three businesses and spearheading a new fraternity, Dubis is well prepared for the business world.
"I just have always enjoyed creating new businesses, and I think it will help me a lot in the future," Dubis said.
