Student Spotlight: Chad Codak

It isn't rare to see Chad Codak, a senior finance major, sitting in the Student Union cafeteria using his laptop or greeting friends in the halls of Northeastern Illinois University on any given day.

     As the Chair of the International Business Conference, he has been on campus a lot lately getting everything ready for the conference on March 2 and 3.  I had the opportunity to sit down with Codak to talk about the conference and his experiences at NEIU. 

MJ: What organizations have you been involved with?

CC: Intervarsity Christian fellowship, Life Catholic Students, Financial Management Association, Marketing Club, Business and Management Club, APEX, Student Government… just to name a few.

What are you most involved with right now?

The International Business Conference.  I'm the chair of that and that I've been working on it for a year and a half.  It's two weeks away and I'm really pumped up. 

Could you explain what the conference is about?

Sure.  The International Business Conference brings executives, CEOs, vice presidents of various businesses, public administrations like government agencies, to Northeastern.  And they're all focused on Latin American business transactions.  The vice president for UPS is coming.  Basically they're here to instruct all students, not just business students, about the opportunities of employment in the business world, what they do in their jobs, how they impact global economy and what they think about the future. 

So what does your job entail?

What doesn't it entail might be easier.  Coordinator of the conference.  Scheduling.  Communication.  I've learned more by taking on this responsibility, as far as marketing classes go, as far as management classes go, as far as finance classes go, as far as accounting classes go, than I have in any of my actual classes.  If you could just imagine the knowledge you gain from something like this, I'd compare it to an intensive internship over the course of a year.  It's just phenomenal things, like just last week, delegating responsibilities to individuals.  There is a core group of committee members, there's six of us, who have different tasks and responsibilities.  Like one person right now is completely in charge of speaker and speaker introductions, and if I find people who are interested, I send that information to her.  It takes a little burden off myself because, I gotta admit, last month I was not sleeping through the night, tossing and turning, just worrying about everything.  I sat down with one of the advisers and kinda explained to him what I'm going through and he just said ‘you know, I don't think you're delegating enough.'  So that was a thing that I learned from this process is that other people are there to help out on the committee, they are there because they wanna help, so give them something to do.  I have a person in charge of all the food requirements.  I have a person in charge of all my hall set-ups.  Somebody's in charge of promotional materials, Independent advertising, flyers, pamphlets.  The list goes on.  It's overwhelming.

So any big plans for after the conference?

Not doing the International Business Conference.  Not worrying about it.  But you know what, you can't.  You can't just stop.  You do have to debrief.  One thing that I want to do with the core committee is to, the week after, get together and just write notes.  What was bad?  What was good?  What can change for next year?  Not we personally because most of us will be graduating but for our successors.  A unique thing that I wanted to do is to write a personal letter of reflection to whoever's replacing us and just give them a heads up. 

So you will be graduating…

In May.  Hopefully.  Fingers crossed.

What are your plans for after graduation?

Not graduate school right away.  I'm in the GMAT test prep course right now, but I'm planning on taking the GMAT after graduation.  I heard the score's good for five years, so hopefully in three years I'll be in graduate school.  But after graduation hopefully look for a position somewhere.  My interest is teaching personal finance to the individual, so I can maybe do community college teaching sessions.  I'm working right now at the Chicago Park District as an intern in finance.  So I really don't know, but what I really desire is to just help people with their finances.  Not really go in the corporate direction. 

In your years here, what had been your most memorable moment?

The first thing that popped in my mind was giving the commencement speech at graduation.  I was just excited to get the opportunity and I think I'm probably the only non-graduating senior to give a commencement speech.  And just to explain the situation behind that, it switches every year.  So this year, the College of Education will be presenting their student to speak, and the prior semester I was chosen because I wouldn't get the opportunity to speak at my own graduation.

What would you say to the student body of Northeastern if you could give them any kind of advice?

When you're a freshman, worry about your studies.  See if college is right for you.  For some people, it's not.  It's unfortunately a true reality.  When you're a sophomore, get involved in one club or maybe two, not officer positions.  Just do something.  When you're a sophomore, learn about what's on campus.  When you're a junior, become an officer.  Take that step.  Be a leader.  Try something.  Go to the Student Activities Leadership Exchange program.  Go to networking opportunities.  There's things to do on campus.  Everybody says, ‘Oh, it's a commuter campus, nothing happens.'  That's completely a lie.  There's a lot of things to do.  There's talent shows, music recitals… there's so much to do that students just don't take advantage of.  As a junior and an officer of a club of your choice, don't spread yourself too thin, because remember that studies are still important.  As a senior, try to get an internship and try to wean yourself out of clubs, because you're gonna have to eventually go out of Northeastern.