Alex Dobrenko

College: Brown
Graduating Year: 2010
Branch: Sharon, MA – Summer 2009
Students taught: 44

Why I did the SMP:

I chose to participate in the Summer Management Program because it allowed me to make an actual difference in the lives of high school students while becoming fully immersed in the innerworkings of a start-up business. Rather than spend my summer working through an internship where I would never see the fruits of my labors actually mean anything, I chose the SMP because of the entrepreneurial spirit at the core of the company's mission: to allow college students an opportunity to understand how a business is run from the ground up and, even more importantly, benefit from the learning experience of what does and does not work in terms of marketing, sales, management and teaching.

About my experience:

The thing I took most away from my experience was an all-encompassing understanding of what it means to run a business. Though I had taken numerous classes on the array of topics covered in an undergraduate business degree, there is nothing that could prepare me for what it means to actually run a business, from the ground up, better than my Summer Management Program and Regional Manager experience. Learning how to deal with the challenges that went with being a Branch manager during my first summer made me a far stronger candidate for any job post-college in marketing, sales, or education.

It was this experience that caused me to stay with Ivy Insiders as a Regional Manager, an experience unlike any other I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. By having over fifteen branch managers all working in my New England Region, I learned the ins and outs of management styles and was able to improve my ability to lead tenfold, as well begin to understand the relationship between the market and the strategies necessary to succeed in that market.