UPLIFTING AND SERVING OTHERS

Justin Rose and other Leadership exCHANGE participants enjoyed some sightseeing during their time abroad this summer.

Justin Rose has studied and worked abroad in Europe, participated in community service as a Close Scholar and has two part-time jobs – one coordinating university special events and another at the city of Rock Hill’s Technology Incubator office.

And he is only a junior.

Te business administration major from Columbia has taken advantage of numerous opportunities during his college years to grow as a leader and future business professional. Winthrop staff members describe him as conscientious and approachable with a sweet disposition.

“I started out as a biology major but then decided I wanted to be more involved with people and serve them,” said Rose, who will concentrate his business studies on finance.

For Rose, he has built on experiences each semester and taken on new and more responsibilities. He started out his freshman year as an Emerging Leader to help other students and volunteered as a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service leader.

Last year, he became a Peer Mentor and continued his Close Scholar work, which has a community service component – 112 hours per semester – as part of the scholarship. Rose spent time volunteering as a reading and writing tutor at Oakdale

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Elementary. Ten, he started a mentoring program with peers at the school where they met with 5th-grade male students each Friday. “It was a great opportunity to walk alongside those young men and support them both academically and personally as well.”

For the second summer in a row, Rose spent a month in Prague, the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic. Te first year he took classes within the Leadership exCHANGE: Global Leadership Program and this summer returned to the program as a student development coordinator. He joined students from the United States, Mexico, Nepal, Australia, South Korea, Canada and Belarus.

Te classes he took covered social entrepreneurship and the philosophy of leadership. In studying great leaders, Rose particularly admired Malcolm X’s transformation from a black nationalist to his embrace of racial integration.

Tis academic year, Rose will coordinate logistics for 10 Office of Career & Civic Engagement events such as career fairs, blood drives, etc. He also will intern with the

JUSTIN ROSE

city’s Technology Incubator office, which helps entrepreneurs create new businesses.

He has balanced his class load during the fall semester with three on-campus classes and three online classes. Time management is key for him as he balances jobs, class assignments and community service.

When Rose graduates, he would like to continue to meet and connect with different people. “I want to help people who have helped me along the way,” he said. “I want to impact their lives in a positive way. We are better together.”

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