The Student Advisory Board or SAB, the recipient of Detroit Mercy’s 2024 organization of the year, comes into this semester with different leadership that hopes to build off its post-pandemic resurgence.
Detroit Mercy’s website lists the organization’s official mission as to “provide a forum for students to discuss concerns about, voice opinions regarding, and influence the college of Business Administration. SAB provides an opportunity to directly affect the quality and nature of their education both today and in the future.”
Junior president Joey Mansour elaborated on this description saying, “I would say in a nutshell what the Student Advisory Board likes to do is be a liaison between the alumni and the student body, and that also entails helping students with finding internship opportunities, as well as helping someone find a student mentor.”
The relationships SAB works to help establish on campus is not anything new as the organization has been around for decades, dating back to the University of Detroit in a time when Mansour’s grandfather Joseph served as the assistant dean for the College of Business Administration.
However, SAB did nearly cease to exist during the COVID-19 pandemic. The members were essentially at zero when a rescue campaign was spearheaded by (then) freshman Mark Formosa to reestablish the organization with strong membership. Formosa and other individuals and members such as Caleb Dupuy, Meleah Newhouse, Josh Henscheid, Alex Kalaj, Youla Nassif, Alice Zagrean, Luke Tomaszek Nathan Keeley and Mansour were among various other contributors.
Just three years removed from that near extinction, SAB sits at an impressive 60 members. Enrollment has and will continue to grow so why can’t SAB? Mansour understands this task ahead and plans to move forward by “taking all business students on campus and showing them that they can all contribute in unique ways.”
Because of the networking reach of the organization, SAB is appealing to underclassmen on campus, something current vice president Nathan Keeley reaffirmed.
“I feel as a freshman when you come in, you get to finally meet your community coming in, and not knowing many people you get to build a community here and get to know the people in your Business School,” Keeley said “You’re going to be with them for the next four or five years and you just kind of have that in.”
These kinds of connections form true bonds amongst the members of SAB, who come from all walks of life.
These are extremely valuable to Mansour who said, “Community is a big aspect of the organization, but also, I would say passion. There are so many passionate members within SAB.”
Looking forward, SAB will be hosting a homecoming event in addition to its weekly meetings and presences on campus. It plans to take a group trip to Chicago in the spring, which was a huge success last year with 15 members making the trip to the Windy City.
This was not its only trip either, as 14 members took to the streets of Dublin in the spring for an international business trip through the College, which was almost half of the students that attended from Detroit Mercy.
