Yee Lim Shin – Staff Writer

What has 44 people, one bus, six industry visits, and seven hours to Kansas City? If you answered the Dordt College Business Club’s (DCBC) 2019 Trip, you’d be right. A Business Club tradition since the 90s, business trips have grown over time to give DCBC club members a chance to network and branch out to different businesses around the U.S.

Photos by Nick Geels

“Each trip gives students the opportunity to take what they are learning in the classroom and see it at work in the business world,” associate business professor Tim Klein said.

This year’s business trip had students visiting John Deere, Maps Coffee Roasters, Kansas City Fellows, Made to Flourish, Waddell & Reed and the Kansas City Chiefs. Visiting these companies gave students a chance to learn and interact with industries of different sizes.

“The main point of the business trip is to expose club members to different companies in order to do some networking and learn how they operate,” Dordt junior and DCBC board member Alan Park said.

Several of the companies students visited had Dordt alums as employees, which made the idea of working with businesses like those more of a reality.

Students saw what it took to make their way in the business world.

“A lot of people we met with were in higher-up roles,” said DCBC co-president Bethany Van Eps, “and all of them talked about what working their way up looked like.”

This trip gave students an opportunity they would not have been able to get otherwise, like talking to the vice presidents of organizations and connecting with people that could help them land their first job.

Throughout the whole trip, the industry representatives stressed the importance of taking advantage of their opportunities. They talked about the many ways you can earn a job, the importance of customer interaction, how internships could lead to jobs and how we are called by God to do everything to the best of our ability.