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Kyle Gaeffke
Majors & Minors

MAJORS AND MINORS

Learn by Doing

LEARN BY DOING

  • Town of Rock Hall Intern
  • Cambio Wi-Fi Intern
Extracurriculars

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

    Kyle Gaeffke

    Kyle Gaeffke

    Kyle  Gaeffke

    Class of 2020 - Haverford, PA
    Majors & Minors

    MAJORS AND MINORS

    Learn by Doing

    LEARN BY DOING

    • Cambio Wi-Fi Intern
    Extracurriculars

    EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

      While attending the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in New York for a brief semester, Kyle Gaeffke was looking to transfer to another school. Feeling that he had not received the kinds of opportunities he was hoping for, he had begun searching for a smaller campus where he could be sure he was getting the kind of education he needed to prepare for the world of business--and then he found Washington College.

       

      After attending UCMMA for less than a semester, Gaeffke was looking to change his college environment for the better.

      “I knew what I wanted to do coming into Washington College [because] that was part of the reason why I left USMMA,” Gaeffeke said. “I went to USMMA for one trimester and decided it was not for me.”

      It wasn’t until after he had attended business courses at the Community College of Philadelphia that Gaeffeke returned to the Washington College campus. After interacting with the expansive Business department and seeing what the campus offered its students, Gaeffke had made up his mind to attend--and has not looked back since, crediting his experiences with his department’s faculty and classes as being the source of harvesting his interests and turning them into real-life experiences to learn and grow from.

      “I love the fact that I can have a professional relationship with the professors and they know who I am,” Gaeffke said. “If I have a problem in class with learning material, I know that the professors are available to help me better understand the material [along with] opportunities to go to different work environments to experience life in these corporate settings.”

      As he approaches new opportunities, Gaeffke is certain that he made the right decision concerning his college career--and is determined to face head-on with whatever experiences await him next.

      “I came here because I loved the campus,” Gaeffke said. “We get these opportunities that maybe are not available at other schools. [Students] are open to doing things completely out of their comfort zone, such as studying abroad overseas for a semester or joining an interesting new club or organization.”

      Kyle Gaeffke's Four Year Plan

      Year 1

      FAVORITE CLASSTHE 211: Acting I

      As he was settling into his new surroundings at the college, Gaeffke’s first semester was full of immersing himself into different environments, including taking an Introduction to Acting class, where his expectations for what to anticipate at Washington College were shattered and reconfigured into something beyond anything he had ever imagined. “I think the experience I got in that class was special. I was doing something that I didn’t want to do initially helped me down the road and that continued with me down my college experience here,” Gaeffke said. “It taught me to try out experiences that I was not super comfortable with, like the idea of going to study abroad in Hong Kong for a whole semester by myself.”

      Year 2

      LEARNING BY DOINGTown of Rock Hall Intern (Rock Hall, MD)

      During the spring of his sophomore year, Gaeffke, in a team consisting of two others, worked as an intern at the Town of Rock Hall. A short distance from Chestertown, Gaeffke had the opportunity to collaborate with two other peers on a number of different projects, specifically those that help “increase tourism for the ‘down season’ such as the winter and early springtime…[conduct] interviews with local businesses, and post them to social media.” “This helped as we were working in a team environment and I know a lot of companies look for people who can work in that type of dynamic,” Gaeffke said. “This [internship] helped me get real-world work experience, as I had to engage with these local businesses and maintain a good relationship with them.”

      Year 3

      MEMORABLE EXPERIENCECambio Wi-Fi (Chestertown, MD)

      For his junior year, Gaeffke became invested in his internship at Cambio Wi-Fi. Described as being “more of an office experience,'' Gaeffke worked in both the marketing and sales departments, as opposed to conducting numerous interviews at his previous residence. “This was a small company and a relatively new company so working here was a bit of a risk as there was a big responsibility put on me,” he said. “I learned a lot in dealing with customers, and how a small business runs.”

      Year 4

      LOOKING FORWARD TOWorkplace Experience

      As he comes closer to the end of senior year, Gaeffke is looking forward to the development of both his SCE, which he plans on “building a business plan, creating a physical product, and potentially selling this product in the market,” as well as learning new business procedures to prepare him for any job opportunities coming along after graduation. “I am looking forward to Data Analytics as I am super intrigued with business processes and that has to deal with programs such as SAP,” he said. Though he has no immediate jobs or interviews lined up quite yet, he is working on achieving his goal of working as a consultant or manage deals for the Germany-based software program SAP in the future. “At first I thought I wanted to go to a post-graduate school to receive my masters, but now after hearing some insight from faculty and staff I think I am going to get some experience in the workplace,” Gaeffke said. “I would like to get into a job that deals with SAP work as I think this line of work is intriguing.”

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