COMMUNITY STORIES: LINDA KOMIS
Hi, I’m Linda Komis and I am from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. I am also Lebanese and I actually lived in Lebanon for 3 years after high school. Dearborn Heights has a large Arab American community that allowed me to discover both parts of my identity– and I consider myself lucky to have grown up exploring my sense of self and embracing my heritage before going off to college. I decided to attend Michigan State University because of how large the campus is. I’ve always wanted to live in a college town and test the waters of independence, without fully being on my own.
My experience at Michigan State has been a whirlwind of emotions and character building moments. I have never related more to a group of people than with other college students. It doesn’t matter what age, gender, sexuality, or background—a bad grade on a test or missing the dining hall hours is enough to get anyone frustrated and feeling hopeless. But on the same coin, a win by our athletic teams or getting sweets from MSU bakers is enough to have you feeling grateful that you are an MSU student.
I am studying Computer Science and have two minors in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship & Innovation. I grew up always writing my own books and poems, so being able to pursue a minor that allows me to strengthen those writing skills and communication skills was a must have. I also grew up writing a list of business ideas to start one day, and just wanting to be managing something bigger than myself. I plan for a minor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation to help me start my own company and develop my management and problem solving skills.
At Student-Made MSU, I am the Campus Manager and Community Engagement Manager. I get the honor of onboarding creators, leading manager meetings, and communicating with the team as a whole. Part of the onboarding process is getting to know each creator and why they started their business. This is my favorite part of my responsibilities because it gives me a reminder of just how much potential this generation has. I’ve excelled at many manager positions in the past, and now through Student-Made I wanted to gain more experience managing a business at a higher professional level, while also helping create a stronger business ecosystem at MSU.
Being a part of this team means helping a new generation of young entrepreneurs grow and prosper. My main source of motivation to continue improving each day is seeing our creators get excited for more opportunities through the program, and seeing them grow their sales. To watch their confidence develop and become unbreakable overtime is very rewarding. It gives you a stronger sense of purpose.
Student-Made is about putting yourself out there no matter how scary and far fetched and reaping the benefits. One example of that is when we secured a partnership with Eat-At-State, the culinary services at our school, and are now able to sell products in physical retail locations. I walk around campus and bump into other managers and creators and get reminded of all the work that I’m doing when they let me know they’ve made their first sale. It makes my day.
Some specific goals I have for my manager role is effectively communicating with all my managers and having a positive attitude so they are encouraged to grow and involve themselves more deeply in Student-Made. Some personal habits that help me succeed include keeping a planner that contains everything Student-Made where I keep my day to day tasks, reminders, events, and notes. I also utilize google calendar with two reminders for each task that needs to get done or event that is coming up. I have a google doc that contains email templates for the different stages of onboarding, as well as a google sheet that documents the date each creator completed a new step of their onboarding process. As Campus Manager, I use trello to keep track of action steps and tasks for other managers.
For my mental and spiritual health, I have a journal that I write in everyday regarding my feelings, accomplishments, and what I struggled with the most on the job. Sometimes, something completely unrelated to the job can come up that could cause poor work performance. Acknowledging the situation at hand and how it’s affecting you can prevent that situation from impacting your job.
One day I want to be the CEO of my own company and manage it by myself before I have to bring on a management team. I think starting something that is uniquely your own and watching it grow feels like you’ve also watched yourself improve and grow. I think this Student-Made experience would allow me to show my future employers that I’ve worked on my interpersonal, problem solving, and leadership skills. Employers would then hopefully see my value as an employee and my resume will do the talking for me! And in my opinion, Student-Made speaks loud!
I hope to take away new approaches for working with other people, managing a business, and handling conflict. I hope to give this community opportunities to grow and reach organizations and institutions outside of Michigan State University, in addition to on-campus. My ideal future vision for Student-Made is that student businesses line up to become involved in the platform. I hope it inspires other students to let go of the imposter syndrome and accomplish what they thought they could never could.
Submit the form in your Resource Portal to let us know your interest in sharing your journey with our Student-Made community— whether you’re a Creator or Manager! We’ll be in touch with you soon about helping you craft your inspiring story.
