While originally from Bosnia, Adis Muminović moved to southern Vermont with his family in 1997, and when it came time to go to college, he chose the University of Vermont (UVM). Adis is a Senior studying Business Administration with concentrations in Accounting and Finance at the Grossman School of Business, and is also enrolled at the College of Arts and Sciences, where he’s majoring in Spanish with a minor in Economics.

Adis is now also part of an elite student group who earned their way into attending the Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) Global Leadership summit held recently in Orlando. Adis was the only representative invited to attend the leadership summit from UVM, which was attended by about 300 students from 14 countries, representing 155 schools. BGS is the international honor society serving business programs accredited by AACSB International. 

We sat down recently with Adis to discuss his experiences at the summit and at the Grossman School of Business at UVM.

Tell me about the leadership summit, how was that experience for you?

AM: The summit was a celebration that attendees are among the best and the brightest business students, and BGS wants to ensure that students build from that foundation and push you to keep going on that trajectory. They emphasize how you can use your skills to be even better, and the way they did that was through personality inventory, and leadership skills recognition and development.

I participated in several different activities, enjoyed a lot of interactions and heard from a variety of different speakers, including BGS alumni, who reinforced the idea that we know that you know what you’re doing in the classroom so we’re not going to focus on that; we’re going to focus on how are you going to develop as business leaders in whatever field you choose, and how you are going to manage your personality and other people’s personalities to get the most out of yourself and others.

The speakers all had unique backgrounds which made it interesting to hear these very different perspectives and their stories; of what does it really take to be successful, and do something that is meaningful and worthwhile?

Perhaps the biggest point they emphasized was while everyone has these leadership qualities some shine through more than others as we are all individuals, so instead of using the ones we’ve shown we can use, we were challenged to use those that were more hidden within us, those that were a little more difficult to use in our day-to-day lives.

What were some of your takeaways from the Leadership Summit?

AM: The biggest thing is that I realized UVM is a top tier university. I realize now the work we do here at UVM is very meaningful. The work we do here, compared to a lot of other schools and students of my age, is very demanding and we are doing very well in how we prepare our students to be not only just leaders, but to have the capacity to think critically at a very high level. The work we are doing is tough, challenging work and I really didn’t expect to see that, and it really made me feel a lot more comfortable about my decision to come to UVM. 

The first year I was here I had doubts and thought did I make the right decision? I realized pretty early on that I had made the right decision not just at a purely social level, but on an academic, holistic university level. I think I got the most out of my university experience by coming to UVM, that’s what I learned.

How Did You End Up at UVM and Grossman School of Business?

AM: I mentioned my family emigrated here from Bosnia, and the way people from there think is you have to be a doctor, a lawyer or something like that. I told my mum and dad I can’t do that stuff, it’s not me, so I took a couple of econ classes, and I really enjoyed them. I then took a look at the business school and sure enough I had a class pre-semester in the business school with this professor that I really, really enjoyed and I thought to myself I can do this. I really like this. This is something I’m good at and I like applying myself to, and that’s how I ended up here at Grossman.

I had Professor Cats-Baril for an introductory course as a 19-year-old freshman at college. He’s so well travelled, very well spoken and demanded a lot of you, but there was something about that. Although I didn’t do fantastically well in his course, I felt like I had achieved a lot, and grown. I thought if the faculty are going to be like this, this is where I want to be. This is where I’m going to grow the most as a person and I’m going to enjoy myself the most when I’m in the classroom.

I ended up asking the professor, why introductory level? Why are you teaching a bunch of snotty nosed kids? And he replied "I like watching you learn. It is interesting for me to see students who take being here seriously and are willing to put forth the effort and that’s incredibly rewarding." That was my first interaction with the business school and it was phenomenal and that’s why I ended up staying here.

Knowing what you know now, do you have any advice for incoming freshman?

AM: my biggest suggestion would be to press down on the gas and work as hard as you can earlier. Because the energy you’re going to need later on in your academic career, especially in junior and senior years, is going to be more focused towards looking for employment and taking advantage of opportunities like going to the BGS summit, or participating in case competitions; the things that allow you to see what it’s like in the real world and gain that knowledge that’s not in the classroom. Those experiences are invaluable.

I would also encourage all students to intern over the summer. I had a couple of internships after my sophomore and junior years and that was when I realized that the focus of those years is how do I focus and prepare myself? What are the skills I’m going to need in the workforce? How am I going to build on that while still at school to prepare myself for graduation? I don’t understand how someone can feel ready to go out into the working world if they haven’t had, at least a small taste, of the real workforce experience where other people are counting on you, not just to hand in your project on time, it’s tremendously important.

If you’re going to come here to Grossman School of Business, you have to jump in with both feet, you can’t go half way. For the people that are 100% sure this is what they want to do and this is what they’ve got their mind set on, jump in with two feet and use every single available resource that you have, and there’s no reason that you won’t be successful…absolutely no reason. If you combine that kind of drive with the resources that we have available here for you that I’ve seen, and I’ve seen these evolve through my 4 years here, it’s been quite the progression even in my short tenure here, I think that there is no reason that anyone can’t graduate from here and be ultimately successful in whatever they choose to do, in whatever avenue that may be.