BizCrush becomes Trevecca’s first official business club after a year of independent work

Maven McGregory 

Senior Reporter

A new club on campus offers students real-life skills and experiences to help prepare them professionally.

After unofficially operating on their own for a year, BizCrush was officially approved by Trevecca’s Student Government Association this semester as the first official business club.  

Danny Saweres, Ryan Pimentel, Jordan Voorhees, Sandro Pirtskhalava, and Katie Moll initiated the club to serve students by helping them build their networks and transitioning them from students to professionals.  

“We are the first business club. We’re also the first club to really begin and solidify itself without any help, without officialness,” said Voorhees, BizCrush treasurer. 

Many students wanted practical experience to build connections and prepare for their careers. The idea for BizCrush came from those students’ desire to change this.  

“We build relationships. One of the key aspects that we teach is that we’re building these connections with these high-level individuals in the business world without monetary exchanges. We just build connections, we teach people how to network with each other, and we bring people in to explain and help to them,” said Voorhees

BizCrush advisor Joshua Smith, a business professor at Trevecca, said the club is helping students build the confidence and communication skills they need to succeed beyond the classroom. 

“Students are better prepared to speak the language of the job application process and for jobs in business. Beyond business, we talk a lot about soft skills, which is the ability to interact with other people and be courteous, friendly, interesting, and responsive. A lot of businesses want these kinds of skills, even though they seem kind of ordinary, they take practice. Many students are nervous, so we give them practice in combating those nerves and working through that. We’re giving students those experiences and hearing from speakers that have worked through those transitions,” said Smith 

The club meets regularly throughout the semester, hosting guest speakers to encourage students, and other times simply gathering as friends.  

“We have guests come to cultivate a community where everyone’s helping each other. We do workshop events to be hands on helping them. Ultimately, we’re a bunch of motivated students gathering to grow together by sharing our own advice that we’ve come across. That’s the best way that people can work on their skills,” said Pimentel, BizCrush president 

The club leaders said they organized and hosted all meetings independently before the club received official recognition as an official club. 

“We’ve been funding this either through small donations from a teacher or mainly just us. But we really haven’t needed funding. The school allows us their facilities for free. We reach out to people and build relationships with them. They would say, yes, free of charge, I’ll come in and pour into your students,’ because they see the vision how we see the vision,” said Voorhees 

Since their first meeting, BizCrush has grown from just a few members to 30 students participating and continuing to show up. 

“I remember there was a couple meetings where it was about five people showing up and these past two meetings have been around like 30,” said Pimentel 

Their goal is to expand the club’s impact even further.  

This semester, the club has organized events that give students experiences they would not get in a typical classroom. 

“We took a couple of students to meet the Secretary of State. We’re working on a job fair that would give possible opportunities for internships and careers,” said Pirtskhalava 

The leaders said the biggest reward has been taking ownership of something they built from the ground up. 

“We all want ownership or some type of business in our future lives. Right now, this is such a good experience to show us how difficult it would be to actually start something from the ground up, get other people involved, fill other needs, and  find what people actually want out of something like a business club and then fulfill that. Giving us some type of ownership on campus while we’re still in college has been a dream that I fulfilled,” said Voorhees 

The club welcomes all majors and invites any student interested in professional growth to join.