Business student finds UC experience to be a life-changer

Growing up on a horse-boarding farm in Johnstown, Ohio, just northeast of Columbus, Thomas Dyer, Bus ’26, fed horses, baled hay, and helped care for a group of alpacas that he adored. But deep down, he knew that he wanted to go to college and pursue his interest in technology and economics. After applying to several schools, he received an unexpected email from UC’s Lindner College of Business. The Honors Program was requesting a secondary screening interview.

“I had no idea what that meant,” Dyer recalls. “I didn’t have my college choice narrowed down, but I thought, ‘I’ll do this interview. It seems like a great opportunity and will only take me a few hours.’”

Little did Dyer know how pivotal that interview would be.

Dyer was accepted into Lindner’s honors program, which further opened his eyes to the possibilities before him. “I came to understand how everyone in the program was doing anywhere from three to six co-ops. That was intriguing because I didn’t know what I wanted to do at all. I thought I wanted to work in business, in data, but I didn’t want to be a computer scientist. I thought this seems like a good place to start.”

At the same time, Dyer joined the Air Force National Guard. He was sworn into the Guard just a few days before moving to UC. In the years ahead, Lindner would play a crucial role in helping him balance his academic pursuits with his National Guard commitments.

Immediately following his freshman year, Dyer was summoned for basic training. Then, during the fall of his sophomore year, he was sent to Air Force Tech School. Two years later, while performing a consulting co-op with GE Aerospace, he learned he was being sent overseas.

“I was planning on graduating, and the day before I was interviewing for a full-time position at GE, I got an email from the commander of my unit,” he says. “Our lines had been cast for deployment to the Air Force Central Command area of responsibility in support of Operation Spartan Shield to assist U.S. military operations in the Middle East. This basically meant I had to miss the last fall and spring semesters.”

He would miss four semesters in all, but his partnership with his college remained strong.   

“The support I received in my program at Lindner was immense,” Dyer says. “I was sitting there during my deployment thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, will I get my scholarship back?’ I reached out to my program director and advisor, and literally within 48 hours they came to me and said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You’re doing something important right now. Let us handle this.’ The support they showed me is an important part of why I am where I am today.”

Dyer, who is majoring in information systems and economics, is currently in his second co-op at GE Aerospace and poised to finally graduate next spring.

Support from his scholarships has been continuous. That has given him time to serve as president of the Lindner Business Honors Student Advisory Board, and vice president of the Student Advisory Committee on the University Budget.

He says that while donors may not always see the end result of their giving, the impact of their actions is profound. “For many of us, we probably wouldn’t be at UC or have these opportunities without their generosity.”

Dyer hopes to secure employment where he can leverage the skills he has developed at Lindner, and he wants to continue learning. “Maybe that means coming back for classes at UC, or maybe doing an online class, or getting a certification, or trying a new job,” he says. “I want to be a lifelong learner.”

Featured image at top: Thomas Dyer is a student in UC's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. Photo/UC Alumni Association