BG Terrace Review. —- Wednesday, September 4, 1991

Local youth goes trom §

art to high finance —

Reprinted from The Voice, Dordt
College, Chicago, Ill.

For Steve Mantel, a few paints,
mixed with a splash of talent and
a willingness to step out, have
painted his college days with col-
ourful experiences, and, Ged Will-

" ing, sketched a bright landscape
for the future.

Steve is a 1991 accounting-
business administration graduate
from Terrace, British Columbia.
When he came to Dordt in 1987,
he already had three summers of
work experience in his own sign
painting business.

At age 13, he started Steve’s
Novelty Windows by going around
to businesses in Terrace with a
portfolio of seasonal drawings he
had done. He offered to paint their

‘windows with holiday designs or
designs for special events.

"That went really well," says
Steve. "The next summer, my
mom bought a craft store and
needed a sign to put in front of the
store. I painted her one, and it
looked pretty good. I took a pic-
ture of it and brought it to the
local sign painter and asked if I
could hang around to learn the
business. He offered me a job.
Since I already had a 9 to 5 job at
the local art gallery, I worked from
6 to 10 every night for him."

The following summer, he
worked full-time painting signs.
After he finished Grade 10, at age
15, Steve decided to try setting up
his own sign painting business. He
ordered some paints from
Vancouver, built himself a table,
and set up shop in his parents’
double garage.

"It was easy to get off the ground
because overhead costs were mini-
mal. Basically, all I needed was a
box of paints. I started out with a

few jobs that I got from my old
boss, painting van and semi-truck
doors. Those kind of jobs aren’t
much fun because often someone’s
welding or pounding on the trucks
at the same time you’re working."

"After that, it just kind of steam-
rolled. I had an uncle who ran a
trucking company, and I did his
fleet. And then a new moving
company called me - I made
almost $5,000 doing just that."

Steve kept his sign painting
going the first two summers after
he began attending Dordt. While at
school, he also worked as graphics
editor for the Diamond.

"| really like the art side of
things, but my first love is still
business. I found that in running
my own business, I enjoyed
keeping the books and working
with the clients more than doing
the art." ,

During the second semester of
his junior year, while on the Chi-
cago Metro program, he was able
to make the leap from painting to
corporate finance. On the program,
he worked as an intern for Heller.
Financial, a wholly-owned subsidi-
ary of the Fuji Bank, the largest

bank in the world. Toward the end
of his semester, Heller asked him
if he’d like to stay on for the |

summer. .

"T couldn't refuse," says Steve.
"Iy was a great experience. 1
worked as a financial analyst, if
you had to put a name to what I
did. Basically a lot of it was

crunching numbers. But I also got.

to go to Boston during the summer
to do an audit on a computer com-
pany there." |

Although working for a corporate
finance company is a vastly differ-
ent experience than running a paint
shop in a garage, he was prepared
to make the jump.

"Working at Heller was intimi-
dating at first, especially while I
was learning the computer system.
The summer was great because |
knew the people I worked with.
Plus a lot of my job was confined
to spreadsheet work on Lotus,
which I had used at Dordt and was
very familiar with."

"] was grateful for the amount of
computer time I had at Dordt. One
of the real advantages that Dordt
has over the bigger colleges has to
be the fact that Dordt students
have more access to computer
facilities."

The business program at Dordt
involves the largest number of
students on campus. Despite this,
Steve says he still feels the pro-
fessors are available to students.
"They (the professors) always have
their doors open. If you approach
them, they will always go the extra
step to help you out."

"Certainly the perspective they

teach is also important to me per-
sonally. That’s going to be overtly
recognized by an employer. Where
it’s going to come out is in you as
an individual once you're on the

“job.”

Steve had to schedule his classes
tightly in order to finish both is
business administration and ac-
counting majors, do the internship
in Chicago, and still finish in four
years. For him, the loaded schedule
was worth the opportunities he’s
had. Experience, he says, is one of
the best teachers.

"Right now the business depart-
ment is working on national and
local internship programs. If they
can get it off the ground, I think it
would be one of their greatest

assets because it would allow.

every graduating business major to
do an internship. Today that’s
almost a requirement in order to
compete."

Steve has put his paints away, for

cd

now anyway. After graduation, he .

will return to Chicago. He plans to
work two years, and then take 2
year off to travel, Eventually he

hopes to get his MBA in finance in

order to work in consulting or
investment banking.

Editor’s note: Since this article
was published in The Voice, Steve

has secured full-time work with the §
financial firm of Gordon Capital §

and is now living in Toronto.

Steve Mantel: | really liked the art side of things, but my first love
is still business.

NOTICE

All playing fields in the Terrace and Thornhill
area schools will be fertilized monthly. This -
program will run from May through October
1991. _

WEDNESDAY WITH FAE

BY FAE MOONEY

Nothing new

*The more things change, the more
they remain the same." This well-
known saying has been around for
about 150 years.

"What has been will be again, has
been done will be done again, there is
nothing new under the sun,” pro-
claimed wise King Solomon about 30:
centuries ago. Is he right?

The more things change...

Take a look at this passage from the current issue of Scientific
American. It’s quoting from the August issue of the same magazine
100 years ago:

“The worker of the nineteenth century works beyond his strength,
and in order to keep it up he resorts to stimulants V-- coffee, tea,
spices, alcohol, tobacco. These produce a superexcitation of the
nerves, which brings in its train insomnia; and to overcome this he
resorts to narcotics... The danger of falling into the habitual use of
(such drugs) arises from the cowardice and degeneracy of our times.
No one will suffer pain, no matter how transitory. Not a tooth can be
drawn, not a child born into the world without the use of an anodyne,
and when death comes we must have euthanasia."

Hmmm, could I have read it in this week’s Maclean’s magazine
instead? The only thing that’s changed, it seems, is the century.

Here’s another interesting quote from 100 summers ago:

At an annual meeting of a State Board of Health somewhere south
of the border, a Dr. Baker reported he had determined the cause of
influenza, "the prevalence of which has greatly increased during the
last three months. He stated that the germs of influenza are generally

‘at all times present but that there must be certain coincident
meteorological conditions to irritate the throat and air passages .
sufficiently to let the germs gain an entrance to the body. These
meteorological conditions in this instance were the excessive
prevalence of the north and northeast winds, and the excessive
amount of ozone during the past three months. Now the causes are
known, and the study of the measures for the prevention can begin."

Reassuring, isn’t it? . ts

That's progress -
It’s nice 10 suppose that we members of the human race are perhaps

_ evolving over the centuries into something better. Onward and

upward and all that. But are we?

This question was asked 50 years ago:

"By means of language, tradition, and writing, the experiences of
past generations can be handed on to present and future oncs, and
thus each generation may receive the knowledge accumulated in the
past. Our knowledge is growing, but is our intellectual capacity
increasing? Do the best minds of today excel the minds of Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle?"

Fifty years later, I wonder too.

The same old thing

And then there’s this one from April of 1891:

"As many years are now required as months formerly to build and
arm a modem battle ship. What folly, therefore, to talk of creating a
navy in an emergency. If we are to have a navy at all, Jet us have
one that can whip the enemy if we must fight, and one that will be a
school of the highest form of mechanical education if we shall be
blessed with peace."

Today’s emphasis may be on technical education, but didn’t I hear
the same thing being said during the Gulf War?

Weapons may change, but man who uses them, said George Patton
almost half a century ago, changes not at all.

What a paradox.

Where we're going is where we've been. What we’ve done, we'll
do again, But do we do it any better the next time around? Well, bo

suppose that’s beside the point.
. What is the point?

1

What Goes Around... ee ee
What goes around, we tell ourselves, eventually comes around _

again. Our past is our future. .

_ "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before..."

So said Solomon. And it looks like Solomon was right. oo

Nothing new.

(I think I’ve just talked myself out of a job.)

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