The four years a student spends in high school are a time of growth, fun, and. . . coming up with creative solutions to help a company save thousands of dollars? For Spencer Call, that was exactly his high school experience. Now a student at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Call is building on the work he did years ago to develop the skills necessary to create a career that will not only help him grow as a person but also help improve the lives of the people around him.
Call, a senior studying marketing, experienced his first taste of the subject in 2015 while in high school by competing at the DECA International Career Development Conference and pairing up with Marriott International. Together with his team member, Sarah Baker, Call helped identify that the company was currently facing a problem regarding employee retention. Through surveys, statistical tests, and modeling, Call and Baker not only improved Marriott International’s goals of retaining more employees but also saved the company fifteen thousand dollars, all while finishing in the top twenty at the competition in Orlando, Florida.
From this experience, Call discovered his passion for serving others and realized that he wants to continue to do good in his career and make a difference in the world. “Truly, we as human beings want to help each other,” he says. “We are all trying to do our best, and the best thing I can do is try to be good to people.”
Motivated by his passions, Call searched for a career path that would allow him to help and serve others. Call, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, had always planned on attending BYU, but less certain was what he wanted to study when he arrived in Provo. He had originally planned to study physics and eventually go to medical school, but after attending a few Marketing Association meetings, Call realized that studying marketing at BYU Marriott would help him to fulfill his desire to make a difference in the world. “Marketing combines several things that I enjoy, such as understanding people, figuring out what makes them tick, and recognizing how I can help them make better decisions,” he says.
Call says it was the outstanding faculty and opportunities that initially drew him to BYU Marriott. “The faculty is world class. They teach us things straight out of industry with the best research, and they are focused on providing us with projects that are focused on real-world problems,” he says. “All of that packaged together prepares us students to participate in internships and enter the workforce ready to immediately contribute.”
Outside of his classroom responsibilities, Call also serves as president of the BYU Marketing Association (MA). Since becoming MA president in January 2020, Call has focused his time and energy toward helping fellow BYU Marriott students. He assists students in landing jobs and internships by planning events with special guest mentors who are often marketing alumni and recruiters. Last March, Call and the rest of the BYU Marketing Association toured companies such as Delta Air Lines and Home Depot in Atlanta.
As president, Call has learned what it means to be a people-focused leader. “The past vice president of the MA, Ryan Hernandez, showed me what it meant to be a people-focused leader,” he says. “Ryan told me, ‘The greatest return on investment I’ve ever experienced is with people.’ He invested so much in me and each of my teammates. Together we’ve accomplished many goals and brought noteworthy companies to come in and help our students.”
After Call graduates in 2021, he has big plans. “I want to be a business leader, and that requires me to learn about more than just marketing. I want to go to a company where I can learn about every facet of the business, work hard every day, and be exposed to new things,” he says. When he ultimately leaves BYU Marriott, Call hopes to work for Home Depot in its merchandising program and possibly go on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“I ultimately want to be someone who can do good and be good and help people live better lives. I think business is an amazing tool to help people do that,” Call says. "Students at BYU Marriott and all of BYU have a duty to do good and to make the best of our time here. BYU’s motto of ‘enter to learn, go forth to serve’ might be a little cliché, but I think that is a charge we can take to heart, especially in these trying times. I’m grateful for the opportunities BYU has given me, and I hope to pay it back by paying it forward.”
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Writer: Emily Atwood
