Irvine, Calif., November 13th – The Campuswide Honors Collegium’s Lunch with Leadership brings together alumni and community leaders who donate their time to meet with honors students. Students have the opportunity to network, ask questions, and learn about how to develop successful careers over lunch with each quarter’s special guest.
Fall quarter’s Lunch with Leadership featured UCI Trustee Kenneth S. Rohl, Founder and Chairman of ROHL, a luxury home appliance company, and as a recognized leader in his field, Mr. Rohl revolutionized the modern kitchen by introducing to America telescoping faucets. More recently, he has partnered with a UCI graduate to found Rai and Rohl Technology, an international healthcare tech company.
He shared with students how the various lessons he learned along his journey helped him get to where he is today. He stressed the importance of networking including building and maintaining relationships. Even when things did not go as planned, Rohl drew from his experiences from growing up, college, and early in his career helped him identify an opportunity and successfully bring a new product into homes across America.
Mr. Rohl gave students four key “takeaways” to carry with them as they develop personally and professionally:
1) Put together your mission statement and focus on it.
2) Know your elevator speech and be ready to deliver it.
3) Create action items with deadlines and stick to them!
4) Know your “SWOT”s—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats.
Mr. Rohl ended the event by providing his business cards to all of student attendees, at least one of whom is already in contact with him.
Students were excited to have a direct line to a successful entrepreneur.
About the Campuswide Honors Collegium: Founded as the Campuswide Honors Program in Fall 1988 when it admitted its first freshmen class. Since then, the Campuswide Honors Program has grown into the Campuswide Honors Collegium, a community of motivated learners dedicated to scholastic excellence and personal growth that is supported by the resources of a major research university. For more on the Campuswide Honors Collegium, visit http://honors.uci.edu/.
Past Campuswide Honors Collegium Lunch with Leadership presenters have included:
- Charles D. Martin, Chairman, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Mont Pelerin Capital
- Jennifer Friend, CEO of Project Hope Alliance
- Diane Brooks Dixon, Councilmember, Former Mayor (2016) District 1, Newport Beach, California
- Eric S. Saltzman, Professor, UCI Department of Earth System Science
- Christina Zabat-Fran, Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, ST. JOHN
- Dr. David J. Cuccia, Ph.D. CEO & CTO, Modulated Imaging, Inc.
- Sherwynn Umali, Associate Dean of Students, UCI Student Life and Leadership