{"id":4117,"date":"2013-11-13T14:06:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T20:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2013-11-15T14:15:04","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T20:15:04","slug":"scholarship-winner-aims-to-make-a-difference-through-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2013\/scholarship-winner-aims-to-make-a-difference-through-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholarship Winner Aims to Make a Difference Through Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Business can be about more than just making a profit,\u2019 says Benjamin Shantz<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Business is in Benjamin Shantz\u2019s blood. While his friends spent their summers in high school working shifts at local fast food restaurants, Shantz was running his own lawn care operation, Benjamin\u2019s Lawn Mowing and Services.<\/p>\n

The business earned Shantz enough spending money during each summer, and while his friends were obligated to work the hours their supervisors scheduled for them, he enjoyed the flexibility making his own schedule afforded him.<\/p>\n

\"2013-11-07But Shantz says one of the biggest benefits of running his own business was relational.<\/p>\n

Today, Shantz is in his first year of studies at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). He received a full tuition scholarship for his first year of study from CMU\u2019s Redekop School of Business as well as Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).\u201cMowing lawns in my neighbourhood allowed me to build relationships and get to know people in the community,\u201d the 19-year-old says. \u201cI always enjoyed that, as opposed to having a job where I didn\u2019t interact with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shantz says he gets his entrepreneurial spirit from his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather and dad were involved in business, and my dad was big on teaching my brother and I how to manage our money,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His grandfather, Glen, was an electrician with his own contracting company who also owned a number of rental properties. Meanwhile, Shantz\u2019s father, Rick, owned his own IT consulting firm for a number of years.<\/p>\n

Participating in CMU\u2019s Outtatown Discipleship School last year also influenced Shantz to study business, and it gave him a new perspective on what running a business can look like.<\/p>\n

While in Guatemala at the beginning of 2013, he and his fellow students worked with a ministry called Solomon\u2019s Porch. The ministry includes a caf\u00e9, and the income generated by the caf\u00e9 is used to further the Solomon\u2019s Porch ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw how business can be about more than just making a profit,\u201d Shantz says. \u201cIt can also be used to give back to a community \u2013 in this case, to finance a missional organization that builds houses for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result of his experience abroad, Shantz is working towards a double major in Business and International Development Studies at CMU.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s not sure what sort of business he wants to be involved with after he graduates, he knows it will be the kind of business that reflects the things he has come to value over the past few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a business that\u2019s tied to the community and relationships and helping people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Business can be about more than just making a profit,\u2019 says Benjamin Shantz Business is in Benjamin Shantz\u2019s blood. While his friends spent their summers in high school working shifts at local fast food restaurants, Shantz was running his own lawn care operation, Benjamin\u2019s Lawn Mowing and Services. The business earned Shantz enough spending money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[416,866,182,414,474],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4119,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions\/4119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}