Management marvel

Beth Metcalf served as a project/intern manager at The ONEIL Center at Wright State University before graduating in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy.

She’s a manager. At Wright State University, she managed projects, managed to pursue a double major, managed to hold leadership positions in student organizations and has now managed to land a job with a major company.

Beth Metcalf served as a project/intern manager at The ONEIL Center at Wright State University before graduating in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy. She now works in accounts payable at O’Neil and Associates, a Dayton-area company that develops technical publications, training and materials for equipment manufacturers globally.

“I was told that accounting is a crucial skill to have in business,” said Metcalf. “And I became interested in management around my third year after I began holding leadership positions in different student organizations, like becoming president of my sorority and working for Student Government as the director of student affairs.”

After graduating from Springboro High School in 2016, Metcalf enrolled at Wright State, attracted by its value, smaller class sizes, tightknit community and the opportunity to join many different organizations.

She became interested in accounting early in her freshman year, inspired by her grandmother, who worked as an accountant at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and spoke highly of the profession.

But Metcalf has another passion that also pulls at her heart. She has loved music since she was 2 and has been involved in theatre since she was 9.

“Musical theatre has always been the main point of my life,” she said. “And I knew I wanted to keep theatre as a part of my life at Wright State.”

So along with her accounting degree, Metcalf earned an arts management certificate through the Raj Soin College of Business in hopes of being able to combine business with theatre.

“I did get to take some great classes for theatre at Wright State and improved my skillset even with the few classes I took,” she said. “I took acting, singing and dance classes. I also took some technical theatre courses. They all expanded my knowledge.”

Metcalf joined The ONEIL Center as a project/intern manager. She said Brandy Foster, the organization’s executive director, was a great mentor to her.

The ONEIL Center, which opened in 2017 in the Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building, provides an innovative transdisciplinary experiential learning workspace that simultaneously functions as a classroom, incubator, small business, social impact organization and research lab in a new model of workforce development. Students deepen expertise via new contexts while forming collaborations across disciplines, thereby expanding the group’s capabilities.

The center was designed to serve as a workforce pipeline to the Dayton region. It provides internships to students that connect them to researchers, businesses and other organizations through its services.

At the ONEIL Center, Metcalf researched many companies’ best practices and helped create standard operating procedures at the center as well as manage schedules and communicate with clients. In the summer of 2019, she researched strategies for making a pitch to investors and gave a presentation at TechStars Startup Week Dayton to local entrepreneurs.

Metcalf said Wright State is full of supportive people who help guide students toward their chosen paths.

“The faculty and staff are absolutely phenomenal and they always have a ‘you can do it’ attitude,” she said. “I would not be where I am today without the support and push from faculty, staff and fellow students.”

Metcalf said Wright State offers students many ways to get involved and take on leadership roles.

“Opportunities are truly endless at Wright State,” she said. “My list of thank you’s runs very long, and I am so grateful for the positive encouragement and environment that Wright State provides.”

Last August, Metcalf began working at O’Neil & Associates in the accounts payable department.

“I communicate a lot internally and make sure we are keeping up on our best practices and following the rules when it comes to paying invoices and sending out other payments,” she said. “My duties will increase heavily when I become full time.”

For the past five years, Metcalf has also worked in the entertainment department at Kings Island. (She admits to being a roller-coaster enthusiast.)

As a long-term career goal, Metcalf said she would like to marry accounting and theatre by working for a large-scale entertainment industry or otherwise combining her two passions.

“I would love to be in a position in life where I am managing many people, doing business and performing on the side,” she said.