Justin Dyson ’15 is ready for new managerial role & entrepreneurial challenges
Communication is the key to most problem solving. Justin Dyson ’15 learned the value of gaining strong communication skills while earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Bryan School of Business and Economics. He just recently graduated, but already it’s paid off.
“The finance knowledge has been extremely important,” Justin says. “I communicate much more effectively with our chief financial officer because of concepts I learned. I’m not an accountant, but the CFO and I speak the same language now.”
Coursework in statistics enabled Justin to analyze data more effectively and then create sophisticated reports that explain the information to colleagues in an easily understandable way. “The management information I’ve learned has been very helpful in learning to deal with difficult employees and knowing how to motivate them more effectively,” he adds. “At the same time, my professional writing has improved. I know what data my colleagues need to see and how best to present it.”
Justin is a striver—the kind of guy who sets goals for himself, meets those goals and then sets even higher ones. Armed with his degree, Justin now is poised to reach his next targets: taking on a director-level role in facilities management or operations and, in his spare time, launching an entrepreneurial venture
Justin, who is assistant director of facilities for Davie County Schools in Mocksville, North Carolina, started out splitting his time between completing general maintenance work and delivering food to various cafeterias in that same school system. Justin wanted more for himself and his family (he and his wife, Heather, have one young son and another child on the way) so he went to community college to learn air conditioning, heating and refrigeration technology and then he earned an electrical contracting license. Next up was an associate’s degree in business administration through an applied science degree program.
“I like to have milestones along the way. So, the first goal was the associate’s degree and then the bachelor’s degree,” Justin says. When deciding where to earn that bachelor’s, he wanted a school that offered flexibility and, always thinking ahead to next steps in his career, one that was both academically rigorous and nationally recognized. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro was an ideal fit.
Justin’s job in facilities management already had given him experience supervising a staff, planning/managing projects and budgeting/purchasing for ongoing operations and capital projects. He looked to UNCG to give him a broad ability to problem solve and, specifically, to build his finance and management skills. The Bryan School, he says, delivered.
Bachelor’s degree in hand, Justin now is ready to move up the next rung of the ladder and hopes to do so quickly. Of course, he has other goals, as well. Already a lifelong learner who was inducted into the Bryan School’s chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma for his academic achievement, Justin says he is likely to return to school once again to earn an MBA, but right now he is considering a more entrepreneurial venture. For several years, he has helped his father, a master beekeeper, operate a commercial honeybee business that sells bees to hobbyist beekeepers, building a reputation for the education, support and service it provides to customers.
“I’ve learned in school you have to add value to your product and we add value in order to differentiate ourselves from the competition. This is how we’ve been successful,” Justin says. “I’ve helped my dad expand that business over the past four years, and I’m considering my options, whether to form a partnership with his business or start my own venture.”
Article by Julie Palm
Photographs by Mynda Bullock
