The people you know...
Introducing you to the people of Webster
By: Stephanie Kiazczak
Issue date: 1/27/05 Section: Culture
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Each week from now until the end of the semester, we are going to introduce you to one new person in this column. We are going to show what wonderful, crazy, kooky, fun, unique people are scattered about Webster's campus. Everyone has a story to tell. After all, aren't strangers just friendly Gorloks you haven't met?
If you ask someone if they can taste the difference between two unlabeled glasses of cola they most likely could. But, if you asked them which soda was giving them $5,000 a year for school and a paid internship, their answer may be a bit hesitant. To freshman Bobby Royer, however, Coca Cola is more than just a soft drink.
Since Royer's dad works for Coca Cola, he decided to apply for a scholarship. He, along with 50 other students from the United States and Canada, were flown to Coca Cola's headquarters in Atlanta. There, the students and their families were given the royal treatment.
"They wined and dined us like I'd never eaten before," Royer said.
As part of the weekend, the students had to do a service project renovating a charter school across town in Atlanta. Royer also met the chairman of the board for Coca Cola and heard guest speaker Sally Ride at a formal dinner.
While Royer, an accounting major and finance minor, received the scholarship through an application process, he landed the internship through a good first impression. He shadowed the vice president of finance for Coca Cola's St. Charles branch for an English assignment his senior year of high school. Royer's dad works for the Coca Cola branch in Maryland Heights and helped his son get in contact with the St. Charles branch. Royer learned more than just finance, as he was able to shadow just about everyone in the department from filing to entering data in computers.
Royer used his experiences at Coca Cola that day for his assignment. He was told to give Coca Cola a call after he'd been at college a couple years. While that was the plan, Coca Cola gave his dad a call sometime in October and asked if Royer would want to help out for about a month during budget season.
"A month came and went," said Royer, adding Coca Cola was
conflicting with his job at JCPenney in South County mall.
