This year’s Outstanding Senior for Sustainable Business has awarded to Mary Tate, a Petoskey native who, when she arrived at Aquinas four years ago, didn’t realize the impact that she would have within the Sustainable Business program.

“Mary’s perspective on the world really grew, I think, when she came to Aquinas,” said Dr. Matthew Tueth, Director of the Sustainable Business Program and Tate’s academic advisor. “Sometimes people that are talented just try to skate on their talent, Mary doesn’t do that, she gets the most out of every mile, every gallon of energy that she has.”

Although Tate had always known a passion for the natural world, it was not until her arrival at Aquinas, and her first Sustainable Business course, that she realized the opportunities that her passion could give her.

“My desire to help to restore the harmony between humans and nature has driven me towards a career in the field of sustainability,” said Tate. “The Sustainable Business program encompasses everything I hoped for and has built upon my own personal values of preservation, community, and kinship.”

While at Aquinas, Tate accompanied her heavy workload with employment and internship opportunities, working with groups like BISSELL Homecare Inc. as a sustainability intern, the West Michigan Environment Action Council as an intern to help develop and promote the energy efficiency program, BetterBuildings for Michigan, in Grand Rapids neighborhoods, as well as a semester working for Dr. Tueth in the Sustainability Department and a field course in Environmental Studies and Geography in Alaska.

“I know she’s a kind person and she’s a selfless person, she does a lot of volunteer work for people that she’ll just mention off the cuff. She cares about people, and I think on this campus that’s sort of a requisite for what we like our students to be,” said Dr. Tueth. “The way Mary goes about her business, if she’s in a social setting or a business setting, and she mentions where she graduated from, I think that’s a fantastic advertisement for Aquinas.”

Tate was also inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, an International Honor Society for Business, Management and Administration students in her junior year.

“What I like about the Mary’s in class, and there aren’t a lot of them, is that she would always set the tone. She would always set the bar in the class very high for the rest of the students,” said Dr. Tueth. “And it wasn’t to be better than everybody else - that wasn’t what Mary was about. Mary was just about her passion and she performed at a very high level and brought everyone else up with her, and you love that as a professor.”

After graduation, Tate plans on looking for employment in the Sustainable Business field, and attending graduate school. It is her hope to “educate individuals, companies and communities about the paradigm shift that is sustainable living and the scientific research that supports decisions and actions that leave a positive impact upon the natural world.” Tate hopes to do so through mimicking the experience she had at Aquinas, and become a professor of Sustainable Business.

“It means a great deal to me to be recognized by a program which I so greatly respect and that has given me so much,” said Tate. “It is my hope to become a professor of Sustainability so I can help others grow within the movement and realize that they too can make a difference, just as my education has done for me.”

This recognition, said Dr. Tueth, reflects more than the work Tate put in during class, but also the community involvement which she has had during her time here, and the unique combination of being intelligent, passionate, talented, driven, and a very caring person with a great heart and the desire to enact change.

“Mary’s going to be one of those students that make a great deal of difference in the world. She can’t help but make a great deal of difference, she’s got that fire inside of her, that passion, and she won’t quit,” said Dr. Tueth. “I don’t think she thinks of herself in this way, but she’s been a very special student for me. And she’s very humble, so I think it’ll mean a lot to her to have been recognized in this way.”