Program director shows age is no obstacle for success

When Glenn Sterner graduated in 2004 from MSU with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and natural resource communications with plans to attend graduate school, he didn’t know just how much more MSU would be showing up in his still very young career.

In 2005, Sterner was hired on as the interim director for the Bailey Scholars Program, kicking off what would turn into an unplanned career with the program. And almost five years later, Sterner has managed to work his way to be the senior director.

“It has been an interesting journey,” Sterner, 27, said. “When I first started it was rather difficult. The room would be filled with people that were perhaps my parents’ age and nobody, in essence, looked like me. It was intimidating.”

The Bailey Scholars Program gives undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, the ability to explore a more personalized route of learning and also allows undergraduates a specialization in connected learning.

As a young professional, however, the road to success has not been an easy one.

“I just worked really, really hard because that’s what you have to do,” Sterner said.

“You show that you can produce results because people then realized I was a serious professional and not just here to hang out. A young person is traditionally seen as just kind of there, but I was able to show them that I was someone who was valuable to Michigan State’s future.”

Although Sterner said he doesn’t think his age earns him disrespect in the workplace, he does say that it lends to an unwillingness to give respect to someone of a young stature.

“It’s interesting because (I was) supervising the work of people who were twice my age,” said Sterner, adding that it was not only difficult for him to adjust to, but for those he was supervising as well.

Social relations and policy junior Torey Stockwell, who met Sterner while attending the MSU 2009 LeaderShape, said his passion is apparent.

“I’ve heard nothing but positive statements and great things about him,” said Stockwell. “Just from the experience I’ve had, I can already see how he’s an inspiration to students.”

The Bailey Scholars Program’s projects administrator Karen Springer also sees Sterner’s young age as a positive quality in a role such as his.

“In this position, the fact that he is young is helpful because he can relate to the students better,” Springer said. “Not long ago he was a student himself.”

Though the direction his professional life has taken was a surprise to him, Sterner welcomes the opportunity to work for the university that he says gave him so many opportunities and opened so many doors.

“I was really excited to be able to have an opportunity to work for the university that I called home academically for six years,” Sterner said.