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Ben Mitchell

Ben Mitchell
Mechanical Engineering '06

Ben Mitchell grew up in a devout household in the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan where emphasis was placed on helping others. He traveled with his father to places such as Kenya and Peru on short-term medical missions. When he was in Kenya, a missionary explained that engineers have the greatest potential to influence the largest number of people. During high school, Ben participated in a youth mission trip to Tijuana. A result of the mission trips, his family decided to adopt three Vietnamese children when he was a junior.

All of these experiences had a great influence on Ben’s outlook on life. He decided to major in mechanical engineering and enrolled at Lake Superior State University. Near the end of his senior year, he decided to volunteer for the Peace Corps to help others.

His two-year commitment began in the fall of 2007 and took Ben to Burkina Faso in western Africa. He resides in the village of Tansila, population 3,000, approximately 10 km from the Mali border. His host organization is the local cotton growers union. It works cooperatively with other villages to improve and expand their production techniques. He serves as an agribusiness advisor as a part of the Small Enterprise Development program which helps create market linkages and assists with the advancement of business skills.

		FLSA Designation EXEMPT
Date Issued:	2001-08-06	Department:	Institutional Advancement
Title: Advancement Analyst

Function and Responsibility
Under administrative direction from and reporting directly to the Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement/Executive Director of the LSSU Alumni Association and Executive Director of the LSSU Foundation. Responsible for supporting the advancement offices by providing necessary information, processing and generating reports, and managing the database.

Duties and Responsibilities
Prepare and present required and requested reports to meet the operational needs of the Advancement Offices. Track and analyze appropriate University and national trends in support of the Foundation, Alumni Relations and the Campaign for Lake State. Manage the database serving alumni and foundation activities including supervising personal file update processes; insuring the integrity of the alumni/foundation database; tracking appropriate participation and giving trends; executing searches for lost alumni and friends; coordinating and centralizing alumni and friend databases across campus; improving system linkages that will improve Advancement efficiency and effectiveness; managing annual National Change of Address (NCOA) program; and assisting in maintaining appropriate web site content for the Foundation and Alumni offices. Perform related duties as assigned.

Qualifications
Minimum Bachelor's degree, Master's degree preferred; exceptional verbal and written communication skills; ability to work under deadline, in a fast paced environment and manage multiple projects and tasks concurrently. Strong knowledge of data extraction necessary, in particular, the skills needed to make full use of the SCT modules, especially of the Advancement Development System. A minimum of three (3) years experience in higher education advancement preferred.

Physical and Mental Demands
Adequate physical fitness to be able to sit and concentrate for long periods of time; use of gross motor skills to perform supervisory and organizational duties; use of fine motor skills to operate computer; problem solving ability; ability to understand and work with numbers; ability to see, hear, and speak with or without the use of aids to perform normal office tasks.