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Pictured from top to bottom is Aidan Gray, Nathan Heinly, and Kodi Kinsey. Jan Harter is not pictured.

Business Students Selected for John D. Beeghly Fellows Program

The Ohio Small Business Development Center at YSU received a best practice for their service delivery model that integrates the Beeghly Fellows Interns with SBDC services. The national ASBDC Accreditation team visiting Ohio stated that this model should be an example for other university-based SBDCs for integrating educational, community and economic development services!

The John D. Beeghly Fellows program is made possible by an endowment established at the YSU Foundation by the Beeghly Family. John David Beeghly was a lifelong resident and businessman in Youngstown, Ohio, and son of area industrialist and philanthropist, Leon A. Beeghly. From 1967 until his death, Mr. Beeghly served as vice president and director of Standard Slag Co. and Stancorp Inc.

The Beeghly Fellows Internship program provides students with a paid fellowship working with the Ohio Small Business Development Center, SBDC Export Assistance Network and the APEX Accelerator at YSU. Projects include marketing research, preparation of financial projections, export readiness studies, domestic and international market research, cash flow analysis, social media strategies, loan proposal preparation, sales forecasts, government contracting assistance, company capability statements, etc. Students gain valuable career-related work experience and can position themselves to be competitive in the job market upon graduation.

Aidan Gray, Nathan Heinly, Kodi Kinsey, and Jan Harter, business students from the Williamson College of Business Administration (WCBA), were selected as the John D. Beeghly Fellows for the 2025 Summer Semester.

“The generous gift made by the John D. Beeghly Family is an important investment in our business students. The gift provides our students with a variety of career-related experiences and provides our Small Business Development Center and its clients with additional capacity”, explained Betty Jo Licata, Interim Dean, of the WCBA.