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Make it real.DOMINIC COSTANZOBusiness Administration and Management Graduate, Aspiring Olympic Athlete and Go-Getter

Story by Chris Suarez, Student Journalist

Photo by VCU Athletics

Make it real.Virginia Commonwealth University students make it real hundreds of different ways everyday. Dominic Costanzo is a prime example. As a management graduate of 2013, Domi-nic excelled in the classroom and as an athlete on the track. After graduat-ing from VCU, Costanzo is making it real in his own unique way by taking his talents to begin training as an Olympic athlete.

Costanzo has spent the last few months traveling back and forth from his native city of Richmond to Lake Placid, New York, training to compete in the Olympic Skeleton event.

Competitors in the event slide chest-down and face-first on a sled going 60 to 80 miles per hour down an icy track, dangerously careening around corners using only their body weight to brake and steer the sled.

Before Costanzo decided to dedicate himself to training with the Olympic Skeleton team, he won $1,500 with Business classmates Larry Hancock and Sam Richardson in the VCU/ACG Business Case Competition. The project was part of Associate Profes-

sor Matthew Rutherford’s Entrepre-neurship class where students

are given a chance to work with the Richmond busi-ness community.

“It prepared me to go out into the

business world with confidence,” said Costanzo. “We did a lot of presenta-tions for the competition. Getting a chance to get in front of business leaders in the community, being able to talk to them and pitch ideas to them and to be asked questions by them - it prepares you for that interaction that you’re going to have once you gradu-ate.”

The opportunity to work intimately with local busi-ness people and a com-petitive athletics program attracted Costanzo to enrolling at VCU. Attending VCU gave Costanzo a more direct opportunity to engage a large business community. During his award-winning senior project, Costan-zo said he was able to work with local businesses, soliciting comments and criticism on his group’s business plan and his own personal development. The team’s project designed a busi-ness plan around paper coffee cups used in coffee shops. Their business, Connect Cup, sought marketing op-portunities on the typically blank white cups. According to research done by the group, they found that 54 percent of adults drink coffee daily, holding the cup for an average of 37 minutes.

Connect Cup would not just let small coffee shops market their own brand,

but also give an opportunity for other businesses to advertise on the coffee cups. The group also looked to include local non-profits on the coffee cups to advertise in conjunction with the coffee shop or another local business.

Though Costanzo participated in orga-nizing the business plan while being heavily involved with the track and field season, he still played a crucial role in the project.

“He’s a go-getter, which was very attractive for the team,” said Hankcock. “He was very good at pre-senting. He could work a crowd and talk to people.” The Business Case Competition is sponsored by the Association for Corporate Growth. ACG provides the cash prize for first place and runner-

Costanzo and business team members accepting their winnings from the Business Case Competition. Photo by Jacob Geiger

up. Local business leaders, such as Richard Upton of the Upton Group act as judges for the competition, often becoming mentors for the students.

“If you’re just willing to reach out to them, they are willing to help you,” said Costanzo about the competition’s judges. “For young students coming in, it’s important for them to know all they have to do is reach out to business leaders in the community.”

He not only praised the connection with local business leaders, but also heralded all of the business school’s faculty for supporting not just their own students, but everyone enrolled in the business school.

“When it came to applying for jobs or getting in touch with certain people, they have a lot of connections,” Costanzo said. “They are willing to point you in the right direction.”

point you in the right direction.” Dur-ing Costanzo’s athletic career at VCU, he ran sprints and was consistently the second-leg in 4x400-meter relays. Costanzo’s experience running with a team on the track translated well into the boardroom according to both him and his former coach, Jon Riley.

“He was a trusted leader of the group,” said Riley. “He’s a very dependable guy, and I could always count on him to lead the team in the right direction. When I think about Dominic, I think about leadership.”

“When you go from com-petition and competing to graduating and not hav-ing that anymore, you’ve got to find an arena to compete,” said Costanzo. “Sometimes it’s the busi-ness arena.” Costanzo became interested in com-peting in Skeleton after a family trip to Lake Placid. After visiting the training facilities and historic sites, he partici-pated in the publicly open Combine held between May and September in seven North American cities. Partici-pants were challenged in eight different tests assessing the speed and strength required to be competitive in the event.

The USA Bobsled and Skeleton’s “Skeleton School” invited Costanzo to train with them after seeing him perform. Costanzo came in fifth, scor-ing 749 of the 800 points that rank the competitors at the Combine. Of the

Costanzo at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in LakePlacid, NY.

34 who entered the combine, only 12 reached the 700-point mark necessary to receive an invitation to train.

Training to become an Olympic athlete may not be the most common post-un-dergraduate career path, but Costanzo says he believes that there are many alternatives from working a traditional office job that can be financially lucra-tive.

“There’s a lot things you can do to make money that isn’t necessarily a nine-to-five job,” Costanzo said. “Whether you start your own business, work from home, or if it’s an internet business- there’s ways to make money and be flexible. It’s about being cre-ative.”

“Everybody has their own talents and abilities,” Costanzo said “I think VCU helps pull that out of each individual and helps put you on a path to use those talents and abilities most effec-tively, molding students as they prog-ress through school.”

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