Student Chapters

SAA is working with local universities to create SAA Student Chapters to help prepare tomorrow's automotive leaders. The mission of SAA's Student Chapters is to provide students with access to industry leaders in order to gain valuable insight into the automotive industry throughout the value chain.

The first SAA Student Chapter is in operation at Oakland University and being led by Drew Steffes. Drew, who serves as the president of the OU Student Chapter, helped establish the chapter in 2016 after being named the 2016 recipient of SAA's Thought Leader of Tomorrow Scholarship.

Drew is a senior at Oakland University, pursuing a double-major in Operations Management and Management Information Systems. During his time at Oakland University, he held a co-op position over the past three years at Meritor, headquartered in Troy. There, Drew supported Meritor's IT and Supply Chain departments. Currently, Drew is an intern at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles working in Data Privacy.  

Speaker provides context for automotive industry’s issues

Source The Oakland Press

Speaking on the state of the automotive industry and the journalism documenting it, an Oakland University alumnus and Detroit bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal gave his thoughts to OU students.  

The presentation, given by John Stoll, was organized to provide his personal story and experiences reporting on the automotive industry, his opinions on the state of the automotive industry and the state of the media.

Stoll told of his beginnings in the journalism industry with Automotive News of Crain Communications Inc., a Michigan news organization. But he didn’t give this part of the presentation without expressing how much he disliked cars.

“I was the son of a car dealer,” Stoll said. “I was the only one in my family that wasn’t into cars.”

Click here for the rest of the story.