Soon-to-be two-time Michigan Tech graduate Connor Zavislak is an Eagle Scout who found his calling on a baseball diamond in Royal Oak, Michigan. That’s where he discovered that, like another kind of diamond, he thrives when the heat is on and shines under pressure.
Zavislak’s moment of revelation has played out at Tech in a string of treasured memories and valuable accomplishments. The 2024 Engineering Management Student of the Year, he took on multiple leadership roles across campus and community along with a trio of minors—including Financial Technology “for fun”—on his way to two degrees.
This week, Zavislak, who earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering management in spring 2025, will again don cap and gown as he prepares to receive his Tech MBA. The 2026 Graduate Spring Commencement ceremony takes place at 3 p.m. Friday, April 24, in the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in the Student Development Complex.
A Prospective Husky Finds His Way to Michigan Tech
During his college search, Zavislak originally focused on downstate institutions. “I didn’t know that Michigan Tech existed,” he said. That changed at his high school’s College Fair when he talked to a Michigan Tech representative. He found the mix of programs offered “really interesting and cool. I also liked the outdoors aspect, because of being a Boy Scout growing up.”
It was during his successful efforts to attain Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the program, that Zavislak first recognized how satisfying he found it to work at leading and managing projects involving a wide array of stakeholders. He also found out how unruffled he could be when put to the test.
For his Eagle Service Project, Zavislak took on rebuilding the ball field at Upton Elementary School. The project involved dirt and gravel hauling, tilling, leveling, and a skill that can be grittier than manual labor: organizing and leading a project all the way from fundraising and volunteer recruiting to on-time delivery of a finished product.
“I’ve always been interested in how things are made and how they work,” said Zavislak. “Through my Eagle Scout project, I realized that I also really like seeing what people can accomplish working in groups. The baseball field renovation had a huge impact on me—what I found to be kind of like a personal calling to what I was really interested in.”
The day before the major part of the fieldwork was to take place, when all of the volunteers would be showing up to help finish the job, there was a huge rainstorm.
“It flooded the field,” said Zavislak. “Honestly, it was super stressful for 17-year-old me. But I also found it to be like, a lot of fun to be under that pressure, which really surprised me.” In that moment, Zavislak received strong inner guidance about the kind of career he wanted: a technically minded role that also involved helping groups work together to get things done. Engineering management seemed like a perfect fit.
Zavislak came up to tour Michigan Tech in February of 2021. Winter Carnival was over and the snow statues were melting, so he didn’t get to experience the energy of that iconic Tech Tradition. Yet. It would turn out to be one of his favorite things about the University.
Still, he loved the overall campus atmosphere and the personal attention, from handwritten postcards to check in to help from Teaching Professor Roger Woods, who answered all his questions about the engineering management program. “He’s one of the primary reasons I came here,” Zavislak said.
Woods also put him in touch with 2021 engineering management alumna Grace Pruett. “The two of them convinced me,” he said. “And Grace and I are ending up working at the same company, too.”
Pruett is a supply chain planning engineer at Caterpillar, where Zavislak will begin his career in the company’s Leadership and Technical Development Program on the Operations Leadership Track.
Two Degrees, Multiple Minors, Countless Friendships
“When I say that my degree is in people, it’s about the skills that I’ve learned and developed here, just being at Tech,” said Zavislak. “It’s understanding what it’s like to have friends, deep conversations, and being there to support and also be supported by people who are technically minded, or in the arts, or in business, but even when they’re kind of in their own lanes are similar to me.”
“I understand how it feels to communicate with people of completely different backgrounds,” he said. “That’s where I feel my skill set has developed, along with the minors in global business and FinTech and entrepreneurship, which all involve people skills.”
Zavislak pursued the global business minor as well as doing a Study Abroad experience in Germany, focused on supply chain operations and management, because he’s interested in both working with global clients and working overseas. “The entrepreneurship minor is also really big on the communication piece as well,” he said. “A good chunk of entrepreneurship is being able to communicate your ideas and what you see for the future of your idea to other people that you need to invest in your concept or get on board to help you grow your idea.”
And the FinTech minor? “I just thought it sounded really cool, and it was,” he said.
Michigan Tech’s Pavlis Honors College was another avenue toward personal and professional growth.
“I was always interested in being part of an honors college wherever I went to school. Pavlis was definitely a different experience than I expected. Our honors college is really focused on making sure that you’re well-rounded as an individual and think critically about what you want to do in your career. I found Pavlis to be one of the best decisions I made at Tech,” said Zavislak. “Doing a study abroad for the immersion experience was probably the highlight of college for me. It was awesome and ridiculously fun.”
Zavislak has been involved in a lengthy and impressive list of clubs and organizations.
“I kind of split my involvement in two sections,” he explained. In the professional involvement category, Zavislak served as vice president of several MTU chapter organizations, including the American Society of Engineering Management and the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization. “Those involvements were what I did for career development skills,” said.
And then there was the social category, which for Zavislak included serving in roles ranging from president to alumni chair in Beta Sigma Theta fraternity and as an at-large rep in Michigan Tech’s Undergraduate Student Government.
“Those I found to be my favorites because both the student government and the fraternity were really good opportunities to help people,” he said. “Student government was really cool because you got to meet members of the faculty and staff across the university, learn about the inner workings of the university, and get to work on projects that helped the campus as a whole.”
Zavislak has also worked as a campus tour guide, showing prospective Huskies and their families what Michigan Tech is all about. He strives to give as good a tour as he got, trying to individualize to address particular areas people are interested in and sharing bits of area history.
“I get a lot of random questions, but I always get asked about the food. Another common question is how many students keep their skis and snowboards in their room. The answer is a lot,” he said, laughing. “Honestly, though, you can fit a lot of stuff in your dorm room. More than you think.”
Making His Way to a Tech MBA
With so many enriching undergrad experiences behind him, including four successful internships, Zavislak could have easily proceeded to his career without picking up an advanced degree. His older siblings were a factor in inspiring him to continue on. Both have advanced degrees. He also wanted to future-proof his career.
“The MBA could offer a little bit more of an upper edge if an opportunity opens up,” he said.
Zavislak didn’t follow one of the more traditional recommendations to wait to pursue a master’s degree until he had a few years of industry experience under his belt. That line of thinking has its merits, he said, but he also weighed other considerations.
His biggest reason for immediately moving forward with MBA studies? Wanting a balance to his life.
“There was a summer that I took classes during my internship where I was working full-time, then coming home and working on classes, eating dinner, and going to bed. I didn’t enjoy not having time to myself in the evenings,” he said. “If you want to go back to graduate school once you’re in the workplace, it means either taking time off from your professional life or doing weekend or night school for an extended period of time because you can only take so many classes at a time. Going for my MBA right away was kind of like ripping off the Band-Aid.”
The process was made less painful through Tech’s accelerated master’s program, which requires just one additional year of study beyond the bachelor’s degree. Besides saving time and money, staying at Tech for another year had other rewards—including an expanded circle of friends.
“It felt good to be here for a little bit longer,” he said. “It’s definitely kind of weird to have my local friend group shifted significantly to include people younger than myself. It’s different, but I like it a lot. It’s given me a wider range of college friends. I’ve got good friends who graduated in 2022 and 2023. And now, some good friends who will graduate in 2028. That’s a good spread!”
Next Steps After Michigan Tech
Zavislak starts his job at Caterpillar at the end of June, meeting up with his cohort of about 20 incoming employees for a full week of orientation in Peoria, Illinois. In the next three years, they’ll continue to gather for development sessions and conferences as they experience different worksites and get to know the company. Zavislak’s first assignment is in San Diego, California. “I’ve been interested in this program since my first year of college,” he said. “And now it’s come full circle.”
Chances are high that Zavislak’s life cycle as a Husky will also come full circle. True to form, he’s already interested in learning more about serving on Michigan Tech’s Alumni Board. And he’s already helped greet students at Caterpillar’s booth at Tech’s Career Fair.
“My first internship was with Caterpillar my first year at Tech,” Zavislak said. His resume was understandably light, but the recruiter he struck up a conversation with happened to be a fellow Eagle Scout who was happy to take it. “Through him, I ended up getting that internship,” he said.
He enjoyed being on the other side of the table, helping students have a positive Career Fair experience.
“It just feels really good to talk to people about what they’re interested in doing and what they want to do with their careers,” he said. “I’m planning on going the servant leadership route, where you can inherently rise through the ranks and do better by helping your team and helping your people succeed in their own individual careers and in their own ways rather than just looking for self-gratification.”
Some of Zavislak’s desire to give back comes from family values. “My parents have always been very good about instilling a work ethic,” he said. He’s also found, through the deep bonds with fraternity brothers, long, cold nights building Winter Carnival statues, and honest self-reflections about what he truly values, that a rewarding life is not something you can create in a vacuum. “For me, it’s just a ton of fun to be able to serve the greater community,” he said.
About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business prepares tomorrow’s business professionals through STEM-infused, AACSB-accredited degree programs and minors. The college offers nine bachelor of science programs in accounting, business analytics, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing; and four master of science programs in accounting and analytics, applied natural resource economics, engineering management, and the TechMBA®.
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