ECOS Vice President of Financial Affairs: Spencer Gradley
Major: International Business
Year: Sophomore
Age:19
Hometown: Middletown, Rhode Island
When I entered the ECOS (Eckerd College Organization of Students) Office, to interview Spencer Gradley this past week, he was sitting on a spinning office chair talking to his grandmother. This glimpse into Spencer’s everyday life allowed me to really see who he is. Spencer is passionate, dedicated, and spontaneous; he tries to focus on living in the moment and does not have extensive plans for the future. Even his career with ECOS began spontaneously. Spencer says that last year he made a spur of the moment decision to run for Senate after reading Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in your Work and in your Life By Spencer Johnson. According to Spencer Gradley, Who Moved My Cheese? is a short story about two humans with different personalities and two mice. The mice eat all the cheese then venture out into the world once it’s gone. One of the humans refuses to leave; he wants to wait for more cheese. Finally, the other human convinces him to look for more cheese. Once they find the cheese, the mice are already there and the man that wanted to look for the cheese asks the other man, “what would you do if you weren’t afraid?”. After this decision, Spencer found out that he won Senate on his eighteenth birthday.
This year, Spencer is the ECOS Vice President of Financial Affairs a position he decided to run for last year because of his work with the Financial Affairs Committee in the Senate. As Vice President of Financial Affairs Spencer is in charge of the Financial Affairs Committee, he sees that all reimbursement forms are fulfilled, and controls the budget for all clubs. Spencer’s favorite aspect of ECOS is the progress ECOS makes; he loves all of the different clubs because he feels that someone needs each club. When I asked Spencer about his favorite parts of ECOS, he talked about the other members of the Executive Council. Spencer believes each member brings unique qualities to the ECOS Office. Spencer and ECOS President Brady O’Donnell both agree that what Spencer brings to ECOS is innovation and his ability to get things done.
Spencer is also one of the Sigma Resident Advisors and a member of the Parking committee. Spencer says that being an RA and on the ECOS Executive Council compliment each other. Because of his responsibilities this year Spencer has begun to hold himself to a high standard. He is still the goofy, unorthodox person he has always been he is just more strategic with his time now. Spencer hopes that the Eckerd community always maintains a close knit relationship and continues to be friendly and open!