From Business Student to Business Owner

“I’ve always been pretty handy,” says Calvin Caswell. “I did plumbing and electrical with my dad. There’s a picture of me welding when I was four. I built my own sugar house when I was seventeen.”

Now 31, Calvin is the proud new owner of The BrickKicker of Vermont, a home inspection company. He says it’s a great fit: as a volunteer firefighter for more than 15 years, a former employee at Pella Windows & Doors, and a CCV alumnus with a degree in business, he’s putting his many talents to good use.

Calvin came to CCV after more than a decade in the workforce. “I didn’t like high school,” he says, “because I was forced to learn things that I wasn’t interested in.” He’d begun volunteering  with the local fire department at 16, and toyed with the idea of pursuing the Fire Science program at what was then Vermont Technical College, but felt burned out from school. He worked at Pella Windows & Doors for seven years, first as a sales representative and then a sales manager. One day he mentioned to the franchise owner that he aspired to eventually fill his shoes. “I was like ‘hey, in twenty years, how do I become you?’ He said ‘keep doing what you’re doing. The only thing that would help you would be an associate in business.’ So that night I started doing research, and I landed on CCV.”

As an adult student with new aspirations, school was different this time. “I think what really motivated me was I was so excited to learn about business. It was a totally different drive. It was something I wanted to do…I’ve gotten to the point where if I do something I do it extremely well or I don’t do it at all.” True enough: Calvin finished his CCV degree with an almost-perfect GPA (he joked that his wife still picks on him for being disappointed with an A-minus). Calvin was also juggling a busy family life, welcoming his son in 2020 and his daughter last year. He says the online course options worked well for him—as an early riser, he could do schoolwork in the mornings before his family was awake.

Now, as the owner of his own company, “I am very excited that my problems are my own problems, but also my success is my success. Instead of working for somebody else and getting this much of the pie, I’m working for myself and getting the whole pie.” He’s realistic about the level of responsibility. “There’s a lot more office stuff, more weight on my shoulders, but I feel like I was prepared for it between my time at Pella and the things I learned at CCV. There are definitely things I learned at CCV that I use on a daily basis.”

He has some advice for other young Vermonters who may be on the fence about the value of continuing their education. “I think that kids coming out of high school now, say they want to do something with their hands. The world needs electricians, plumbers, but a career of working with your hands for 45 or 50 years is gonna take its toll…at a point, think about your future. A two-year online degree that takes three and a half years while you’re still working sets up your future self to take those skills and then grow it into your own company.”