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Out of nearly 3,000 college students, the University of Texas’ Jeff Armstrong was honored as the 2007 Student Excellence Award winner by The Southwestern Company in Nashville, Tennessee.

In addition to the award and recognition, Armstrong will receive a $1,000 scholarship to be used for educational purposes or donated to a non-profit or charitable organization.

Armstrong, a senior from Katy, Texas majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Business completed his fifth summer in 2007 running his own sales business through Southwestern’s summer program for college students.

This past summer, he relocated to Minnesota for three months where he sold educational products to families to help offset his education expenses. Since he was a freshman, Armstrong has made a gross profit of over $15,000 each summer, with the summer of 2007 culminating in a total gross profit of $30,024.93.

Since he was a freshman, Armstrong set some lofty goals. “After my first summer, I set a goal of not only graduating debt free, but to have $100,000 saved. I knew I was going to sell every summer while in school to build capital, but had very little experience in investing money other than stocks and mutual funds. After watching my brother make a significant profit in investing in real estate, I became interested in doing the same using my summer profits. With patience, I was able to flip my first property last winter and double my profits from my first four summers combined. With new knowledge and entrepreneurial skills learned from Southwestern, I have exceeded my savings goal,” says Armstrong.

While running his own sales business, Armstrong also recruited and managed a team of six other students from UT for 2007. He underwent management and leadership training for each consecutive year after his first summer in order to offer the same opportunity he has experienced to other students. Along with Armstrong and his team, students from UT who participated in the summer program made a combined $478,340 gross profit, placing third in the company’s Top Campus list out of 356 university and college campuses worldwide.

Because of the student’s efforts, UT will be the recipient of $1,000, which is awarded annually to the Top 10 Campuses Worldwide. In the past, the money has gone to a fund made up of all the University Career Centers. It has been used jointly, most recently to put out a brochure, in which all students benefitted.

 

“The Student Excellence Award embodies the best qualities of students that participate in our program,” says Dan Moore, President of the Southwestern Company. “This is the award that recognizes a particular student for not simply their performance and results within our program, but all of their accomplishments in all other aspects of their life. We are very proud of Jeff and the example he sets for others.”

Armstrong’s extracurricular and charitable activities helped land him the award. Among those extracurricular activities are swimming, cycling and real estate investment. He is an active member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Armstrong also participates in a program called Community New Start, in association with his Church, Austin Stone, where he mentors at-risk middle school students.

 

He is very involved in charitable causes involving Multiple Sclerosis, as his father has been diagnosed with it and his everyday life has been affected by the autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. He participates in and raises money in MS Walks and has even participated in the MS150, a 170-mile bike ride from Houston to Austin. In the past two years, “Team Armstrong” (not Lance) has raised over $15,000.

 

“Having worked with Jeff closely over the past 5 years, I have watched him grow and develop into one of the great leaders on the University of Texas campus. Jeff has always led by example, showed great integrity in his work ethic and has helped many UT students have successful summers running their own sales businesses. I am very proud of him,“ says Marcel Meijer, Armstrong’s District Sales Manager with Southwestern.