In-Class Interview: Frank Pinkley

Sitting down with Frank Pinkley, 23, I could tell he was not a man to let school and work bog him down. With a confident smile, he told me about his successful internship with the Anheuser-Busch Company in the Ozarks and his achievements at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Pinkley started his college career going to SIUE for one semester. He tried for a change of pace and move out west to attend the University of Colorado for another semester. He later returned to Edwardsville to try for a degree in Mass Communications, although he doesn't intend to pursue a career in journalism or broadcast.

Having settled down in the Midwest, in 2007 he decided to branch out and took an internship with the Anheuser -Busch beer company in the Ozarks. Anheuser-Busch helped produce Budweiser and Bud Light products before it was bought out and had to close its services to the employees. Pinkley lost his job with them in the process, but his close relationship with his old boss opened another opportunity.

During the school year, he is employed at a hotel in downtown Edwardsville, but when he isn't enrolled in classes, he "cares for his [boss's] water crafts in the Ozarks.”

“I'm kind of like a Personal Assistant now,” Pinkley said.

Pinkley grew up in Chathal, IL, a small town near Springfield. In such a close-knit community, the best thing was that he could become familiar with most of the other residents.

“I literally could not go somewhere and not see someone I knew,” he said. Then he added, laughing, “I guess that was the worst thing, too.”

Pinkley lives in a duplex off of the SIUE campus with two other roommates and gets around on his Honda 600 CBRRR motorcycle. He described his new living conditions as “Spacious. Luxurious. Fabulous”; the perfect base while he continues down the road to success.