Throughout his freshman and sophomore years, Kent State University finance major and Honors College student Dylan Mace honed his leadership skills by serving as president of both the university Interfraternity Council and Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. He also served as an officer of the Kent State Financial Management Association and a member of the Business Professionals’ Roundtable.
These leadership roles served as preparation for Mace's service on the Kent State Board of Trustees when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him as a student trustee in July 2020. Mace’s two-year term, in which he served as a member of the Board’s Academic Excellence and Student Success Committee and the Finance and Administration Committee, will expire May 16, 2022.
During his tenure, Mace also served as a member of the Board’s Audit and Compliance Committee, External Relations and Philanthropy Committee and Investment Committee.
At the March Board of Trustees meeting, Mace’s colleagues expressed deep gratitude for his service and wished him well in his future pursuits. Mace will earn his bachelor’s degree in finance, with a minor in data analytics and economics, with high honors in May 2022.
“Trustee Mace is respected by his Board colleagues as a highly motivated, insightful leader who participates effectively in all aspects of the trustee role,” according to a Board resolution. “… the Kent State University Board of Trustees expresses deep gratitude to Dylan Mace for his outstanding service and wishes him the very best in his future pursuits.”
Mace said serving as a student trustee has been an enlightening experience.
“It was an honor to serve as the Undergraduate Student Trustee for a university I’ve called home the past four years. I learned an immense amount from this experience and met a lot of great students, staff and trustees along the way.”
Recently, in recognition of his extraordinary leadership and his impact as a student leader, Mace received the Association for Fraternal Leadership and Values (AFLV) 2022 Wayne S. Colvin Award (Change Maker, Undergraduate Award), which recognizes an undergraduate fraternity/sorority chapter leader who has accelerated progress in the fraternity/sorority experience on campus and beyond.
“I am thankful to have received this incredible award," Mace said. "Improving the Fraternity and Sorority Life experience here at Kent State has been a passion of mine since my freshman year. With the help of my advisors and fellow fraternity men, I am graduating Kent extremely happy with how far fraternity and sorority life has come during a challenging few years.”
Since his freshman year, Mace has been heavily involved with his fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. In addition to serving as former chapter president, he has held different executive board positions within his chapter. Currently, he serves as the director of member education for Kent State’s Interfraternity Council, where he works on initiatives such as Men’s Mental Health Awareness and Hazing Prevention workshops. Outside of Fraternity Student Life, Mace belongs to two honor societies, Beta Gamma Sigma and Order of Omega.
Mace said he was originally encouraged to consider the Board of Trustees position toward the end of his freshman year by Dennis Campbell, assistant director for Kent State’s Fraternity and Sorority Life in the Center for Student Involvement. Mace did some initial research on the position and thought it was a great opportunity, but he recalls that he wasn’t “super passionate about applying for the position at that time.”
Then throughout his sophomore year, he got more involved on campus and stepped into his role as Interfraternity Council president. Mace was given more opportunities to see the challenges that both students and the university faced as a whole.
“I think this is where I became inspired to apply as Kent State’s Undergraduate Student Trustee,” Mace recalls. “I started to have a growing passion for higher education and a desire to help other students reach their goal of graduating from Kent State University. This led me to the realization that the student trustee spot would be the perfect position to accomplish both of these goals. The undergraduate student trustee position offered me an experience that will be a great talking point for years to come and the opportunity to understand the inner workings of an institution of higher education.”
Mace is a native of North Ridgeville, Ohio, and he was the valedictorian of North Ridgeville High School’s class of 2018. His sister, Maggie, graduated from Kent State in spring 2021 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting.
He said he chose to attend Kent State University because it would provide a top-notch education at a Division I school for an affordable price. He also appreciated Kent State’s proximity to home, without being too close to home. “Lastly I chose Kent State because it was a good balance of a college town without being in the middle of nowhere,” Mace said. “The city of Kent definitely has a college feel, but the Cleveland/Akron area offers a huge job market not too far away.”
Mace, who has a minor in data analytics and computer science economics, began working at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland as an intern in the Statistics and Analysis Department in summer 2020. The statistics department at the Cleveland Fed is responsible for collecting, processing, and analyzing financial and structural information about financial institutions within the Fourth District of the Federal Reserve, which comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. The department then uses this information to identify trends and communicate conclusions and analytical findings to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C., staff and data users.
Mace spent from June to August of 2020 interning at the Fed. In February 2021, the Fed hired him on an hourly basis to work in the statistics department and he continued this work throughout summer 2021.
As an intern during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mace encountered the challenges of working virtually. “I was super intimidated on the first day to begin working for a place where I had never been and working with people I had not seen face to face,” Mace said. “While everything went smoothly over the duration of the summer, it was definitely different.”
Mace’s future career aspirations are to work for a large financial institution in the role of financial analyst, data analyst or banking analyst. He would be happy to stay in the Cleveland/Akron area, but is also open to moving to other areas of the country. Mace is also interested in returning to school to earn his master’s degree in data science or business analytics.
“Kent State has given me a great foundation of knowledge to begin my career right after graduation. I am very excited to see what opportunities are available in the near future.”
Mace also works a few hours a week in the College of Aeronautics and Engineering’s Advising Office. He organizes paperwork and supplies for the advisors and assists them and the marketing staff.
With all these activities, Mace finds time for several hobbies including biking, jet skiing and kayaking.
Mace says his experiences at Kent State have molded him into a well-rounded individual, and he encourages high school students to consider Kent State as a top choice.
“Kent State is a fantastic place to come to get both a top-notch education and full college experience, all while at an affordable price,” Mace said. “I would also highly encourage a high school senior to get involved early and often when they come to Kent State. Kent State has a ton of great programming for students and hundreds of student organizations. These activities and organizations will only enrich your college education and set you up with great connections that will become beneficial down the road.”