Boston University

11/20/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/21/2024 02:02

Meet the Student CEO In Charge of BU’s Saxbys

Meet the Student CEO In Charge of BU's Saxbys

In her 40-hour-a-week role, McGuire oversees 50 student employees, managing schedules, training workers, conducting weekly inventory, performing cash drops, and supporting her team behind the bar.

Student Life

Meet the Student CEO in Charge of BU's Saxbys

By balancing a love for leadership and for conservation, Ria McGuire (CAS'25) is transforming the coffee shop into a space for growth-from reusable cups to student partnerships

November 20, 2024
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Ria McGuire didn't always picture herself running a coffee shop. But the Boston University senior's love for coffee and building communities? That's always been there.

Growing up in the small town of Woodland Park, Colo., McGuire's formative years were defined by her love of nature and a natural talent for leadership. During her four years of volunteering at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, she eventually became team leader. That job instilled a passion for conservation, she says.

By age 17, she was a team leader at a small family-owned burger shop and later worked as a barista, where she discovered her passion for coffee. She continued to refine her leadership skills through the Young Champion Ambassador Program in Colorado Springs, embracing Olympic values of leadership and teamwork.

"It was a super wide range [of leadership roles], but all of it was very education-based and communicating to the public why it was important. I'm glad it brought me here," says McGuire (CAS'25), a major in biology with a concentration in conservation and ecology.

Today, McGuire is the student CEO at Boston University's chapter of Saxbys, the student-run café found on the first floor of BU's Center for Computing & Data Sciences. In this role, McGuire has found a way to blend her leadership skills and at the same time push her employees to embrace sustainability.

"That's one of my favorite things about Saxbys-it's not a coffee shop per se. It's an experiential learning company disguised as a coffee shop," she explains.

[Saxbys is] not a coffee shop per se. It's an experiential learning company disguised as a coffee shop.
Ria McGuire (CAS'25)

While the Saxbys national chain was founded in Philadelphia in 2005, the BU location is part of The Saxbys Experiential Learning Platform (E.L.P.), which builds partnerships with universities and offers paid experiential learning opportunities on campuses through student-led cafés. Among the other schools the company has partnered with are Temple, Georgia State, and Penn State.

Each of these locations has a Student Café Executive Officer (SCEO). These students manage everything from finances to community outreach, aligning with Saxbys' mission of sustainability and social responsibility.

"The Student Cafe Executive Officer experience is completely unique," she says, "and it's the quintessential learning opportunity for students interested in learning everything that goes into running a business."

McGuire joined Saxbys a month after it opened on campus, starting as a beverage expeditor, making non-espresso drinks like cold brews and matcha while taking orders and assisting guests as a host. By the end of her first semester, she'd transitioned to the barista and culinary stations and later served as a team leader for a semester before becoming SCEO.

In her 40-hour-a-week role, McGuire oversees 50 student employees, managing schedules, training workers, conducting weekly inventory, making cash drops, and supporting her team behind the bar. The location also has a paid staff manager.

She says that "all of it comes back to team development, financial management, and community leadership."

As a manager, McGuire says, she "is committed to fostering an empowering and inclusive workplace, ensuring every team member feels supported and valued. Every second I spend in there, I'm making another connection-we're talking about something that matters to them, or I'm learning something new about their major I didn't know, or we're all dancing along to whatever music is playing on aux. It's just so wonderful."

With her background in biology and conservation, McGuire has found unexpected ways to bring her environmental values into her role at the café and shape a sustainable culture on campus. One of her proudest achievements has been the expansion of BU Dining's Choose to Reuse program. Since launching in the GSU Food Hall in February 2023, the program has decreased the use of disposable containers on campus by more than 78 percent. Saxbys is doing its part by encouraging customers to opt for reusable containers over single-use cups.

Saxby's menu includes coffee drinks, smoothies, energy drinks, breakfast items, and a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches. Photo courtesy of Saxbys

"It's something I'm obviously very passionate about, and I was just so happy to hear that we're trying to move toward that in person," she says.

McGuire's commitment to sustainability doesn't end there. She is also building partnerships with student organizations (especially ethical and sustainable clubs) to amplify Saxbys' impact on campus.

A key part of her efforts includes organizing dine-and-donate events, where student organizations receive 20 percent of the café's sales when customers mention the club at checkout. This initiative has successfully raised funds for groups like BU Community Gardens, BU Zen, and Phi Alpha Delta (BU's pre-law fraternity), helping them fund scholarships, team-building activities, and other projects.

Looking ahead, McGuire is organizing an upcoming partnership with BU Closet to host an ethical clothing swap in the café. This event aims to promote sustainable fashion by encouraging students to reuse and recycle clothing.

As her time as student CEO comes to a close in May, McGuire reflects on how this experience has shaped her future.

"I have this degree that I'm getting in conservation and ecology, and I have this incredible internship [at Saxbys]," she says. "I have so much passion for both of these things, and I'm not sure exactly where my path will take me, but, at this point, what I do know is it has given me so many highly transferable skills."

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  • Sophia Spiegel (COM'26)

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  • Jackie Ricciardi

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    Jackie Ricciardi is a staff photojournalist at BU Today and Bostonia magazine. She has worked as a staff photographer at newspapers that include the Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Ga., and at Seacoast Media Group in Portsmouth, N.H., where she was twice named New Hampshire Press Photographer of the Year. Profile

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