Rod Moyer, a Northern Illinois University alumnus, was heavily involved as a student from 1997 to 2002. During that time, he served as president of the Black Student Union and vice-president of the NIU chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha and graduated with an Organizational and Corporate Communications major with a marketing minor.
Moyer says he landed 100 job and internship interviews as the result of his leadership opportunities at NIU. That’s why he came back to speak to NIU students at Monday’s student leadership press conference – to remind the student body that opportunities to succeed are everywhere.
Moyer, a motivational speaker, founded Leadership JITSU, an organization that is designed to prepare youth to compete against candidates for the best jobs and opportunities. He has been featured on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” and has spoken at about 60 colleges and 200 high schools all over the country.
In fact, Moyer spoke to the DeKalb High School senior class on Monday. Students’ post-presentation comments about Moyer’s presentation included, “There’s never a good time to give up,” and “Everybody can be successful if they choose to.”
However, Moyer said his journey to success wasn’t always easy. During his beginning at NIU, he didn’t know what a resume was when he was asked at a job fair.
Moyer landed internships with Disney, Aldi’s Food District management and Daewoo in Seoul, South Korea. Before he became a motivational speaker, he traveled across the country as a lead recruiting trainer for American Communications Network, a Fortune 500 company.
Jerry Wright, director for student support services at NIU, first met Moyer when he offered the corporate communications major a White House internship in Washington, D.C. While he didn’t get the White House internship, Wright said Moyer was a student on the edge when they first met, and he watched Moyer grow professionally and give a lot back to the community -- never forgetting where he came from.