Tobias Breer had two goals when he came to Wichita State University: finish college and graduate summa cum laude.

Breer reached both of his goals and graduated spring 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in finance.

“I’m a firm believer that if you want something and you work hard, you’ll get it,” he said. “I had to work very hard in my classes (to graduate summa cum laude).”

Breer finished college in three years, taking upward of 18 credit hours each semester and pre-session classes at every opportunity. But he regrets not taking part in an internship during his time at WSU.

“I wanted to finish as fast as possible,” he said. “But I think I would have been just as well or better served to do an internship.”

Breer did volunteer time to Students in Free Enterprise as the vice project leader for the Money$mart camps, teaching middle school-aged students about financial literacy.

“I didn’t have much time to volunteer,” he said. “(But) I’ve gotten a lot of valuable experience from SIFE.”

His summers were used to make money to pay for the rest of the year, including fall classes.

Breer had financial difficulties after high school and was unable to attend college right away. He worked at Koch-Glitsch and Big Dog Motorcycles as a welder, Borders Bookstore and Olive Garden restaurant.

In May 2006, he opened his own photography business, Professio Photography, to indulge his passion for shooting weddings or senior portraits.

If he finds a decent market, he said he may end up using his photography as a future career option.

Breer isn’t sure what he is going to do after graduation.

“The biggest thing I learned about in college is that it doesn’t necessarily mean you get a job,” he said. “But that doesn’t make your degree useless or college (experience) pointless.”

Stanley Longhofer, real estate and finance professor and chair and director for the Center for Real Estate, said Breer will be an enormous value to future employers.

“I tell my students that a college degree is of little value,” Longhofer said, but he added that a college education is of great value.

Breer has applied to at least 60 job listings. He has looked in banking, nonprofit and government jobs, but nothing has come up yet.

Jill Pletcher, director of career services at WSU, said having some directly related work experience in the field and a well-written resume will help in a job search.

“Make sure the most important, related things are what (employers) see first on the resume,” Pletcher said.

She also said talking to faculty, WSU alumni and career services can help a graduate become less of a number and more of an advantage for future employers.

Breer said his greatest achievements were starting and finishing college.

“It is something to be celebrated. Often college is dismissed,” he said. “Yes, a lot of people go, but a lot of people don’t finish.”

He said he has learned a lot about himself at WSU.

“Even if I go back to what I was doing,” he said, “I’m so happy that I got my degree.”