President's Report - Gordon State College

15
President’s Report
“I don’t ever want to see you
just standing. The best time
spent in a feed store is on the
aisle reading a label.
A label tells you what
a product does.”
Carol Smith
Akins Feed and Seed Co.
Barnesville, GA
“Relationships build everything,” he said during a recent visit to Akins Feed and
Seed Company in Barnesville. “Smile, be kind, be courteous. Doing these things has
taught me more than anything else.”
Then he said something any college loves to hear from its alumni: “I think if I had
gone to another school, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Tarno came to Gordon from Mt. Zion High School in Jonesboro, Ga., in the fall
of 2003. Like many students, he chose Gordon because it was close to home, “but far
enough away.” He commuted his first semester, but thereafter until the fall of 2006, he
resided in the same room of Melton Hall, “last door on the right, bottom floor.”
His father and mother were a music minister and youth minister respectively, so
there was no room for extravagances during his time in college. When Tarno drew up
the courage to ask his father for spending money, his father told him to get a job. “They
weren’t going to give me extra money. They expected me to go to school to learn and
then come home,” he said. “My meals, room and board were paid for, but if I wanted
any money to spend, I had to work. I never got an allowance.”
While in high school, Tarno cut grass for extra money. He also worked for Sports
Authority in the hunting, fishing and camping department, where he discovered that he
liked working retail. He also discovered he had a knack for “building relationships.”
While his dad told him to get a job if he wanted more money, he didn’t say where
this job was to be found or how to go about getting it. This he left to his son.
Tarno knew about Akins, because he and his buddies had visited the store a number
of times. It seemed a good place to start looking for a job, so he went, met with Carol
Smith, one of the owners, and filled out an application.
It wasn’t long before he was hired, even getting an afternoon schedule so he could
have morning classes.
He started at Akins as a cash register clerk, standing at the counter, ringing people
up and sending them on their way. “Over time, customers started to ask me questions,
and not knowing the answers, I’d go back to Carol’s office and ask her. The customers
were often hardworking farmers, and I did not want to give them bad information.”
When there was no customer to ring up, Tarno tended to stand and wait behind his
register, until one day Carol noticed. And this is when Tarno got some of the best advice
he ever got in the seed and feed business.
“I don’t ever want to see you just standing,” she said. “The best time spent in a feed
store is on the aisle reading a label. A label tells you what a product does.”
Left: Caleb Tarno with his
father Brad Tarno.
Right: Tarno (right) with
friends (left) Matt Moore,
Matt Craig, Lance Garmon,
Jeff Davis, and Meghan
Bozaich and Heather Ford.