Voices Ringing
Carroll High School Blog
Shaping Leaders and Building Futures: Meet Beth Savage '86
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Reflections. Click here to read the entire magazine.
Learning. Doing. Giving.
Those three words have stuck with Beth Savage throughout her career, and they serve as her roadmap of leadership for life. Savage’s journey in leadership has landed her in boardrooms of corporations and communities, but her philosophy has helped both thrive.
DOING THE WORK
Earning an official leadership title in any setting is the beginning of the journey, not the peak, according to Savage. She became the president and CEO of PQ Systems, a company that designs manufacturing software solutions, after serving as its Marketing Director for ten years. After transforming the company’s marketing strategy, Savage sought to transform the organization’s culture for continued growth.
Replacing large, yearly employee surveys with more personable weekly check-ins and keeping up with the mindset of her team enabled Savage to receive constant feedback about their insights and concerns. “Once you get to a position of leadership, it doesn’t mean that you know everything. It just means you have a lot more to learn from your team. Being curious and always asking questions and continuing to learn is super important.”
Savage credits this approach to employment engagement as a key factor in PQ’s growth. The challenge of balancing the customers’ need for low prices with her teams’ need for high salaries while competing with other groups in the market was always at or near the top of Savage’s lists of critical tasks as the head of the company. “My focus as the leader of the organization was keeping the employees happy and helping them be the best version of themselves,” Savage said. “I didn’t have to worry about the customers, because the employees would take care of the customers.”
GIVING BACK
When the time came to retire and transfer leadership of PQ Systems in 2023, Savage made the difficult decision to sell the company after evaluating a wide array of options. More than a year later, Savage is pleased to see many of her former employees thriving and advancing their careers with PQ’s new leadership team or other organizations. Even in retirement, Savage continues to lead.
Savage shares her time and knowledge with today’s business owners through the Small Business Administration’s SCORE Program. SCORE’s mission is to foster vibrant small business communities through mentoring and educational workshops. Its mentors offer area specific advice at no cost to small businesses on topics like finance, human resources, and business planning.
“I had a ton of mentors. When you’re the top dog of an organization, it can be a little bit lonely. You don’t have peers in your department to bounce ideas off of. I reached out to any resources that I could. There were many, many other mentors that I had through the years who were very giving of their time. Now I’m at the point where I want to give.”
The business leaders Savage mentors through SCORE are some of the brightest minds in a diverse field of industries like artificial intelligence, hair care, and behavioral science. She says helping her mentees realize they already know what’s best for their business is how she makes the biggest impact. “What I try to do is ask questions because they know the answer already, but they want the confidence that it’s the right answer. Sometimes the next steps [to grow a business] are hard. It might be hard to go get that business loan or say no to a customer who isn’t a good match for you.”
Providing guidance to private sector businesses is not the only way Savage gives back. She currently serves as a board member of the W. Edward Deming Institute, a North Carolina based organization that trains business leaders, and Wright State University’s Raj Soin College of Business. Additionally, she served on the board of Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley for six years and is a regular volunteer at Carroll’s St. Pat’s Fest and the St. Helen Parish Summer Festival.
LEARNING TO LEAD
Marching as part of the Color Guard during her time as a Carroll student is one of Savage’s earliest memories of seeing how leadership and teamwork are crucial to achieving the highest levels of success. “We won competitions and got to perform in the Orange Bowl, and that was an amazing experience,” Savage said. “[The directors] emphasized that you’re only as strong as your weakest member, and we have to work as a team. We had a lot of members, and getting that many people to be in unison was not easy. It was a foundation for me in learning about teams and working together.”
Away from the competition field, Savage also recognizes the difference Catholic education at Carroll made in her life.“Carroll is super important to me because that was the foundation of my education. When I went on to college and on to work, I felt very well-prepared, much more so than some of my fellow students or colleagues who didn’t have the privilege of a Carroll education.”
Marching into the Future: Meet Michael Gaines '86
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the Summer 2023 edition of Reflections. Please click here to see the rest of the publication.
Long before he was an internationally renowned artist and a driving voice in the marching arts, Michael Gaines ‘86 was a kid mesmerized by the guitar ensemble at Mass at St. Luke Catholic Church in Beavercreek. “Music has been part of my life since I picked up a guitar in second grade and started playing in church a few years later,” Michael recalls.
Decades later, Michael Gaines is one of the most influential minds in the world of marching band and color guard. He has designed championship winning shows for top Drum Corps International (DCI) groups and high schools across the country, but it was his desire to be a member of the Marching Patriots when he became a student at Carroll is what sparked his love for the activity. Even though he had never played tuba before coming to high school, Michael’s dedication to the ensemble allowed him to grow into that role and contribute to the most successful season in program history.
The Marching Patriots reached the Bands of America finals during Michael’s freshman year, but the best was yet to come. The very next season, the band broke through and won the national Class A Championship in the fall of 1983, earning an invitation to play in the Orange Bowl in Miami. Working with top educators from outside of Dayton to refine the show, rehearsing at the Dayton Convention to avoid the harsh Ohio winter, and fanfare from local newspapers and television stations are still fresh in Michael’s mind – so are the obstacles that came along with his final two seasons as a Marching Patriot. “All of those years were equally impactful to me,” Michael said. “You got to learn a lesson about how to handle success and a lesson about how to handle falling short of your goals competitively with the realization that this is not just about judges putting numbers on a scorecard. It’s when I started realizing what the community actually means to me. As I got farther away from it, I realized how special it was to be in the music program at Carroll and have the educators and fellow members that I had throughout the four years.”
Michael knew his life after high school would include the marching arts, but he did not see a full time future as a music educator. He stayed close to home, studying finance at the University of Dayton and joined the Carroll band staff as an instructor for the rifle line. Like his transition to tuba at the start of high school, Michael’s focus shifted towards guard performance and design. He performed with the Cavaliers of Rosemont, Ill., one of DCI’s top ensembles during the summers of his college years until he aged out of the activity at 22. The group’s leadership kept Michael on staff after his days as a performer ended, and he spent 20 years teaching the color guard as well as designing seven championship shows.
As I got farther away from it, I realized how special it was to be in the music program at Carroll and have the educators and fellow members that I had throughout the four years.
-Michael Gaines '86
Now, as the Vice President of Winter Guard International’s Executive Board in addition to his career as a show designer, Michael sees continued evolution and a bright future for the marching arts. The activity has grown from its roots as a military exercise into theatrical performances that Michael compares to a production on Broadway or the Las Vegas Strip. Most modern competitive shows include instruments and equipment that require electricity, intricate drill, choreography for the musicians, and props and stages across the field. Balancing the needs of the ensemble’s different sections – winds, percussion, color guard – in an entertaining way for the audience is how Michael describes his role as a show designer. Like with any creative medium, Michael combines the technical foundations with creative visions to tell a story that can entertain any audience.
Patchwork of Memories: A Graduation Gift to Carroll Theater Director
Quilts sewn from scraps of t-shirts are common gifts to high school graduates, but one Archbishop Carroll High School family made one for an educator who has impacted their lives for more than a decade on and off of the Carroll stage.
The Schlegel family has been part of every Freedom Players production since the fall of 2010 – 26 shows under the direction of Toni (Hemmert) Weitz ‘86. When Anna Schlegel ‘14 made her debut on stage in Pollyanna, her mother Tina helped out by selling tickets and flowers, hosting cast parties, and volunteering at youth summer camps for the drama club for 13 years until her youngest daughter, Tess ‘23, would end the Schlegels’ run on the Carroll stage this spring. Moments before Tess’s last performance in the 2023 spring musical Back to the 80s, she presented a quilt to Toni with all of the shows that involved this generation of Schlegel performers and crew members, a quilt handmade by Tina. Many other students and families who have been part of the drama club contributed to the project to help thank Toni for her dedication to the program.
“I was very surprised,” Toni said. “I’ve seen these blankets being made for kids over the years, and to see how it holds all those special memories. To be given that as an adult for a club that is so important to me from a family that is so important to me, it was just really touching. Knowing that other students donated to do this for me makes it even more special.”
Anna, Nick ‘15, Maria ‘18, Sam ‘21, and Tess all can recall countless memories from rehearsal and performances, both on stage and behind the scenes, that the blanket symbolizes. Backstage traditions and small behind the scenes moments remain with Anna. Nick can recall the view of watching the show from the sound board. Maria enjoyed making the leap from stage crew in the fall to shining under the lights in spring each year. Sam looked forward to Toni’s inspirational speeches in the greenroom before every performance. Like her oldest sister, Tess loved the little moments behind the curtain during the shows. For Tina and her husband Dave ‘88, the theater program at Carroll became like a second family to all of the Schlegels.
“One of the gifts of this program is the bond between Toni and the kids and also between the friendships that they form through these activities,” Tina said. “I always thought this activity was like high school sporting events. If they’re on the volleyball team, you go to every volleyball game. If they’re in a show, you go to every performance, and if you’re here, you might as well help out.”
Toni also counts the Schlegels as an extension of her family at Carroll.
“It’s really neat when I have a family where all of the kids are involved in the way that the Schlegels have been. There are only a handful of families like that, and five kids is probably the most. It’s just really special to be able to share those moments with all of them and their parents and see the parents that I know I can count on, like Tina and Dave, to do the cast party. It’s great to have families I can count on and to watch the kids grow with my own kids.”