Matt Leebel has a habit of burning the candle at both ends.
Thanks to spending the spring semester vying to be the winner of the College of Business and Economics' competition The Associate, that habit wears on.
Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, he is about to get some time to relax.
Leebel lost his spot in The Associate last week, only to be brought back to help fellow senior Amanda Knott square off against Reanna Tarleton in their final mission over the weekend.
Even though Leebel's weekends will now be free of case studies, research, client meetings and presentations, the business administration major -- who carries a 15-credit course load, a job with TU intramural sports and an internship at Tours de Sport, a golf package agency in Owings Mills -- won't have trouble filling his time.
And while The Associate resembles "The Apprentice," Leebel asserts The Associate workload was much more demanding than its television counterpart.
"Those people are just doing that [The Apprentice], they have all their days and they don't have to think about anything but the case they are working on, and we don't," he said. "We have our friends, our family and everything else to deal with. Those people are cut off."
He added The Associate ended up requiring more of his time than initially expected -- more than 20 hours a week, he said, tying up the majority of his Wednesday to Sunday schedule, forcing things like Friday homework assignments to be pushed to the back burner.
Leebel said judge and First Mariner Bank president Ed Hale didn't provide him with a reason for being fired when Leebel and senior Megan Olmert left the cast last week. "He really didn't give us a reason why, he just said we were fired," Leebel said. "The two girls, Amanda and Anna, they deserve it just as much as I do.
"It's disappointing and frustrating," he said. "I won every case, but you know, what can you do about it?"
Despite making it so close to the end of the competition, which will conclude Tuesday evening when Hale selects Knott or Tarleton to earn a position at First Mariner Bank, Leebel remains positive about the experience and hopes that it may still garner a job opportunity for him.
"Potentially, I can still get a job out of this experience, not the job for winning it, but it's potential that I could get a job with one of the companies we worked with," he said. Leebel has worked on case studies with Apogee Designs, Miles and Stockbridge, Gevity, Weber Shandwick and Tri-Alliance Real Estate.
Those experiences will also parlay into the rest of his busy schedule as he can return his focus to completing his final semester at Towson.
"I believe my confidence has grown. The way I handle situations has changed, a lot of the time I feel when I am procrastinating, I'll jump into the work and get it out of the way," he said. "I notice I value my time more when I'm not busy."
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