Saunders College student tallies eventful track record

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A. Sue Weisler

Amy Rule has set her goals high and has put her keen business sense to good use in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business.

Amethyst “Amy” Rule knows how to mastermind her own business. One of her first ventures as a little girl in Boise, Idaho, was selling homemade fudge and her old and used toys to neighborhood kids. She even sold her favorite yellow boat for 10 cents, “then suffered from a bout of seller’s remorse.” Long past simple buying and selling, the management major in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business has spent the past four years putting her keen business and artistic skills to work in the classroom as well as fundraising, event planning and community outreach. “My parents moved to Oswego during my junior year of high school and I had a wonderful art teacher who just loved RIT,” Rule recalls. “So I applied for early decision because I knew it would be the kind of university where I could feel connected and make lots of friends.” Besides building lasting friendships, most of Rule’s RIT experience has centered on involvement and accolades—from serving as an RIT resident advisor, Saunders College of Business student senator and Lowenthal Community Service Group member, to induction into the RIT Honors Program, Beta Gamma Sigma (National Honor Society in Business Management), and Davis Scholarship Award winner for “student leaders who significantly contribute to campus life.”

Last October, she was also one of three recipients (from western, central and southern tier areas of New York state) awarded the prestigious Turnaround Management Association Upstate New York Chapter Scholarship. “Amy is really a ‘go to’ person when the need exists for creative ideas, for event planning, and for follow-through before, during and after an event,” says Jerry Curnutt, assistant dean in the Saunders College of Business. Proof of her talents was evident last spring when Rule helped organize an Easter egg hunt community service activity on RIT’s Kodak Quad. “We squirreled away 1,000 eggs in the bushes and more than 125 kids came to find them,” Rule says. “It was so much fun because I could remember when my parents used to take me to an Easter egg hunt at the University of Alabama when I was little. Every child gets a prize; there’s no crying.”

Some of her inspired creativity comes from following the footsteps of America’s reigning domestic-lifestyle entrepreneur. “I just love Martha Stewart,” she adds, “and I have a collection of her best-selling cookbooks and how-to magazines on crafts, interior design and gardening. My idea of a perfect job after graduation would be to work for her because I’m innovative and very good at problem-solving and optimizing positive results.” But as Curnutt explains, Rule leaves RIT with a purpose-filled legacy. “She has been extremely generous in offering counsel and help to students who have succeeded her in various leadership roles in the college.” Her offer also extends to Ashok Rao, the new dean of Saunders College of Business, whom she took on a mini tour of RIT during a campus visit. “I made sure we went to the dorms because it’s very important for him to see what RIT student life is all about,” Rule says.