A SMART space for agriculture
A Greenville University alum with the desire to base an ecommerce business in Greenville + space in the SMART Center = the perfect match.
Harley Rensing graduated from GU in 2017 after earning a bachelor of science with a focus in environmental biology. She promptly took her talents just down the street from campus to the SMART Center. There, Rensing found opportunities to connect to the local business community and she created opportunities for current students.
A SMART space
After Rensing graduated, she had a desire to stay in the area and do something to benefit both the GU and Greenville community. Her position as customer care manager at the small startup company CommoditAg – an ecommerce agriculture business - along with an office space at the Greenville SMART Center, became the perfect match. With a space in the SMART Center, Rensing brings a business to the Greenville community and offers a great internship experience for current GU students.
“To bring that back into a small community like Greenville was really important to me, because a lot of the time, interns are having to go to bigger cities,” Rensing says. “I was really hoping to bring something to the town that was new and give students the opportunity to have an internship in a different business space that’s still relatively new to the agriculture industry.”
Rensing strives to offer an internship that gives students real-world experience. She doesn’t just want to bring students in to make coffee; she wants to ensure they are involved with meaningful work and projects with real value. In the process, she hopes they will see if the ag space is something they like and want to pursue.
Tori Dall, a 2020 GU graduate, was the first intern Rensing brought on, and she gained hands-on experience with order processing, onboarding with fulfillment centers, customer care, and much more. After graduation, Dall joined the CommoditAg team fulltime and continues to work with Rensing out of the SMART Center.
A SMART experience
The SMART Center is a great space to act as a base for an ecommerce business. According to Rensing, Elaine McNamara, The SMART Center director, helps with any issues and works to keep all SMART Center tenants involved in the community.
“Being able to be involved, even though we’re an ecommerce company, has been really important to us,” Rensing says.
Business networking luncheons and SMART Talks are just a few ways that Rensing and the CommoditAg team are involved locally.
For more information about The SMART Center, available office spaces and more, click here.