As a student at MSU, Michelle Pell was an employee at the Starbucks on the corner of Grand River Avenue and Stoddard Avenue. She is now the service manager for all three Starbucks on campus.
The first Starbucks on campus was built in Wells Hall in 2011 and employed 24 students and Pell, the only full-time manager.
“Now we’re up to two full-time managers and almost 90 student-employees in under three years, so I’m pretty proud of that,” Pell said.
The other two Starbucks locations on campus are the Broad College of Business store and the Broad Art Museum Café.
Pell said she is responsible for overseeing the entire operation of Starbucks.
“Every day is a different product mix; every day is a different mix of people on the floor,” Pell said. “Paying attention to all of those details every single day is how I make it run as smoothly as possible.”
Pell is proud of the environment that has been created at Starbucks for student-employees and thinks they get a lot of value from their experience of working at Starbucks.
“It’s not just another job,” Pell said. “We try to make it a place they want to come, their place to escape even though they’re working and it’s just amazing to watch all the friendships that develop.”
Pell hopes that the Starbucks across campus continue to grow over the next few years. She said that she thinks there is a demand on campus for more locations and looks forward to the future growth and opportunities for herself and Starbucks.
“I bleed green and white, I say, whether it’s for Starbucks or for Michigan State, so I think I have the best of both worlds,” Pell said.