An Interview with a CCS Alumnus-Vin McCauley, Class of 1996

Dawn Snellenberger interviewed Class of 1996 alumnus Vin McCauley. Vin currently lives in  Edgewater, Florida, with his wife Elise and their two young children. Vin also happens to be Dawn's brother!

Vin began attending Cornerstone in the middle of his fifth grade year.  At the time, he had a friend who was enrolled at CCS, and he asked his parents if he could switch from the parochial school he was attending.  They agreed, and he ended up remaining through graduation.  He says that CCS provided several “core benefits” which have helped him throughout his life.  

First, Vin believes the uniforms provided a “normalizing” experience.  Because of the school's uniforms, students were not trying to impress each other with designer clothes, and it created a level playing field for everyone, regardless of one's economic status.  Second, the small classes provided extra accountability. The well-rounded Christian education he received allowed him to transition well to college.  However, Vin says that the biggest benefit he recalls is that he was forced out of his comfort zone.

For sports, Vin played on the soccer and basketball teams.  If he had attended a large public school, he knows he would not have been selected for the teams, but at Cornerstone he was able to participate.  He saw that character development was woven into the sports arena, which also taught him the value of being part of a team. 

Another challenging, yet beneficial, activity was getting involved in a large CCS theater production called Narnia.  While Vin wasn’t necessarily interested in drama, the group needed participants, so he volunteered. It taught him the value of seeing something through to completion and being part of something larger than himself.

After graduation, Vin attended Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, and he took some general education classes at Manchester Community College. 

Vin acquired a job at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., a premium global investment bank in Boston.  After working there, he moved on to the car business, where he worked for Honda, Mini Cooper and BMW.  At BMW he was the youngest general sales manager for a tier one (largest sized) dealership in North America.

Over the years, Vin has also had the opportunity to become involved in several entrepreneurial efforts, including a restaurant, hair salon and Internet start-up businesses.  Currently Vin is the owner of a small boutique Web firm called Level One Sites with offices in Florida, the Philippines, and India.  He also became involved in the early stages of a successful start-up company called ButcherBox.com.  It is a Christian-run, grass-fed meat subscription service with revenue in the tens of millions.  Vin says that it has been proven in his experience that foundational Christian principles align well with great business practices, and this has contributed to any success he has experienced.

Cornerstone is blessed by the ways that God uses His school to equip students for His calling!