Lifestyle

When Niketas Koussis walks across the stage this week to accept his associate degree from Northern Virginia Community College, it won’t mark an ending, but rather the beginning of a life that he once dreamed of.

“When I got to community college, I got a second chance,” said Niketas, a Best Buy employee. “I wasn’t going to waste it.”

He will graduate with a 3.98 GPA, a big change from the 3.0 student he was in high school. He is one of 20 people chosen out of 2,000 as a top U.S.

Dan McCue’s decision to show up a half hour early to his shift at the Best Buy store in Macedonia, Ohio, turned out to be lifechanging for a fellow employee. Actually, lifesaving is more accurate.

Dan, an asset protection specialist and retired police officer, went in early one day last month to check some emails. As he was sitting at the computer, someone burst in and said an employee had fallen and didn’t appear to be breathing.

He ran out to the main part of the store and saw Justin McGuire, an Ohio-based employee who works at stores across the market, on the floor.

After 6 hours and four minutes slogging through mud on a hilly, barren landscape, Karen Hohertz crossed the finish line to complete her marathon in Antarctica.

Those final steps, taken with tears in her eyes and pride in her heart, marked the completion of her goal to run 26.2 miles on every continent. It was a challenge she took on less than a decade ago.

“It was amazing, super fulfilling,” said Karen, who has worked at Best Buy for 30 years.

Think tech is just a young person’s game? Don’t tell that to Bob Kaufman.

Bob, who turns 89 on April 7, is a sales associate in the computing department at our Best Buy store in Sarasota, Florida. He has worked there for 15 years and has become a favorite among customers and coworkers alike.

The energetic Massachusetts native is the oldest Best Buy employee in the country, but he can still hang with the best of them, working two to three days a week.

When the Fine family needed help, their Best Buy family jumped in.

Not long after announcing that they were expecting their first baby in December, Best Buy general managers Josh and Meghan Fine learned that their son, Parker, had a rare medical condition that would complicate his birth.

They already knew they’d be less available to their Pittsburgh stores during the busy holiday season because of Parker’s due date, but his diagnosis meant that surgeries would be required. Josh and Meghan were going to need extra time and resources to keep their family and stores running smoothly.

When he’s not at preschool, Jaxson Vercruyssen works in the cellphone department of the Best Buy store in Fairfax, Virginia. Or so he says.

The 4-year-old believes this so strongly that when his mom told him she is sure he could someday work at Best Buy, Jaxson definitively replied: “I already work there. My manager has been calling me and I need you to take me there at 7:00.”

So last Friday, for career day at his preschool, the tot knew exactly what he wanted to be.