by M. C. Jennings | Aug 1, 2017 | Academics, COBA Faculty, Current Students, Human Resource Management, MBA, Uncategorized
Dr. Brad Crisp announced last week that Dr. Phil Vardiman, Professor of Management, will begin serving as director of COBA’s online graduate business programs beginning August 1, 2017. Dr. Vardiman will have responsibility for the MBA and MS in Management (MSM) programs offered in collaboration with ACU-Dallas and will interface with other ACU-Dallas programs through their academic and leadership councils.
Dr. Phil Vardiman
Vardiman earned a Bachelor of Science from ACU in 1976, earned his MBA from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in 1992, and holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Texas A&M. Phil has a long history both in education and industry, having served as the Regional Human Resources Director for Cardinal Health from 1997-2000, Human Resources Manager for Avery Dennison Corporation from 1986-1997, and Production Supervisor/Quality Analyst for General Tire & Rubber Company from 1977-1986. He has been heavily involved with human resources and entrepreneurship organizations in both educational and industry settings and has published numerous articles in academic journals as well as presenting papers at 16 academic conferences. Dr. Vardiman also actively consults for businesses, working with them in the areas of human resources, training, quality, safety, and leadership development. Vardiman has taught at ACU since 2002, with special teaching interests in Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurship, Management & Organizational Behavior, Leadership Development, Safety & Health, and Organizational Development. In addition to these teaching interests, he has been active in leading students on COBA Study Abroad trips, traveling to Australia, China, Honduras, and Oxford as well as working with numerous university service activities, advising and club sponsored activities. Known to his students for his “Conceptual Truths” and enthusiasm, to say that Phil Vardiman has a passion for helping others grow and succeed would be an understatement.
When talking about his new appointment, Dr. Vardiman says that he is excited about serving on the COBA and ACU-Dallas Leadership Teams and for the opportunity to understand ACU-Dallas better. While serving as ACU Faculty Senate Chair, one goal of his had been to help ACU faculty become more familiar with ACU-Dallas and to build relationships between the ACU on-campus faculty and the ACU online faculty. When asked what his priorities will be while serving as the Director of the COBA online graduate programs, Vardiman said that he will look at faculty, possible changes or additions to course curriculum, and increasing student enrollment. He anticipates looking at the MBA concentrations to affirm what is working and what can be developed to increase offerings to online graduate students, stating that at this time, there is no intention to add concentrations but there may be additions in the future.
Dr. Vardiman said that he is most excited about the learning opportunity that this new position will require. His desire is to have a rigorous and solid MBA that is well respected and he is excited to play a part in making that happen. Should current undergraduate students fear they won’t have the opportunity to have him as a professor, don’t worry – he will still be teaching his favorite class MGMT 330 in the fall along with International Business while in the spring he will teach his Safety, Health and Security class. Vardiman said that he was adamant that if he accepted this new positon, that he be allowed to continue to keep teaching undergraduates, stating, “If I lost that, it wouldn’t be worth it.” Teaching is his passion and helping ACU grow into the future is the catalyst for deciding to enter into this administrative role.
Dr. Brad Crisp stated his support by saying, “Phil is an excellent teacher and mentor, and he recently completed a term in leadership of ACU’s Faculty Senate. Joey Cope, Stephen Johnson, and I are all excited about what Phil will bring to this role to support the growth and quality of our MBA and MSM program.” Congratulations to Dr. Phil Vardiman on his appointment as Director of COBA’s Online Graduate Business Programs.
by M. C. Jennings | Jul 24, 2017 | Academics, Current Students, Faith Infusion, Student Spotlights, Uncategorized
McKinley Terry is a senior Management major with minors in English and History from Longview, Texas. He is interning at Alpine Church of Christ in Longview, TX as the youth ministry summer intern.
McKinley Terry
Q: What have you done in your internship so far?
So far, I have helped lead classes for middle schoolers and high schoolers in our youth group, organized mission trips and social events, and helped our students better serve others throughout their community and the state of Texas.
Q: What has been your favorite part of the internship?
My favorite part was definitely our recent mission trip to Camp of the Hills in Marble Falls, Texas. We served nearly four thousand meals that week to campers brought in by faith and community-oriented groups throughout Texas. I always loved going on this mission trip when I was in the youth group, so it was incredible to get to serve again as a leader and motivate our students to serve others.
Q: How do you see this experience aiding you in the future?
My goal is to eventually teach at the university level, so working with young adults has helped me to understand the difficulties and opportunities in reaching and mentoring them.
Q: What has grown you as an individual the most in this internship?
I have seen first-hand the difficulties that non-profits such as churches face regarding operations, budgeting, and management. Having to balance the interests and management styles of separate individuals has helped me learn how to navigate what can often be chaotic situations without growing too frustrated and inefficient.
by M. C. Jennings | Jul 12, 2017 | Academics, Careers In..., Current Students, Student Spotlights, Student Spotlights, Uncategorized
Leah Montgomery is a senior Marketing/Management double major from Abilene, Texas. This summer, Leah is interning with PFSweb.
Leah has a marketing internship this summer with PFSweb, a leading global eCommerce solutions provider.
Q: What have you done in your internship so far?
A: The main two tasks I have been working on so far are the planning of a company event and writing a blog. Along with this I help the marketing team with any projects they are working on.
Q: What has been your favorite part of the internship?
A: I’ve really enjoyed seeing the process different projects have to go through before completion. Many events and publications seem very simple from the outside but on the creation side the complexity is impressive. By watching how a team can work together to get a job done shows how important every detail is.
Q: How do you see this experience aiding you in the future?
A: This internship has shown me how important group projects are. I know, everyone dislikes group projects but that is what we should expect after we graduate: never ending group projects. They are obviously different than in classes but the aspect of working as a team to achieve the same goal is the same.
Q: What has grown you as an individual the most in this internship?
A: Writing the blog has been the most challenging. I have never written a blog before, and haven’t needed to write a paper in college for over a year. Trying to make a topic in eCommerce exciting and worth reading was difficult. The original draft looks nothing like what is published, but with the help of a team of great writers I was able to get advice and edits that helped me understand more of what was expected and how I can improve and do better next time.
Q: Do you have any tips for others?
A: If Jennifer Golden ever teaches digital marketing ever again TAKE IT. That is the most obvious example of a class that I could pull information from directly and place it into my internship. Even as simple as knowing terms and understanding more about eCommerce so I could join conversations and understand what was being discussed. By knowing the information taught in that class I had more confidence going into my internship and feeling more prepared. Great class.
Check out Leah’s blog post for PFSweb here.
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 29, 2017 | Academics, COBA Faculty, Current Students, Uncategorized
COBA students studying abroad in Leipzig, Germany, continued their coursework and site visits this week. Pictured below is the group on a typical Thursday morning sitting in a Financial Management class from 9:00 am – noon in Leipzig.
During breaks, the group has met and had the opportunity to visit with refugees from Syria and Iraq. The refugees are taking an intensive German class so they can live and work here in Germany.
Wednesday, the group went to Social Impact Leipzig, an early-stage incubator for social entrepreneurship ventures. Their host was Jennifer Pauli.
She showed the group around the location, which is primarily shared office space for firms that are participating in the incubator program. Then they heard pitches from some of the firms that are currently in the program.
One of the pitches was given by Mike from Night Bank. His firm is similar to AirB&B, but with a socially minded twist. People with unused rooms donate them to Night Bank for a specified number of nights. Night Bank books tourists and guests in the rooms and charges them a fee. Night Bank then uses 90% of the fees they collect to support aid projects around the world. One recent project was a water collection tower in Kenya. The person who donates their room to rent gets to select the project they would like their fees to support.
We’ll continue to blog about the adventures of our group in Leipzig as their time starts to wind down and another group travels to Asia. Keep checking back and share this blog with your friends!
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 27, 2017 | Academics, Current Students, Uncategorized
COBA offers students opportunities every summer to visit the world, earn course credit, and learn about international businesses by touring companies in host countries. This summer, we have students in Leipzig, Germany with Dr. Jonathan Stewart. In addition to coursework, this week students were given a video assignment while visiting Luma Lenscraft, a video production company in Leipzig. COBA’s hosts at Luma Lenscraft gave a short video workshop, taught students about translation services in Europe, and asked the students to create a one minute video about their time in Germany. The assignment was to shoot the entire video on a smart phone in a single shot.
-
-
Luke Stevens, Taylor Spencer, John Baker and Lincoln Jones working on their video assignment.
-
-
Mackenzie Dalton, Addy Taylor, Hunter Hays, and KayAnn Orr working on their video assignment.
Students also visited SpinLab. SpinLab is a startup incubator based in the old Spinnererei district of Leipzig and at one time, was a hub for cotton markets in Germany in the early and mid-1900’s.
The group first heard from Shawn Segundo, Online Marketing and Event Manager. He explained how SpinLab hosts 12 startups per year. Two of the twelve made their pitches to the COBA group, Shark Tank style.
The first pitch came from Andreas Dunsch of FlyNex, a drone services company that provides start to finish drone services and data analysis. The second pitch was from Sebastian Leppert of OKIKO. OKIKO is an online payment systems providing safe and intuitive payment options for children, ages 7-17. It was an educational and enlightening trip and we want to thank our hosts at Luma Lenscraft and SpinLab for welcoming our students.
Check back with us for updates from Leipzig as students visit Red Bull Arena and Porsche next week.
by Hanna Roberts | Jun 14, 2017 | Academics, Current Students, Marketing, Student Spotlights, Student Spotlights
Kate Hegi, senior, has had the amazing opportunity to intern in Denver working on the marketing side of the music industry with Denver Arts and Venues.
Kate Hegi is a senior marketing student from Fort Worth, TX. This summer Kate is interning with Denver Arts and Venues, specifically working with Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Q: What have you done in your internship as of yet?
A: I mainly work with the sponsorship aspect of the venue. I help our sponsors activate with the concerts or events each night. So far, I have gotten to work with Coca-Cola, Chipotle, Clifbar, and many more sponsors. I also work on the ticketing process for the venues, sponsorship contracts, social media strategies and contests, and overall marketing plans for the summer.
Q: What has been your favorite part?
A: My favorite part is so hard to pick! Every time I work a concert, I say “okay, tonight is my favorite night.” Red Rocks is such a beautiful place. Being able to be outside and to bask in God’s creation almost every night is not a bad gig, to say the least.
Q: How do you see this experience aiding you in the future?
A: This experience has helped me in so many different ways. First and foremost, this job has really taught me more about sponsors, marketing, social media, and business contract law. Learning about these has been so beneficial. It has exposed me to different types of people and how to work with those types, whether that is based on age, experience, or personality.
Q: What has grown you as an individual the most in this internship?
A: Personally, the experience that has shaped me the most is simply living in a new state by myself. To be in a new place all by yourself can be intimidating and I would be lying if I said it was not hard at times. But overall it has been such a good way to really find myself and learn how to live in the real world. It’s been great!
Q: Do you have any tips for others?
A: Apply everywhere, no matter if you think it is too ‘far fetched’ or not! I never would have thought in a million years that I would actually get this internship, yet here I am, five weeks into it. Challenge yourself and I promise it will be worth it!
