by Amanda Pittman | Jan 27, 2012 | COBA Events, Current Students, Special Speakers, Springboard
If you have ever taken the time to sit down and jot out a plan for starting your own business, you need to enter our Springboard Ideas Challenge. If you ever even just thought about a cool idea for a business or service, you need to enter our Springboard Ideas Challenge. You never know! YOU could win $10,000! There’s even a high school category for competition this year. Click here for more information about the competition, divisions, awards and prizes.
Registration is now open for our fifth annual Springboard Ideas Challenge!
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to write a business plan, there are training sessions scheduled to help you learn!
Also, mark your calendars for Tuesday, April 17th for the Springboard Ideas Challenge Awards Dinner. We’re honored to welcome William (Bill) E. Greehey, former Chairman and CEO of Valero, as our guest speaker. Click here to learn more about Mr. Greehey. He now serves as Chairman of the Board for NuStar Energy L.P. and is an active philanthropic patron in the San Antonio area.
We hope you can join us during this exciting Springboard season.
by Amanda Pittman | Jan 19, 2012 | Careers In..., COBA Events, College Decisions, Current Students, Special Speakers
After being pushed from the fall, due to their appearance in the World Series, we are thrilled to welcome the CFO of the Texas Rangers, Kellie Fischer, to our campus on Feb. 7th.
Here’s Kellie’s bio, from the Rangers website:
Kellie Fischer was appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Texas Rangers in March of 2005. She oversees all financial matters, human resources, information technology and legal operations for the Texas Rangers. Kellie joined the Rangers in 1999 and has served in many roles for the Rangers former parent company, Southwest Sports Group and the Dallas Stars.
We're excited to welcome Mrs. Fischer to our campus this semester
Prior to joining the Rangers, Kellie spent four years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the audit division of the Dallas office. She earned her B.A. in accounting from Baylor University in 1995 and is a Texas CPA. Kellie serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Directors for the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation, the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, and the Baylor Hankamer School of Business Advisory Board. In addition, Kellie recently served on the Baylor Accounting Department Advisory Board.
In October 2010, Kellie was awarded Chief Financial Officer of the year for private mid-size companies by the Dallas Business Journal.
Kellie and her husband Scott reside in Dallas and are active in promoting cancer awareness for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life.
The luncheon event, where Mrs. Fischer will be speaking, is free and only open to ACU students and faculty. For more information, click here.
by Amanda Pittman | Dec 20, 2011 | Current Students
Just a couple of days away from Christmas and still needing a gift or two for your parents or family members? What about one of these books? You’ll look like a super smart and thoughtful college student! We asked Dr. Mark Phillips, Assistant Professor, Management, for his top recommendations:
1.
Drive by Daniel Pink. Pay higher wages, get more work, right? Actually, for most of the work we care about today that relationship is absolutely wrong. Learn how we’ve messed up both our employees and our students by tying their pay to their performance.
2.Super Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner. What do realtors, prostitutes, terrorists, and Al Gore have in common? If you thought economics was hideously dull….well, you were right, BUT this book demonstrates how even the “dismal science” can be hilariously entertaining.
Ask people what they want and they’ll tell you, but put them in a brain scanner and ask them and you’ll find out what they really think. See how modern technology is helping marketers learn why we buy (and why we lie about it).
4. Steve Jobs by Isaacson. This brutally honest look at Steve Jobs and his rise/fall/rise is an amazing examination of the guy that everyone wants to buy from but only the self-abusive want to work for. If you remember back when the Mac 128k was the coolest thing on the planet (or even if you don’t) you’ll enjoy this portrait of the guy who created it.
by Amanda Pittman | Dec 9, 2011 | College Decisions, Current Students, Placement stories
Jenny Dodd graduated from ACU, with honors, with a degree in Communications and a minor in Business. Shortly after she graduated from ACU, she began an MBA program at the University of South Carolina. While a student at ACU she participated in both of COBA’s study abroad programs – the Global Apprentice program in Oxford, a summer in Leipzig, Germany, Leadership Summit in Colorado, and was a student ambassador for COBA.
1) Tell us about your program at USC. What type of masters degree are you working on?
Currently I am working on an International MBA at the University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business. It’s a fairly unique program in that we compound a year’s worth of core MBA classes into a 6-month MBA bootcamp, and then have the opportunity to spend our second semester learning a new language as well as the opportunity to learn business abroad. After a summer-long internship in a different country, we return to school for our specialized courses, or we have the option to study abroad for the final year.
2) How did you decide to go to grad school?
Well, some kids dream of become a rockstar, others dream of traveling the world on a sailboat. I dreamed of spending countless hours in the library. Well ok, maybe it wasn’t exactly like that, but I have always enjoyed school and have known from a young age that college isn’t enough. I didn’t however, know what I would go on to study until my junior year of college. After an incredible COBA study abroad experience doing a consulting project in Oxford, England, I realized that this was how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. Most MBA programs do not accept recent grads; however, in college I always held several internships and I graduated 6 months earlier so that I could get a little more experience. I was one of the youngest accepted to this program, and decided I was ready.
3) Part of your program requires an international internship. Where was your internship and what did you do?
In the IMBA program, you are required to have an internship during the summer after your first year. As I began heading into this search I looked both in the USA and abroad. After a search, I found an internship with Michelin Manufacturing at their worldwide headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France. I worked in their Purchasing Department in a marketing communications position for a 6-month period.
4) How do you feel ACU best prepared you for graduate school? The international internship?
One of the greatest benefits of being at ACU is smaller class sizes than many larger business schools and more importantly, a staff of genuinely caring professors. The faculty at ACU care and respect the potential of their students, and because of that, they invest in students. I had many professors, who took the time to give me projects that catered to my goals, or teach faster in classes where students progressed faster. I not only learned about business, but was nurtured as a future business person on an intellectual and emotional basis.
With COBA I did two study abroad experiences where we did a real hands-on project with a company in a different culture. This alone was incredibly formative in preparing me to do an international internship. Also, with such a community atmosphere at ACU you get the opportunity to interact with all different types of people. These people skills and flexibility are absolutely essential in any internship, particularly an international one.
5) What do you miss most about ACU? What do you enjoy about your new school?
I miss that ACU community that I grew to love. ACU is unlike any place in the world, and I hope it will always remain a place of openness and community. I made friendships with students and professors alike, and there was always a level of support. It is this support that has allowed me to be successful in my graduate school program.
My new school is part of the SEC, so that means football football football! The unique thing about my program is that we get to do the big-school thing, but get to be in a small program (80-90 students/year). During our first semester, we have all of our class together.The beautiful campus dates back to the civil war and is set in the heart of the capital city here. Most of all, I’ve met alumni and students alike, who are located throughout the world!
6) What are your plans after you complete the program in May?
I have several offers I am considering for after graduation, but haven’t decided yet. Sometimes It’s hard to imagine because at this moment, I have the world in front of me. It’s an eye-opening experience for a girl from Abilene Texas!
7) What advice do you have for current business students at ACU?
One of the most important things you can do for yourself, is set a goal, small or large, and once you have that goal in mind, run with everything you have towards it.
Never miss an opportunity to be involved! ACU offers an experiences like none other. You can travel, study, work and play with people like yourself. Build friendships. Love on some people around you, and let them love on you, because when you get into the real world, you’ll find that it’s those people that you took time to invest in, that’ll be your rocks. Most of all, have a spiritual focus. My brother, when he was starting out in the business world, told me that it was his passion, to share love and Jesus while doing business. He now owns his own successful business, has a wonderful family, and has changed some lives along the way. He was my role model, and set a great example for how to be a successful person, not just good at one thing or another. This is your opportunity to choose the type of person you want to be when you grow up. Don’t waste it.
by Amanda Pittman | Dec 6, 2011 | COBA Events, Current Students, Faith Infusion, Special Speakers
We are excited to share with you a bit about one of our Leadership Summit 2012 speakers. Jose Zeilstra was featured in a Fortune article back in July of 2001 (just two short months before 9/11) titled ‘God & Business: Bringing spirituality in the workplace violates the old idea that faith and fortune don’t mix. But a groundswell of believers is breeching the last taboo in corporate America’. (article written by Marc Gunther from Fortune magazine’s July 2001 issue; cited from CNNMoney’s website.)
Not only will Zeilstra be sharing about having faith in the marketplace with our students at Summit, she’ll also be sharing about her experiences as a survivor of Tower I on September 11, 2001. We are honored to have Jose Zeilstra as a guest speaker at our Leadership Summit 2012 this coming January.
Stay tuned for more Leadership Summit speaker spotlights and updates from Summit coming in January.
