by M. C. Jennings | May 9, 2024 | Academics, Alumni Spotlight, COBA Faculty, Dean Chronicles, Faith Infusion, Uncategorized
written by special contributor Lance Fleming
“May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
Wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
At the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
Once again into our doors.”
Each year since becoming Dean of the College of Business Administration in May 2016, Dr. Brad Crisp (’93) has sent December and May graduating seniors into the world with the words of that favorite Celtic blessing spoken over them.
“The prayer points to the blessings of God’s presence in all circumstances,” Crisp said, “as well as the hope that our students will remain connected with us, telling the stories of what God has done in their lives.”
That excerpt from the prayer also offers peace and a reminder that home – and the relationships that go with being home – are always available to everyone. It’s appropriate that Crisp would choose a lyric about coming home as the blessing he would speak over students. If Crisp’s eight-year tenure as the Dean of COBA is marked by one thing, it would be how much he values relationships.
Relationships with students. Relationships with colleagues. Relationships with graduates, donors, and
friends of the university. Relationships with family. It’s who he is, and it’s been his lighthouse during his eight-year tenure as Dean.
“Brad has kept us focused on relationships,” said Tim Johnston (’80), Assistant Dean of COBA. “We want to engage our students while they complete their studies, but we need to help each other for a lifetime. I like the blessing he always shared with our graduating students because it demonstrates his kind pursuit of relationships.”
Crisp delivered the blessing over graduating seniors one final time as Dean in early May before beginning a year-long sabbatical. ACU will name a new Dean of COBA sometime this summer before Crisp returns in 2025-26 as a full-time faculty member.
The fifth Dean of COBA since it became a college in 1981, Crisp leaves the post with a long list of accomplishments, but just as long a list of people influenced and relationships created. Those are part of what has made his tenure as Dean a success.
“Brad carries himself with dignity, honor, and a spirit of Christ-like humility,” said Andy Little (’97), Associate Dean of COBA and Associate Professor of Business Law. “He constantly reminds me to elevate my perspective, see the good in others, and treat people as worthy of our highest respect. I’ve been blessed to have a handful of good professional mentors, but none have had Brad’s exceedingly rare combination of kindness, wisdom, intellect, patience, and faith. We will miss his influence on the college dearly, but he deserves a sabbatical and time to reflect and recharge. I look forward to being his colleague and friend on the faculty for many more years.”
The list of accomplishments during his tenure is long and has COBA positioned to continue its rise when the new Dean steps in later this year. During his eight years, Crisp has hired more than one dozen new faculty members plus key administrative staff, overseen a complete renovation of the Mabee Business Building, moved COBA into the world of online education, successfully integrated technology into the core curriculum, and led the charge to require internships. He has overseen successful accreditation processes for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
Many of these accomplishments resulted from the college’s completed 2022 Strategic Plan, which built on the strengths he inherited and positioned COBA to reach new heights through the college’s new 2026 Strategic Plan. The college’s endowments grew by more than $50 million during Crisp’s tenure, advanced significantly by a $29 million gift to COBA from the Dukes family in 2022. Crisp also directed new scholarship funds to attract and retain residential business students.
He’s done that without letting go of his belief in the vision set out for COBA: to connect, inspire, and equip Christian business and technology professionals, who honor God and bless the world.
“Brad is steady, and he quietly makes progress on the plans we have set out,” Johnston said. “He has stayed focused on the goals at hand and helped us take the right next step. That helped us keep moving, and we steadily made progress. Brad is a scholar dedicated to teaching and scholarly work. He poured into actively engaging with AACSB, serving on many site-visit reviews. He garnered insights that guided us through successful AACSB re-accreditation processes. He took to heart the desire to advance our college with continuous improvements.
“Brad has navigated the difficulties of attracting talented scholars to ACU and our mission,” Johnston said. “He did that at a time when online education has been a driving force for all business schools across the country. All new hires would have to be capable of teaching our residential and online students. The drive to help all faculty build the skillset to teach with multiple modalities is a critical accomplishment. A snapshot of the faculty in each program – many of whom Brad hired – will show everyone an impressive lineup of credentials and people of character who are moving the mission and our vision forward.”
Crisp recognizes that much of his success stems from his deep history with ACU, having been immersed in the ACU culture since he was young. His father, Don Crisp (’64) was Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and his father-in-law is former ACU president and current chancellor, Dr. Royce Money (’64).
And he’s following in the footsteps of men like, among others, Dr. Bill Petty (’64), Dr. Jack Griggs (’64), and Dr. Rick Lytle, who taught and mentored thousands of students over the years, including Crisp.
“Being the dean of this college is about legacy and relationships because you’re following in the footsteps
of people who’ve done this and shown the way and built a foundation for what you’re doing,” Crisp said. “I’m fortunate to have important, ongoing relationships with those men. I also have relationships with so many peers, donors, and other people who love this place and want to figure out how to help the current students in what they want to accomplish.”
Crisp will leave the job having positioned the next dean for success but knowing that a new set of challenges awaits whoever is next to lead COBA.
“Our students are coming from different perspectives within and outside the Christian world,” Crisp said. “We can’t make the same assumptions about who they are and what they know. We must create opportunities for them to engage their faith as they acquire the skills needed to become the professionals we want them to be. And at the end of the day, they’re going to be the ones that decide who they want to be and how they live.
“But we’ve got a tremendous opportunity to put them in connection with other people who are going to give them a vision for what their life could look like as a Christian business or technology professional,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve finished that process at all. We are wrestling with how we do that. I hope the next team will help us push that forward in some important ways, just as we started online conversations before I became dean. And we settled some of those things. So, can we build on that? Can we put new processes and structures in place and maintain that as a primary focus of who we are and what we do?”
Crisp said he plans to use his sabbatical to recharge his batteries, re-tool for research and teaching, travel with his wife Jennifer (’93), visit family, and await the arrival of a second grandchild. He’ll return to the classroom at ACU in the fall of 2025, where he will again engage with students daily, helping lead them in the direction that best fits their skills.
“I’ve always enjoyed the engagement with students,” Crisp said. “I’ve got 15 students in the one class I’m teaching right now, and the first assignment was a cover letter and resume, so I’m helping them think from day one about who they are and how they want to present themselves professionally.”
The relationships with students and faculty as colleagues excite Crisp about the next season of his life.
“I will miss the opportunity to engage with as broad a group as I have had the last eight years,” Crisp said. “The relationship is different when you manage people instead of working alongside them as colleagues. I have certainly had to have some hard personnel conversations, but these can be holy times, too. I’ve also had the chance to walk with people through hard times, helping them work through issues, and those moments are special. Some of my free time will allow me to create opportunities that keep me engaged with people inside and outside ACU. I don’t know exactly where my focus will be, but I know I’ll want to do more than be in the office 9 to 5 and then be done.”
With a focus on doing what he finds most important: building relationships.
by M. C. Jennings | May 2, 2024 | Academics, Accounting, COBA Faculty, Faculty Testimonials, Faith Infusion, MAcc, Uncategorized
written by special contributor Lance Fleming
It shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows him that Bill Fowler – who will retire in June after 40 years on the COBA faculty – will be teeing up a golf ball shortly after he turns out the lights one last time in his Mabee Business Building office.
Since he joined the COBA faculty as a professor of Accounting, Fowler was always easy to find. He was either at work, at home, at church, or on the golf course. And it was likely the latter place where he could be found, more often than not.
“I imagine I’ll be out on the golf course pretty quickly,” said Fowler, who admits to a “four-ish” handicap he hopes to nudge down a little further in retirement. “Some people would say I can’t play much more than I already do, but I’ll give it a shot.”
Fowler’s love of golf is one of the first things that comes up among his colleagues when asked about his time at ACU and how difficult it will be to replace a man whose desire for every student he’s taught is to make a lifetime friend. The other is his sense of humor, which keeps his conversations, classroom, and office enveloped in laughter.
“I like to have fun,” Fowler said. “I have enjoyed harassing students and the people up and down the hallways in our building. We have a good time, which surprises some people. That’s one of the things I’ll miss. I’ll miss class because I still love being with the students. But I’ll miss hanging out in the halls and interacting with people.”
That’s because Fowler is a relationship-builder. He has kept hand-written grade books from his first 15 or
20 years on the ACU faculty and will refer to them when he’s thinking of a former student, or currently, the child of a former student. It’s his way of reconnecting to those relationships.
In a recruiting video posted to the COBA Facebook page in 2021, Fowler showed those grade books and said “What’s important to me about these books is not the grades, but these are my friends from years ago. As you come, we hope that you aren’t just a student but a lifetime friend.”
“That’s the whole deal right there,” Fowler said. “I’m not going to say I know or remember 100 percent of the names in those books or of the students I’ve taught, but I can see probably 90 percent of the faces of the students I’ve taught. And I know where most of them are living and working. That’s been the greatest blessing of all; just being a snippet of their walk and maybe a continued part as they go forward. That’s been the greatest part about being here.”
Dr. Brad Crisp (’93), who has served as Dean of COBA since May 2016, said the relationship part of Fowler’s personality is the most important part of what makes him an excellent instructor.
photo courtesy of the ACU Prickly Pear
“When you do something for as many years as Bill has done it, he’s got a whole host of students out there that are appreciative of him and grateful for him,” Crisp said. “I see him light up when accounting firms come back on campus, and he’s talking to each of them. And if they were a student here, he wants to talk to them and find out what’s going on in their lives and about their experience working at the firm they’re representing. He has been the example of investing in lifetime relationships with students.”
What Fowler doesn’t want, though, is a classroom full of people who don’t know how to communicate or see the bigger picture. That’s why fundamental business and communication skills are part of what he teaches.
“Earlier this semester in my graduate class, I gave an assignment one day to write a letter to a client explaining a difficult situation,” Fowler said. “Some of them asked me, ‘Write a letter? I don’t think you have to write letters anymore.’ But the point was, I wanted them to think about how to communicate an idea to someone who needs to understand the direction. The ability to explain situations is what separates people as they go forward. The people that can see the big picture and have the ability to communicate will make an impact on others.”
The impact Fowler has made on his students over the last 40 years is because they know he cares more about them as people than as future accountants.
“At the end of every year, I usually tell the students in my classes that I don’t care if they become an
accountant or not; that’s not my job to decide what they’re going to become in life,” Fowler said. “I want them to have learned about who they are and to take whatever that is and whatever that means and use their talents to serve God and others.
“If that’s becoming an accountant, that’s great,” he said. “And if they become an accountant, I want them to be the best accountant possible. I care about that, and that’s what we’ve talked about. But some of my accounting students are now funeral home directors, teachers, or stay-at-home parents, and people have no idea how smart they are as accountants. But the thing I want every student to do is to use their talent and do everything for God’s glory. And if you come back and you’re not an accountant, don’t hang your head. Just let me know what you’re doing, and how you’re serving God and others.”
Fowler’s ability to connect with his students was never more evident than during one five-minute period in one of his classes in the fall of 2014. Earlier that summer, one of his daughters suffered an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) rupture that required surgery and substantial rest and recovery. One day in class, Fowler updated his students on his daughter’s condition when he broke down.
“I was trying to update them on the situation, but I wasn’t doing very well,” said Fowler, who got emotional recounting the story. “I paused because I was breaking up a little bit, and this quiet student with her soft voice asked, ‘Mr. Fowler, can we pray for you?’ I was blubbering and said that would be OK, so the students gathered around me and she led the prayer, and it was awesome. If I can point to a five-minute segment out of the 40 years here at ACU, that would be near the top.”
And it’s because it confirmed everything Fowler knew to be special about ACU.
“That day told me what’s special about ACU,” he said. “I feel comfortable sharing part of my life and students feel comfortable enough to ask if they can pray for you in that moment, and then surround you and pray for you.
“I’m thankful to have been in this place with students who care for me and vice versa,” Fowler said. “That day there was a sense of sharing something with those kids and receiving the peace of Christ in return. I was grateful for the moment. I don’t remember the exact words, but what she said and prayed for was what we needed, and it felt comfortable and I was grateful that it provided a sense of peace. I’ll miss those moments more than anything because those moments tell you everything about what ACU is and what it means to me.”
Those moments – the ones in the classroom, the ones he shares with students during conference time, the ones he enjoys with colleagues down the hallway or in the Mabee Business Building – made the decision to retire difficult for Fowler. But He knows it’s time for his next chapter and looks forward to writing it.
“I’ve struggled with not being part of this world anymore,” he said. “It was a hard decision, but if you’re going to make space for the next chapter of your life, you’ve got to make space. Truthfully, I don’t know what the next chapter holds for me. I will play a lot of golf, and my wife and I will travel. But I don’t even know where we’re going until we get in the car, and I’m looking forward to that part of the next chapter of my life.”
by M. C. Jennings | Apr 25, 2024 | Academics, Accounting, Alumni Spotlight, COBA Faculty, Faith Infusion, MAcc, Uncategorized
written by special contributor, Lance Fleming
Dr. John Neill took a most circuitous route to a 40-year career teaching accounting and finance at three universities, including spending the last 24 years at ACU.
When Neill retires at the end of the 2023-24 school year, he will leave a large hole to fill in COBA. While not as gregarious as longtime colleague Bill Fowler – also retiring at the end of the school year after 40 years of service to ACU – Neill’s steady hand, wise words, and unwavering loyalty to the mission of ACU and COBA will be missed.
But had it not been for a simple twist of fate while he was a student at ACU, Neill might never have gotten into teaching, much less accounting and finance.
Neill – who lived in Abilene as a child before moving away and returning – graduated from Cooper High School in 1977. He enrolled at ACU and graduated in 1980, then worked for Pennzoil in Houston before returning to ACU to study for a master’s degree in Religious Studies.
While at ACU, he was asked to serve as an adjunct professor for an accounting class while working on his graduate degree. Surprising himself, he fell in love with the classroom. So much so that when he finished his master’s in 1984, he took off for Gainesville, Florida, where he earned his PhD in accounting from the University of Florida in 1990.
Leaving the corporate world behind and turning his focus to teaching, Neill made stops at Florida State University and Chapman University (Orange Country, California) before returning to ACU in 2000, where he finished his career.
“I never really wanted to be a preacher, but I wanted to be a minister of some sort,” Neill recalled. “Maybe it’s sort of the same mentality of teaching and preaching, but I’m not sure about that. I taught some as a doctoral student at the University of Florida, and then my first job was at Florida State University. And as I went along, I realized how much I enjoyed being in the classroom.
“After being at Florida State, I went to Chapman University, a private school without the Christian
emphasis,” he said. “I liked the small, private nature of the school, but I missed the emphasis on a Christian education. When I had the opportunity to come back home and back to ACU, I found some of everything I wanted.”
The relationships with students and colleagues, and the opportunity to work in an environment that matched his beliefs kept Neill at ACU when he could have gone to other universities or numerous jobs in the private sector.
“One of the main reasons I stayed at ACU is the mission,” he said. “I believe what we do and how we do it is important. The other reason is the colleagues I’ve worked with over the years. I enjoy the people I work with in our department. When I went to school at ACU and began working here, people always asked why I stayed, and I always said it was because of the people and relationships.”
He was also working for a university that has built one of the top business schools in the country and was the recipient of a game-changing $29 million gift from the Bill and Janie Dukes estate last year that will revolutionize COBA in countless ways. Before that gift, though, Neill believed the business students graduating from ACU were as good as those graduating from any other school in the country.
“I’ve had some partners in some of the top accounting firms in the country come to campus and tell me, ‘The students here (at ACU) are really good, but they don’t think they’re as good as they are,’ “ Neill said. “Sometimes our students might be intimidated because they work with a bunch of people who went to Texas or Texas A&M or SMU or wherever, but they shouldn’t feel that way because they have been well-prepared.
“We have a good reputation of having prepared students who work hard, and we’re proud of that,” he said. “I want our students to realize that they are getting a quality education, but the most important thing is the Christian ideals they’re being taught – along with finance or accounting or whatever it might be – don’t stop when they leave here. We all want them to find a church home wherever they are, be part of the community, and have a work-life balance. Work is important, but it can’t be their entire life.”
Neill said he would miss the chance to talk to students and give that kind of advice, along with words of wisdom on what ACU can offer students.
“I’ve never taught freshmen; the classes I teach are traditionally a second-semester junior and a senior-level class,” Neill said. “But when I was department chair, I met with the first-year students in a new student orientation setting. One of the main things I always told him was they would get a fresh start here. A person who was the most popular in high school might not be that here. Conversely, someone with a bad reputation could start over here. Or if a student’s grades weren’t good in high school, they can turn them around here. I wanted to ensure they understood they had a fresh start here.”
It was that style that stuck out to Dr. Brad Crisp (‘93), the Dean of COBA when thinking about Neill and his impact on the students who have gone through the Mabee Business Building.
“John Neill is a genuine, personable guy with a sneaky sense of humor,” Crisp said. “He has done an excellent job for us and his students. I remember his presence, and I think the students appreciated him. He’s somebody who is one of those people at the center of living out the commitment we have for our students.”
Neill’s relationships with students and colleagues were changed in 2020 by COVID, the global pandemic that thrust millions into online education, whether they were ready for it or not. It also pushed Neill to begin thinking about his retirement, perhaps sooner than he had planned.
“Teaching during COVID was very tough,” Neill said. “When we came back, everyone was socially distanced, so it was hard to get to know students. I taught some students who never saw me without a mask, so they probably never really knew who I was. It was difficult to reach students. I taught some classes I didn’t get to know well and didn’t like that.”
That desire and ability to relate to students and colleagues has always stood out about Neill, said Dr. David
Perkins, the Chairman of the Accounting Department. Perkins first met Neill when the former was a doctoral student at Texas A&M. The chairman of the Accounting Department at A&M asked him to take a prospective faculty member to dinner, mainly because he was a member of the Church of Christ, as was the prospective faculty member, who happened to be John Neill.
Neill didn’t take the job at Texas A&M, but years later Perkins was hired at ACU and the two began a longtime relationship as friends and colleagues.
“Although John’s career took a different path, we eventually became colleagues teaching accounting at ACU,” Perkins said. “John is recognized as an excellent teacher, scholar, and a humble colleague and friend. He has been very gracious in helping me transition into the role of department chair when he decided to step down after leading the department for several years. John will be difficult to replace. We have been blessed to have him serve ACU, and it’s been an honor to call him a colleague and friend.”
A lifelong learner and teacher, Neill plans to do plenty of learning in the days immediately following his final day at ACU. He and his wife are taking a month-long trip to Japan, a vacation canceled in 2020 because of COVID.
“I love to travel, and you can always learn something, no matter where you go,” Neill said. “Whether you get in a car and drive for three hours or get on a plane or ship and go somewhere across the world, you can learn something about it. We’ll have the chance to experience a different culture, and I want to see what that’s like. I want to see it. To experience it. To keep growing and learning.”
by M. C. Jennings | Mar 21, 2024 | Academics, COBA Events, COBA Faculty, College Decisions, Current Students, Faith Infusion, Special Speakers, Uncategorized
written by special contributor, Lance Fleming
For 26 years, the ACU College of Business Administration has hosted a Leadership Summit in the mountains of Colorado intended to re-energize the mind, body, and soul. Each Summit takes on a life of its own, providing answers to the questions the attendees bring with them each year.
The recently completed 2024 version of Leadership Summit wasn’t different. This year’s version might have been the most diverse session of any of the 26 that have occurred.
Established in 1998 in the College of Business Administration, Summit is a one-week, 3-hour course hosted in picturesque Colorado. The course blends academic rigor with an environment ripe for deep, personal, and lasting encounters with Jesus. Dr. Rick Lytle, Tim Johnston (‘80), and Mike Winegeart (’86) dreamed of an experience that would take students out of the regular classroom and inspire them to think of their future work as missional. The first Leadership Summit was held in 1998, and the trio would go on to be involved in various aspects of the class over the next few decades.
Leadership Summit is open to all majors and classifications on campus – it’s not just for business students. Because this year’s cohort consisted of so many non-business majors, Dr. Dennis Marquardt, Associate Professor of Management and Director of the Lytle Center for Faith and Leadership, said Summit 2024 started a bit differently than other sessions.
“This was one of our most diverse groups along the lines of classification and major, so the first few days of Summit were really about getting to know each other,” he said. “It takes time to trust one another and be vulnerable with each other, which is an important aspect of the growth process at Summit. We also hosted more speakers than ever and from a wide range of industry backgrounds, so the week was packed, especially the first two days. By Wednesday, I noticed the group came together and opened up around some deep spiritual topics.”
The base curriculum for this year’s Summit centered around two books: Christian Reflections on the Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner and The Freedom of Self-forgetfulness by Tim Keller. Each day is assigned one of the five leadership practices from the Leadership Challenge – Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart – but every speaker is encouraged to share their spiritual journey in whatever way the Spirit moves.
Serge Gasore (’09), co-founder of Rwanda Children
This year, Marquardt said, notable themes emerged across topics such as forgiveness from Serge Gasore (’09) and Tonya Carruthers, pride and humility from Tim Goeglein and Tony Roach (’01), and vision and role-modeling from Elise Mitchell (’83) and April Anthony (’89). Each speaker, he said, is encouraged to be transparent and vulnerable, creating an environment for deep collective reflection and sharing with the students. When that happens, Jesus takes over, and theory and books fade into the background.
“It’s one thing to learn about theory and read textbooks on leadership, and there certainly is a place for that,” Marquardt said, “but true learning and growth happens in community and relationships. Summit is distinct because it pairs the best leadership teaching with the spirit and heart. The environment is ripe for true reflection on how we become the servants God calls us to be so that we might be people of influence known for bearing hope, peace, and love.”
Hayden Poorman – a senior from Tuscola graduating in May and triple-majoring in finance, accounting, and information systems – completed his second trip to Summit in January. Like last year, Poorman said he left Colorado Springs with a definite direction for his life.
“Last year, I felt incredibly empowered to make changes in my life and impact those around me,” Poorman
said. “For instance, after coming down from the mountain, my friend Matthew Trow (’24) and I initiated a Real Estate & Banking club on campus to assist students in navigating the industry. This year, I went to Summit seeking Godly wisdom and guidance and a time to wrestle with my inner struggles.
“Instead of feeling energized and engaging in constant hiking and exploration (though I did still hike), I found solitude in the mountain landscape and sought God,” he said. “ I firmly believe that God worked on me in the stillness of the mountains. I left the mountain prepared to confront my final semester of college and effectively navigate the valley I was traversing.”
Poorman said one reason he felt ready to take on the final weeks of his collegiate experience was the nightly conversation with his roommate on the trip, Mason Graham (’25).
“We discussed the day’s topics and delved into how life was unfolding for each of us, offering support and encouragement,” Poorman said. “Mason played a pivotal role in helping me articulate my thoughts and was instrumental in navigating my journey through faith and suffering.”
Allie Harper, a junior Bible and ministry major from Carrollton, was deeply affected by the connections with students and speakers during the six days spent on the mountain.
“I think what makes Summit so impactful for people is that you get to retreat from everyday routine and spend time with like-minded people,” Harper said. “The connections and friendships I made at Summit are special because of our unity in Christ. Those connections have given me people to rely on, whether needing strong leaders to help with a ministry event or business and finance advice.
“Something I remembered during one of the morning sessions was the people in my life I love who don’t know Christ,” she said. “Needless to say, I was a teary mess but also felt loved and encouraged by those who sat with me and prayed for those people. It reminded me that sometimes we have to sit in grief, but the Lord always brings hope and joy.”
This year’s Summit was Harper’s first venture to the mountain castle, and she said she came away with a deeper appreciation of the skills needed to be effective in ministry.
“I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect at Summit, but the whole week, I was surprised by the connections to faith, scripture, and community,” she said. “I saw what good Christian leadership looks like through the speakers, professors, and fellow students. It reminded me of the importance of leadership skills and not just a knowledge of scripture. I realized that to be effective as a minister, I need both. I would encourage those who aren’t pursuing a career in ministry but in the business world that God has called and equipped them because the world needs more Christ-like teachers, financial advisors, doctors, and salespeople. I left the week grateful because I had been equipped with scripture and the leadership skills to make me a better minister.”
And those moments – of reflection, self-awareness, and enlightenment – help make the moving parts that go into planning a week-long, out-of-state conference worth it for Marquardt.
Dr. Dennis Marquardt
“There was just a moment this year when the Summit program began, and I looked at all of us worshipping together and about to embark on this special experience for the next week, and it broke me,” Marquardt said. “God is good. And He is gracious to allow us such a transformational experience.”
And that experience is what the first 26 Leadership Summits have given each participant and will continue to be the focus of in the future.
“God does amazing things, and He chooses to do those things through His people,” Marquardt said. “When we surrender to Him, our lives become this grand Kingdom adventure (which is not always safe or easy), but it allows us to serve others in transformational ways. That service might be as a business leader, community member, or in a family, but we will all have the opportunity to step into it. We want Leadership Summit to create leaders who are servants first and run into the storms and fires of life to be bearers of hope, peace, and life.”
by M. C. Jennings | Nov 28, 2023 | Academics, Alumni Spotlight, COBA Faculty, College Decisions, Current Students, Economics, Faith Infusion, Social Entrepreneurship, Uncategorized
Written by special contributor Lance Fleming
Costa Rica, a small Central American country, is experiencing a significant increase in tourism. Travel officials in Costa Rica expect an unprecedented surge in tourists in 2023 and 2024. This country is famous for its national parks, rainforests, beaches, wildlife, and outdoor activities.
ACU students in the College of Business Administration have been traveling to Costa Rica since an initial
Central America Study Abroad trip with Dr. Mark and Dr. Laura Phillips in 2016. In 2018, they traveled to Turrialba, Costa Rica to visit CATIE, an agricultural university with a focus on economic development. In 2019, the first Social Enterprise Consulting class was offered and the partnership with CATIE began, focusing on economic development. But those students aren’t just in Costa Rica to observe. They are learning practical skills in research, marketing, and product creation from a class taught by Dr. Laura Phillips, Dr. Sarah Easter, Dr. Jennifer Golden, Dr. Mark Phillips, and Daniel Garcia. Currently, the class is working with local entrepreneurs to launch products made from materials donated by Southwest Airlines.
Dr. Mark Phillips and Garcia will teach the class next semester, and then Easter and Golden will teach a summer course. Students in each class will go over topics teaching them how to be a consultant, how to help without hurting, Costa Rican culture (both generally and in the business world), and some project-specific topics.
During Spring Break, the spring semester class will be in Costa Rica, and afterward, they will focus on completing their deliverable to the client for the rest of the semester. Dr. Laura Philips said the summer class will have a different format. It will include 5-6 weeks of online content on the same topics as in the spring. After that, students will spend nearly two weeks in Costa Rica to work on the project.
AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) seeks to encourage all accredited schools to make a societal impact. As they state on their website, “AACSB’s vision of societal impact is that business schools contribute their specialized expertise to help mitigate some of society’s most pressing economic, social, human, and environmental problems.”
COBA was already seeking to make a broader societal impact through their programs. Now the Costa Rica activities are part of a broader COBA initiative. Dr. Laura Phillips said, “It’s exciting because AACSB is now asking us to do more of what we were already doing. The change isn’t to the consulting class. What’s different now is that we will have more activities (curricular, research, and engagement) focused on the same theme of Increasing Educational and Economic Opportunities for People in Marginalized Groups.”
A five-person committee began meeting earlier this year to come up with a theme for the college’s work, Increasing Educational and Economic Opportunities for People in Marginalized Groups, and a tentative five-year plan.
“The plan includes curricular, research, and engagement objectives for our residential and online campuses,” Dr. Phillips said. “The Costa Rica class is one piece of this plan. We want the societal impact plan to provide opportunities for all interested faculty and staff to be involved, and that is part of the reason we are expanding the faculty who teach the consulting class. The plan also includes the development of additional partners for consulting projects. We are interested in developing a second international partner as well as cultivating a partnership closer to home.”
When Dr. Phillips first visited the CATIE campus with students in 2018, she connected with Dr. Eliecer Vargas, an economist at CATIE who specializes in economic development, which aligns well with the COBA students’ focus in Costa Rica.
Five years ago, students spent a few days exploring tourism startups by rural female entrepreneurs in
towns near Turrialba. After their trip, Dr. Phillips and Dr. Easter approached Vargas to discuss the idea of starting a consulting class and having the group of female entrepreneurs as their first client. Vargas agreed, and Dr. Phillips and Dr. Easter took their first group of consulting students to Costa Rica in the spring of 2019.
Southwest Airlines has served as the air provider for ACU’s program, transporting students and professors to and from Costa Rica, and in 2022, Southwest Airlines arranged a deal with CATIE to give the university seats from their refurbished planes.
The Turrialba region is now a major focus of Southwest’s investments. The company has set up a leatherworking shop on campus where local women and men can receive training and have access to leather and high-quality sewing machines with their support.
As part of Southwest Airlines’ “Repurpose with Purpose” program, each of the company’s fleet of airplanes is overhauled every four years, and as a part of that process, the seat leather is replaced. The leather pulled out of the planes is donated to nonprofit organizations for upcycling projects.
The idea is to create a business incubator to launch businesses as people graduate from the training program. Jobs are also being created in rural communities because CATIE receives intact seat covers that must be deconstructed before they are upcycled into new products.
And that’s where the ACU students enter the picture.
The students’ client is called Wearsos – the first business to come out of the leather project – and it was started by the husband-and-wife duo of Lynne Corvaglia and Chris Riquelme. Aside from upcycled bags, the company also plans to make other products like passport holders, wallets, luggage tags, and shoes.
No two trips to Costa Rica have been alike, with the specifics of the project changing with every trip, usually at the request of the client. That means the specific business topics the students focus on vary.
“They always learn something from the business side of the project, although the bigger learning outcomes stem from the nature of cross-cultural consulting,” Dr. Phillips said. “The students have to stretch their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and they have to do that in a group setting and not just on their own. Their flexibility and adaptability are put to the test every day we are there.
“They learn that other cultures may have different objectives and priorities for their business than what they usually see in the U.S., and they learn that the American measures of success are not the only measures,” she said. “They also learn that to provide useful recommendations for the client, they have to truly understand the client’s objectives and tailor their business solutions to meet the needs and the desires of the clients.”
From the business skill side, Dr. Phillips said, the students have worked on market assessments and provided feedback based on the personas of different target customers. One class conducted focus groups to provide market research on potential products. Classes have researched logistics to help the client as they prepare to ship goods from Costa Rica to the US and Canada.
Other students created a comprehensive marketing plan (Instagram and Facebook posts, email campaigns,
etc.) to help a client roll out a Kickstarter campaign. Students listened to entrepreneurs talk about current and future product ideas as well as where and how they intend to sell and then provided a comprehensive list of questions to each entrepreneur to help them think through and further develop their business plans.
Dr. Phillips said proposed expansion plans for the program that have been discussed are for the Costa Rica consulting class to be offered twice each year: once in the spring and once in the summer with a variety of faculty involved in teaching the class. Dr. Phillips also said she would like to involve COBA alumni on the trip to provide their expertise in the project’s area of focus.
“That could be social media marketing, logistics, building basic business plans, finding funding sources, or rural development,” she said. “I also hope to continue our partnership with Southwest Airlines. It has been valuable to be working with their Repurpose with Purpose group because we can truly partner to support these clients.”
To learn more about the College of Business at ACU, click here.
by M. C. Jennings | Oct 19, 2023 | Academics, Careers In..., COBA Faculty, COBA Staff, College Decisions, Computer Science, Current Students, Faith Infusion, School of Information Technology and Computing, Student Spotlights
written by special contributor Lance Fleming
Fabrice Mpozenzi spent his summer internship working for JP Morgan Chase in Wilmington, Delaware, where he had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of working on the front end and back end of web applications and other projects meant to further his understanding of the business.
The junior computer science major from Rwanda also worked on a business with a team of interns, which was eventually presented to senior executives for implementation. Mpozenzi’s internship fueled his desire to work as a software engineer after he graduates from ACU.
We recently caught up with Mpozenzi to get his insights on his summer internship and how ACU prepared him to work with JP Morgan Chase.
Q: What did you do in your internship?
Mpozenzi: “I had a chance to work on several different projects. I worked on a web application’s front and back end and presented it to a team of engineers, including my manager. I also had an opportunity to collaborate with other interns to work on a business plan project that we presented to senior executives.”
Q: What was your favorite part of the internship?
Mpozenzi: “What I loved most about my internship was the opportunity to shadow other teams to see the projects they were working on and learn from them. I also loved networking with different people at the company.”
Q: What are the most significant lessons you learned in your internship?
Mpozenzi: “The internship taught me two things: learning is a journey that never ends because there’s always going to be something new to learn, and one must stay hungry and motivated to learn new skills. I also learned that asking questions, especially in the workplace, is an art that unlocks knowledge and fosters a deeper understanding.”
Q: How do you see this experience aiding you in the future?
Mpozenzi: “It’s given me a roadmap to an industry that I would like to contribute to in the future, and I made connections with people from diverse backgrounds that I believe are going to be helpful in my future endeavors.”
Q: What are your plans after graduation?
Mpozenzi: “I plan to work with a Fintech company as a software engineer.”
Q: Do you have any tips for future interns or students looking for internships?
Mpozenzi: “I would tell students looking for internships to stay proactive and seek support from the professional development team. Also, stay informed about your industry, and once you secure an internship, make the most of the experience by learning and networking.”
Q: How has your time at ACU prepared you for this internship, employment, or graduate school after graduation?
Mpozenzi: “The academic coursework at ACU has equipped me with a solid foundation of knowledge and problem-solving skills relevant to my field. ACU’s professional development services, including resume workshops and interview coaching, have also helped me refine my professional presentation. These resources have prepared me for this internship and laid the groundwork for my post-graduation plans.”
Q: What’s been your most memorable experience as a business or technology student at ACU?
Mpozenzi: “My favorite thing about being a technology student at ACU is the supportive faculty and the vibrant student community that has created an environment where I can collaborate and engage in meaningful discussions with peers. ACU’s commitment to fostering a strong community has enriched my academic experience.”
