Congratulations to (soon-to-be Dr.) Wei Sun

Congratulations to (soon-to-be Dr.) Wei Sun! Wei is currently an Ashland MBA student who has been accepted into four Ph.D. Finance programs. These programs are extremely competitive due to their small class size and high demand for finance Ph.D.’s. Wei received guidance and recommendations from two of AU’s top research faculty, Dr. Hongxia Wang and Dr. Sivakumar Ventkataramany. Wei has chosen to enroll in the University of Memphis program in finance beginning this fall, where he should experience a little less snow compared to Ashland.

SMART Club – Kickball Event

The Sport Management major organized a kickball event on Tuesday, April 30, 2013.  Over 40 students participated and had a great time playing for a good cause!  Participants were asked to donate non-perishable items and/or money to the Associated Charities of Ashland Food Bank.  Over four boxes of goods were donated.  Thank you to all who participated!

Sport Management Interns – Summer 2013

Hello Sport Management summer 2013 interns:

I am inviting you to post pictures and comments concerning your internships in response to this post. I know many of you are doing some impressive things within the sports industry.  Some of you are even conducting your internships internationally. Why not share your experiences with us all? I look forward to hearing from you in this dedicated space. Have fun.

Student Experience: Marc Zimmerman

This past semester I took a course in Business Analytics, which was taught by Dr. Nadler and Dr. Sridhar. When I signed up for the course, I was not sure what to expect, but it sounded intriguing; analyzing data using complex computer programs and making real-world conclusions based on your findings was a far cry from the tedious Z-score conversions and unrealistic word problems I had experienced in my traditional statistics course. What I was doing, without knowing it, was signing up for a class that would radically change my academic interests and career goals. Almost overnight, my academic and career interests started leaning more and more towards what I was learning in my analytics class. As I delved deeper and deeper into my newfound love of analytics, the elephant in the room got larger and larger: I had one semester left of college and I was trying to change the entire course of my academic and career pursuits. To compensate for the lack of time, as well as to continue pursuing my love of analytics, I changed the topic of my Ashbrook Senior Thesis and developed an independent study with Dr. Nadler. My new thesis topic seeks to explore the relationship between various political economic and political variables and their relationships to per capita GDP across a sample of over 100 nations. Through the independent study, both Dr. Nadler and Dr. Sridhar have led me through material not covered at any level here at Ashland University. I have been applying this material to my thesis, which has grown immensely in both size and complexity. As I continued pursuing analytics through my independent study, I began looking into the possibility of taking my learning to the graduate level. As I looked at graduate schools, I was bewildered at the seeming lack of choice; for there were hardly any schools that offered the training needed to meet the growing demand in the field. Not one to give up that easily, I started applying to every school I found. One school in particular, the Masters of Science in Analytics (MSA) program at North Carolina State University, looked particularly intriguing. They seemed to have the best faculty, the best facilities, the best curriculum, and the best career placement ratings upon graduation. Of course, they also had one of the most competitive admissions rates in the country. One month after submitting my application, I received word that I was a finalist for admission for the very program I had once viewed as unattainable. Less than one week later, I was in North Carolina and waiting patiently for my interview to begin. Just one day after my interview, I received the news that I had been accepted for admission into the MSA program. All of the dedication, long hours, and hard work culminated in an achievement that six months ago, I would have said was impossible. It was a dream come true.

–Marc Zimmerman, Ashland University Senior (Economics and Political Science Majors)

AU HR Student Chapter Team Competes in North Central Regional SHRM Case Competition

On March 22nd and 23rd, the 2013 North Central Regional SHRM Student Conference and Case Competition was held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. As a team of four, Carleigh Breneman, Caitlin Grey, Crystal Elliott, and Nicole Snyder, we competed against eleven other undergraduate teams in our ten state region.

The case competition was composed of receiving a human resource case scenario in which we had four hours to analyze and prepare a 15-minute verbal presentation with a PowerPoint and a written executive summary identifying major and minor HR issues, determining root causes, creating potential options to deal with the issues we identified, and then recommending and explaining our solutions to the case provided.

The conference consisted of four educational sessions along with keynote speakers and HR professionals and multiple networking opportunities. Throughout the day we also had the ability to meet with a councilor to receive resume feedback and gain career advice. As a member of the AU HR Student Chapter we have opportunities such as this to help us engage connect and grow. Having these experiences to pursue our professional career separates us.

COBE students going to Taiwan

Six AU COBE students are again traveling to Providence University in Taichung City, Taiwan this summer.  I have the privilege of accompanying the group.  We have spent this semester preparing for this experience.  In addition to studying the language, we have learned about the business environment, the culture, and the food.  Below are pictures of the students practicing their chopstick skills with Carol Lin (林秀環).  Watch the blog for posts as we embark on this life-altering experience on June 23! 

 

 

Pulitzer Prize Winner to Give Ashbrook Center Lecture

 

Michael Ramirez, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the senior editor and the editorial cartoonist for Investor’s Business Daily, will speak at the Ashbrook Center’s Major Issues Lecture Series on April 18 at noon in Myers Convocation Center on the Ashland University campus.

Ramirez will speak on the topic “Editorial Cartooning and the State of Journalism in a New World Order.”

Tickets for this luncheon/lecture event are $20 per person or a table of eight for $160. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Lisa Ormiston at (419) 289-5429 or lormiston@ashbrook.org or order online at www.ashbrook.org.