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Off The Ground, Into The Water: CoB Student Leads Rowing Club Forward
Colleen Wilhelm, an International Business and finance major with a French minor, is JMU's Rowing Club president. After a slow start by the club's earlier membership, Wilhelm used her team-building and leadership skills to help the club start rowing. Read Wilhelm's CoB profile and online news article about the club.
JMU Series Helps Other Universities Teach Life Skills
At James Madison University, preparing students for the real world goes beyond teaching professional expertise and job skills. For nearly a decade, the university’s College of Business has offered LifeSkills, a program designed to introduce students to important topics such as money management, insurance options and legal matters. Now JMU has teamed with the Virginia Society of Certified Professional Accountants (VSCPA) to share the program with other colleges and universities.
According to the VSCPA, the typical college student carries three credit cards, each with an average balance of more than $2,500, or a total of about $8,000. The commonwealth of Virginia has made financial literacy education a priority—most recently in 2007, when Gov. Tim Kaine signed legislation requiring Virginia’s public colleges and universities to offer financial literacy education as part of existing general education courses. JMU’s LifeSkills program was a perfect fit with the VSCPA’s award-winning Financial Fitness initiative, which promotes sound money management habits and financial responsibility.
“In the past, a young person’s education for personal business affairs was left to the parents,” accounting professor Dr. Bradley Roof says. “But now, with the complexity of the world around us, parents aren’t able to do that effectively anymore by themselves.”
The seven-week LifeSkills sessions address matters that will be important to students once they enter the workforce, get married and start families, such as what kind of life insurance is best or how to invest and get started in a 401K program. Because the program is offered to all students, regardless of major, Roof says, “It’s really designed for people who have no prior business classes.”
The sessions are not taught by faculty, but by practitioners from the community. A local attorney leads the session on family law, for example, while the topic of stocks and 401K investments is led by a financial adviser. The students decide what speakers and topics return for the next year through a five-point rating system, Roof explains. If a speaker or topic doesn’t get high marks, he or she is not used again.
“We want to keep the program extremely relevant and the speakers extremely effective,” Roof says.
Sponsored by the VSCPA Educational Foundation, JMU and the VSCPA have packaged the program into an online “LifeSkills Toolkit,” making it available to any college or university that wants to launch its own program. The toolkit covers everything from topic ideas and resources to a planning timeline and marketing pieces.
“What we’ve prepared our students to do better is to leave JMU with the understanding that business, in addition to their professional careers, relates to one’s own personal life,” he says. “I think they understand that more effectively and are prepared to deal with that in regard to their own personal affairs.”
For more information about the LifeSkills program, or to access a toolkit, visit Financial Fitness at VSCPA.
Business Students Turn Class Projects into Donations
Students in Mert Tokman’s New Product Development class, learned more than marketing strategies. They learned that giving back to the community brings its own rewards.
Recently, they donated more than $15,000 to local charities. Six student teams raised the money as part of a class assignment. They were instructed to form charitable organizations to work hand-in-hand with real organizations to promote causes and raise donations.
“I thoroughly enjoyed this project [because it was] different then a regular assignment. I was able to use the marketing tactics I have learned at JMU and put them toward a good cause.” Senior Kevin Depuis and his team worked with the Shenandoah Autism Partnership. They threw a party with a live band to raise money for autism.
Mert Tokman, assistant professor of marketing at JMU, teaches the junior and senior level course. “We wanted to develop something they could actually implement, so they created the organizations,” he said. The teams sold T-shirts, bracelets, took donations and signed up volunteers. “They actually got hands-on experiences,” Tokman said.
Senior Andrew Rowland and his teammates organized a dog walk to raise funds to help enlarge the dog shelter at the local SPCA. “The creation of the Cause for Paws event gave me more than just hands-on experience in fund raising, event planning and the creation of a product. It gave me the opportunity to see the giving side of Harrisonburg, the side that has a desire to help and only needs a chance to do a good thing,” he said.
The projects culminated when student teams made presentations explaining why they chose the cause, what they did to raise awareness and funds, how the funds may be used and what they would do differently if they were to develop and market the product again. Representatives of each cause were present to accept donations raised by the student teams.
“As a senior at JMU, it feels good to finally give back some to the local community,” Roy Mace said. His team partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters and held a basketball tournament to raise funds.
The organizations represented were Mercy & Share, a group that raises awareness and funds for orphans in Haiti; Operation Smile, which provides surgery funds for children with cleft lip and palate; the Autism Association of the Shenandoah Valley; the SPCA; Big Brothers Big Sisters; and JMU’s Best Buddy Club that raises funds to care for intellectually disabled persons. Read news coverage.
Sally Chapel accepted a donation on behalf of the Shenandoah Valley Autism Partnership from the team that helped raise awareness and funds for autism.
Above: Geoff Robinson-Schacht presents his team's charity for Mercy & Sharing. Natalie Bargis presents on behalf of the Operation Smile team.
April 10, 2008
ABET Appoints JMU Professor to Accreditation Commission
The Applied Science Accreditation Commission (ABET) appointed Harry Reif, assistant professor of Computer Information Systems and Management Science at JMU, to the ABET Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC). The one-year appointment is effective summer 2008.
ABET is an accreditation organization that provides educational quality assurance in the professional disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering and technology for more than 2,700 programs at 550 colleges and universities nationwide. It is an honor to be selected to serve on such a prestigious accrediting team, Reif said.
During his tenure, Reif will chair teams reviewing and visiting higher education programs that are seeking ABET accreditation for computing programs in the areas of Information Systems or Information Technology. He will also participate in the final review of all accreditation reports for 2008-09.
Reif is a board member of the International Telecommunications Education & Research Association. He is vice president of the Southeast Decision Sciences Institute, a multidisciplinary international association dedicated to advancing knowledge and improving instruction in all business and related disciplines. He is also on the board of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
Recently, Reif and two other JMU College of Business professors were nominated for Verizon’s Innovation in K-12 Education award for conceiving CyberCity, a free-to-participants summer technology camp held in JMU’s College of Business. The camp provides technology instruction to under-represented high school students and their teachers. The nomination was made through the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council.
April 7, 2008
Teams Vie for Top Honors in 2008 Biz Plan Competition
The COB 300 Business Plan Competition is sponsored by the CoB Executive Advisory Committee and awards more than $25,000 in student scholarships.
First there were almost 150. Then there were 35. Twelve made it to the semi-finals; and finally, five teams competed for more than $25,000 in scholarships in the 6th Annual COB 300 Business Plan Competition.
Key Free Security, LLC, took top honors, the team winning scholarships worth $6,000. Students presented a business plan for a retailer and service provider selling and installing biometric fingerprint locks for doorways. Team members: Shannon Cavanaugh, Amanda Halbert, Lindsay Sayre, Heather Smith, Andrew Stearns and Emily Volvo.
The first place team in the 2008 COB 300 Business Plan Competition presented a plan for Key Free Security, LLC. Don Rainey (left) and Maribeth Herod (right) were two of the judges at Saturday's competition.
Most Valuable Player awards went to one person from each team: Natalie Bartgis, Lindsay Sayre, Katie Boyd, Kathryn Delli-Colli and Elizabeth Stafford.
The annual business plan competition is sponsored by James Madison University’s College of Business (CoB) and the Executive Advisory Council (EAC) for the college. Wayne Jackson, EAC member and CEO of Sourcefire, Inc., became the primary sponsor this year when he doubled the prize money.
The competition draws on business plans created in the college’s COB 300 course. The 12-credit course integrates four business disciplines—management, marketing, finance and operations. One outcome of the course is that students concentrating in all four areas form teams and produce a business plan. The competition judges all plans produced in the previous academic year over three semesters. Judges are CoB alumni and business professionals, who review and rate all plans and provide feedback to individual teams.
“We believe that the development of a business plan is an important part of the experiential education of our students. In short, we believe that students learn best by doing,” CoB Dean Robert D. Reid said.
Don Rainey, the competition coordinator, EAC member and general partner of Grotech Capital Group, said the competitors from all five teams represent the top 3 percent of all business plan participants and are well positioned for post-graduation success. “For some, this must feel like the end of something. For us who back this, it seems like a beginning,” Rainey said.
Second place and Best Team was awarded to Rapid Revolution, a proposed business providing construction services to residential real estate builders in New Orleans, La. The team’s service uses layered fabrication technology, still under development, to build structural foundations through robotic technology and computer-aided design software, providing more efficient and cost-effective operations. Team members: Travis Bryant, Kathryn Delli-Colli, John Hamlett, Mary Hays, Dane Leighty and Nicholas Passero.
Replay My Life, a proposed social networking and video streaming Internet service for high school sporting events, received third place and the Accenture Innovation Award for the best business idea. Team members: Michael D’Amico, Jonathan Doyle, Erika Fenner, Ashlee Henderson, Elizabeth Stafford and Emilee Whitehurst.
Prime Renovations Inc., received fourth place. The business plan proposes a residential remodeling company focused on providing design renovations for aging-in-place elderly and persons with disabilities. Team members: Katie Boyd, Matt Couture, Lindsay Dattilio, Heather Guzek, Jake Kahle and Christine Relton.
Fifth place went to Guardian Tracking Services, Inc., a plan that proposes a company that would distribute a GPS tracking bracelet system for Alzheimer’s patients. Team members: Natalie Bartgis, Mike Feres, Anna Khoor, Chris Gstattenbaur, Shannon Lamm and Robert Nguyen.
Judges
Peter Denbigh, founder of WildWires and a JMU alumnus
Maribeth Herod, vice president of Financial Information Technology at Freddie Mac, an EAC member and CoB alumna
Wayne Jackson, CEO of Sourcefire, Inc., EAC member and CoB alumnus
Don Rainey, partner with Grotech Capital Group, EAC member and CoB alumnus
Henry Reeves, director of the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center and executive director of Central Va. region
Dennis Tracz, founder of Barista on Demand, LLC, EAC member and CoB alumnus
Former White-Collar Con Tells Students How to Avoid the Ethical Slippery Slope
When Patrick Kuhse, a financial planner, was convicted on three federal counts—money laundering, fraud and bribery—he was surprised to find people in prison who looked just like him. They were normal, everyday people, many of them white-collar workers. “How did I end up here?” he asked himself.
Kuhse moved from happily married, successful entrepreneur to international fugitive and convicted felon in a few short years. The leap to unethical and criminal behavior is not a big one, Kuhse told students at JMU’s College of Business recently. It happens gradually.
“How many of you download music without paying for it?” He asked students to raise their hands. “Do you think, ‘I’m a poor college student. I’ll start paying for it when I graduate and start making money?’ If you don’t pay for it now, chances are that you won’t pay for it later.”
Kuhse grew up an Iowa farm boy with a loving and generous family. But according to the investor turned con, the thrill of making money and providing a good life for his wife and two young sons led this otherwise ethical, even church-going, man down a different path. He was convicted of laundering state money and giving kickbacks to a state official.
Kuhse shared with students the eight critical thinking errors he made on his path to unethical behavior and warned students to recognize and avoid these thought patterns.
- Entitlement. “You deserve it and you don’t have to do anything to get it.”
- Super Optimism. Kuhse said this critical thinking error is also known as arrogance. He felt overly confident in himself and his ability to make money on Wall Street and he fell into the instant gratification trap: “I want it, and I want it now.”
- Affection Disconnection. “All of you will face balancing career and family,” he told students. “I provided everything [to my family] but emotional support.”
- Seemingly Unimportant Decisions. Kuhse told students to watch out for choices that seemed insignificant.
- Rationalization. “Everyone else is doing it.”
- Laziness. It’s easier to make a quick buck unethically, than to work hard.
- Victimitis. “It’s never my fault.” This thinking, said Kuhse, is a very convenient way to defer pain.
- Situational Ethics. Kuhse said he was an ethical person in other areas, but rationalized his unethical choices.
“How do you prevent yourself from doing that?” Kuhse asked? Have mentors. It’s tough to do it on your own, he said. If you make a mistake, accept responsibility, ‘fess up, and move forward, he added.
And finally, answer these three decision-making questions that he borrows from author Norman Vincent Peale:
- Is it legal?
- Is it balanced?
- How will I feel about myself?
March 27, 2008
Former White Collar Felon and Fugitive Talks to Students about Ethics
Financial planner, stockbroker, convicted felon, international fugitive. It sounds like a Hollywood movie, but it’s real life.
Patrick Kuhse sacrificed ethics for financial success and went to federal prison after spending nearly four years in South America as a fugitive. Now Kuhse uses his failures to help others succeed—ethically and financially—and he will be sharing his insights at JMU’s College of Business Thursday, April 3.
Bob Kolodinsky, director of JMU’s Gilliam Center for Ethical Business Leadership, said Kuhse’s message embodies the spirit of ethics at JMU’s College of Business.
‘Patrick Kuhse recognizes that he made terrible mistakes. Now he wants others to learn from his mistakes. Those who hear his talk never forget him. Patrick talks about how to avoid the ethical traps that snare otherwise good people--like him,” Kolodinsky said.
Dr. Robert Reid, dean of JMU’s College of Business, said the Gilliam Center for Ethical Business Leadership was created to ground students in good ethical, rational decision-making processes. Guest speakers, like Kuhse, offer students the opportunity to hear from personal experience about the consequences of sacrificing ethics.
For more information, contact Bob Kolodinsky at the Gilliam Center for Ethical Business Leadership. 540-568-3014, or by email at kolodirw@jmu.edu
More information about Patrick Kuhse is available at his website: http://www.speakingofethics.com
Jones Apparel Group VP Addresses Corporate Compliance and Social Responsibility
Laura E. Wittman will address a group of JMU College of Business students Monday, April 7. Wittman is the vice president of Corporate Compliance and Human Rights at the Jones Apparel Group, Inc. She has been involved in corporate social responsibility for 12 years.
Wittman (’89), who graduated from JMU with a degree in accounting, will talk about corporate compliance and human rights. She will discuss her career path, her current job, and the challenges and opportunities of working in the apparel industry.
Jones clothing is made by subcontractors, mostly overseas, which presents a particularly difficult challenge. Wittman oversees monitoring of these company’s practices to ensure legal compliance and ethical behavior. Working conditions in factories in the United States and abroad has sparked much controversy in the last century, and in the last two decades media attention and proposed legislation has attracted renewed interest in corporate practices.
The Gilliam Center for Ethical Business Leadership is sponsoring Wittman’s talk. The center was founded in 2007 by JMU’s College of Business to ground students in ethical, rational decision-making processes. The center coordinates speakers on ethical leadership and faculty collaboration in ethics research and curriculum development.
For more information, contact Bob Kolodinsky at the Gilliam Center for Ethical Business Leadership. 540-568-3014, or by email at kolodirw@jmu.edu
The Best Ethics Win: CoB Students Vie for Ethics Essay Award
The College of Business Annual Thomas J. Masterson Ethics Essay Competition, now in its 7th year is underway. The contest is sponsored by Rich Masterson, A JMU College of Business alum and successful entrepreneur. It's named in memory of Rich's father.
“Given so many recent business scandals, the College of Business is doing its part to help raise student awareness about the importance of ethical behavior in the workplace,” says Bob Kolodinsky, director of the college’s Center for Ethical Business Leadership.
“We want to ensure that CoB graduates are well prepared to identify ethical dilemmas and act accordingly. This essay contest is one of many CoB initiatives to help students think more about ethical behavior and consequences,” he says.
The competition is open to all business majors, including MBA and MSA students. Dr. Ken Williamson, professor of marketing and the director of the Cob BBA core curriculum, oversees the essay contest. He says spring and fall 2008 submissions will be judged in early spring 2009.
Judging is based on eight criteria: problem identification; analysis of problem; development of short-term strategy; development of long-term strategy; identification and discussion of key issues, discussion of consequences of actions; quality of writing; and document format.
First and second place winners will be selected to receive scholarship awards and will be recognized during the annual College of Business Awards Banquet spring 2009. Winners graduating spring or fall 2008 or spring 2009 may apply their scholarship award to future graduate work at JMU.
The competition opened Monday, March 17. The deadline for submissions is 9 p.m., Sunday, April 20.
March 18, 2008
VSCPA Awards Three Scholarships in CoB
The Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants Educational Foundation awarded scholarships to three James Madison University graduate students: Scott Pober of Fanwood, N.J., Lacey Viar of Evington, Va., and Nicole Harris of Glen Allen, Va.
Nicole Harris, who received a VSCPA scholarship last year, was awarded the Thomas M. Berry Jr. scholarship for 2008-09 in the amount of $2,500.
Scholarship recipients must be enrolled in a Virginia college or university with plans to enter the accounting field. Awards are based on academic performance, faculty recommendation, community involvement, and an essay entry.
The VSCPA Educational Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting business and accounting education, rewarding academic excellence and encouraging students to pursue promising careers.
InfoSec MBA Starts New Cohort
The Information Security (InfoSec) MBA begins a new cohort April 26. This is the ninth cohort since the program’s inception in 2000. This online MBA program is perfect for working professionals who want to learn to manage information security in a business environment. JMU’s College of Business is AACSB accredited. U.S. News and World Report rates JMU’s MBA program as one of the top 20 business schools offering online education.
Each course begins and ends with four hours of face-to-face instructional time located in Reston, Va. Business professionals fly in from across the nation to attend the opening and closing classes, and then for eight weeks meet once a week in a virtual classroom.
Dr. Kenneth Bahn, director of the InfoSec MBA program says graduates of the program impressed with the quality of the education are now recruiting new graduates for their companies.
For more information on the InfoSec MBA program, visit online at http://www.jmu.edu/mba/aboutinfosec.htm or contact Dr. Bahn at (540) 568-3009 or bahnkd@jmu.edu.
Biz Plan Competitions Put Principles into Practice
Venture Creation Explores Viable Start-ups
Business Plan competitions at JMU provide students the opportunity to put principles into practice. The annual COB 300 competition evaluates how well student teams understand the integration of management, marketing, finance and operations. The 2008 finalists, judged by industry professionals, will vie for the top spot April 5.
But another business plan competition in the College of Business has attracted the attention of industry professionals, including some venture capitalists. The competition emerged from MGT 472 Venture Creation, a course designed to help students explore and experience entrepreneurship with the goal of launching a business following graduation.
Mark
Langer (right) CEO of Equity One, Inc., mentors members of the JG
Racing team prior to the Venture Creation Competition. From left:
Justin Gallamore (management), Alex Newcomer (history) and Sean
Robinson (communications).
Student teams in the Venture Creation Business Plan Competition are evaluated on the viability of their plans and proposed start-up businesses. In fact, if initial research shows a plan is not viable, it’s back to the drawing board for students, who research a new business and plan.
This year, for the first time, instructor Carol Hamilton opened the competition to the public, and interest in the proposed start-ups piqued the interest of investors and other professionals.
John Rothenberger, CoB’s Entrepreneur in Residence and the class’ coach, said after last year’s competition that it was only a matter of time before a start-up emerged from the Venture Creation class. That time may have come.
Four of the six teams from the Venture Creation class are active, Hamilton said. Three are considering entering a regional competition to move their plans forward, and three are in various stages of attempting a launch.
Ready, Set, Launch
Madison
Solutions, a proposed business that uses software to schedule
activities at university recreation centers, won first place in the
competition held mid-December. According to Hamilton, the team held
conference calls every two weeks with their team mentor, Jim Kannar,
CEO of Home Design Elements in Great Falls, Va., and worked with JMU’s
University Recreation Center (UREC) Director Eric Nickel. The team
hopes to complete software development and launch the beta program at
JMU.
BookCheetah and G-O Thermal, the second and third-place winners, plan to enter a regional business plan competition. BookCheetah is a proposed business that allows students to use an online product to sell textbooks directly to students, leaving out the middleman. The software is currently under development, and the team is planning to conduct product testing and focus groups and release a beta to several universities in summer 2008.
Members of the Certus team prepare for their presentation during the December 2007 Venture Creation Competition. From left: Adam Cerulli (accounting/finance), Teddy McNab (management) and Lane Robins (media arts & design).
Even the non-winners of the competition are exploring the viability of actual launch. The team that created a plan for Certus, an agricultural real estate investment trust (REIT), is meeting with their team mentor and entrepreneur, David Kay of Capital Automotive, over the next few weeks to explore the possibility of entering the regional competition and seeking funding for the start-up.
Interdisciplinary teams
“What’s fun about this class is that it is a mix of business and
non-business majors and masters level students,” instructor Carol
Hamilton said.
The Madison Solutions team consists of a management, computer science and political science major as well as one team member who is a double major in computer information systems and management science and finance.
Most students who enroll in the class are seniors, and about 50 percent are business majors who usually have the experience of the COB 300 courses and competition.
The Certus team has an accounting/finance major, one student from management and another from media arts & design.
“The success of the class increased significantly when we added non-majors,” Hamilton said. She attributes the improved performance to the variety of creative ideas the cross-disciplinary approach brings to the class and the guidance of the entrepreneurs who serve as mentors to each venture team. She and Rothenberger interview and hand-select teams in order to build groups with complementary skill sets.
Most often, said Hamilton, the non-business majors come up with the idea, and the business students on the team provide the knowledge and experience to create a viable plan.
The
interdisciplinary approach more closely mimics business planning,
entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in the real world. And that,
Hamilton said, is precisely the point.
If you would like more information on the Venture Creation course or if you are interested in becoming a mentor, contact Carol Hamilton at hamil1cw@jmu.edu or John Rothenberger at rothenjc@jmu.edu.
CoB Partners with JMUNation.org
Do you want to connect with your former CoB classmates? Or perhaps you would like to mentor CoB students, look for interns or potential hires from your alma matter? Maybe you just want to find out what other JMU CoB grads are up to.
Sign up with our new partner networking site, JMUNation.org. You can join a group related to your interests, start a new group, or just nose around. You must have a valid jmu.edu address or get your alumni email address free. JMUNation.org has all the details.
JMU College of Business Makes List of Top Business Schools in the Nation - Again
For the third straight year, James Madison University’s College of Business ranked among the nation’s top business schools according to an annual analysis by BusinessWeek magazine.
JMU placed among the top five percent of business schools, 54th overall nationally, but moved up to the 20th spot among public universities. The business program continues to receive high ratings on the student survey. Student responses ranked JMU 23rd in the nation, 8th among public universities.
“Challenging curriculum and classes taught by profs, not TAs, make this program shine,” BusinessWeek reported.
JMU’s “challenging curriculum” includes an integrated approach to business. The college’s COB 300 experience has been recognized consistently as a unique and highly effective way to teach principles of management, finance, operations and marketing as interdisciplinary and interdependent in business.
“Our graduates understand that business is not about the silos of management or finance, but about all disciplines working together,” Dean Robert D. Reid said. “Corporations that recruit and hire our graduates say our students are equipped to be successful in the company. They attribute our grads with good interpersonal and team-building skills and a willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done.”
JMU made the grade on Teaching Quality and Job Placement, scoring an “A” in both categories, and a “B” on Facilities and Service.
BusinessWeek uses nine measures to rank undergraduate business programs, including surveys of business students and company recruiters. Median starting salaries, faculty-student ratios, class size and SAT score are also included in the calculation.
Feb. 5, 2008
Dr. Pamela DrakeInterviewed Live on WSVA
WSVA's Mike Schickman speaks live with Dr. Pamela Drake, head of JMU's College of Business Finance and Business Law department, Feb. 5 from 6:30-7 p.m. Dr. Drake discusses the national economy and what causes recession on the radio show "Speaking of Money." Listen live at WSVA-550AM.
Gaglioti Earmarks Endowment for Finance Department
Enrico Gaglioti, a 1994 alumnus and member of the College of Business Executive Advisory Council, has established the Gaglioti Family Endowed Fellowship in Finance. The $100,000 gift, which also honors his wife Danielle and their three children, will be used to attract and retain talented faculty members for the finance department.
The field of finance is rich with challenging and exciting job opportunities that offer competitive pay, and Gaglioti hopes this endowment will help make JMU an attractive option for prospective faculty members.
“We’ve got to have great professors who are talented, with good experience,” Gaglioti says. “Their opportunities are significant, especially in the world of business and finance, so we’ve got to make sure that JMU is a place that attracts the best possible talent—where they feel they’ve got good opportunities and where they feel they’re being offered enticing incentives.”
A partner at Goldman Sachs, Gaglioti gave the gift to show his appreciation for the university, where he learned skills that sent him on the right path to success. When he reflects on his experiences in the classroom, Gaglioti recalls numerous group projects that helped develop his leadership skills and work ethic. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1998, he was a vice president in the Equities Division of Salomon Brothers Inc.
“The team-work skills, the leadership skills, the interpersonal skills, and the analytical skills that I learned at JMU were the foundation of what ultimately are important variables when you enter the work force and in being successful.”
By attracting top-notch faculty to the university, Gaglioti says, the positive effects will trickle down to the students, translating into a positive academic experience that leaves them well-prepared for their careers.
“We all can remember those one or two professors who were just a notch above the rest—that made a difference,” he says. “Hopefully this scholarship will be one small way of creating that link.”
Jan. 16, 2008
PHR Certification Puts JMU Grads Ahead of Competition: JMU Hosts Games in ‘08
As a candidate for her current job with Kerr Drug in Raleigh, N.C., Tiffanie Saunders Ashmore impressed her interviewers with the revelation that she already had earned her certification as a Professional in Human Resources. While Ashmore brought many competitive qualities to the table, the PHR certification definitely made the 2007 JMU graduate a stand-out among other applicants.
"They commented that [this certification] is something HR professionals usually do not attain until later in their career," recalls Ashmore, who was hired as a human resources assistant. "I believe it had a significant impact on proving my competence in the HR field, despite having just recently graduated."
Last spring, Ashmore was one of four JMU students who took and passed the PHR exam, giving the university's human resources management program a 100 percent pass rate. The national average pass rate is 63 percent. The PHR certification, supported by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), is becoming increasingly important in a field that is striving to gain recognition as having an essential, strategic role in any organization. The two-and-a-half hour exam is offered twice a year, covering categories such as management practices; selection and recruitment; training and development; compensation and benefits; employee-labor relations; and health, safety and security.
"It shows businesses and organizations that are recruiting our students that they've mastered the skills of their program-that they are, in fact, experts in the field," says management professor Joseph Goodman. "It also recognizes the human resources management field as a profession."
While studying for the exam can be rigorous, JMU students are offered a fun and effective opportunity for preparation: competing in the Virginia HRGames, sponsored by the Society of Human Resources Management. The Jeopardy-style competition includes questions similar to those that are asked on the exam. Last March, JMU teammates Ashmore, Jocelyn Tuttle and Ashley Hevener won the Virginia State HRGames Competition and advanced to the regional competition, where they placed 12th. JMU will host this year's Virginia HRGames in March.
The faculty in JMU's human resources management program encourage all of their students to take the PHR certification exam. In fact, they are so convinced of the value of attaining this certification that the department offers qualified students partial grants to off-set the costs of the exam.
"The human resources area is one of the fastest-growing, litigious components in the organization," Goodman says. "Having the certification solidifies that these students know what they're doing, and they're not going to put the firm in jeopardy. They'll help the firm make better decisions when it comes to their employees."
Ashmore is grateful to her JMU professors for helping her prepare for the PHR exam, as well as for her career in human resources. She's convinced it made a difference in her job hunt.
"Taking the PHR exam," she says, "proves to colleagues that, while I do not have vast amounts of working experience in my profession, I do have the knowledge it takes to pass the same certification [exam] as those holding positions in HR for years."
JMU will host the HRGames March 29, 2008.
JMU Rated a Good Value
As James Madison University students embark on their Spring semester, they can rest easy knowing they're getting a pretty good deal on their educations.
J-M-U is ranked 22nd on the 2008 listing of the 1-hundred best values in four-year colleges. The ranking is part of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's annual study, which looks at more than 500 four-year public colleges.
Kiplinger's says the 100 schools that made the list "combine outstanding economic value with top-notch education" and were ranked according to academic quality, cost, and financial aid. (courtesy of WSVA 550-AM)
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