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 Student Scene
Gold Axe Awards
Congratulations to our business students who were recognized at the NAU Distinguished Senior Awards Reception.
This is a truly exceptional group of students! The Gold Axe Award recognizes outstanding achievement and distinguished service to the university and greater community. There were 39 Gold Axe Award recipients for NAU selected from over 150 applicants. Three of the six President’s Prize recipients, chosen as the “best of the best,” were business majors. Finally, the Distinguished Senior Award is presented to a graduating senior chosen by the faculty of the College. This year Kali Laden (FIN) was chosen by the FCB.
Gold Axe Award recipients are invited to name their most influential faculty or staff member. FCB faculty/staff members named this year were: T.S. Amer (Patrick), Mary Bowers (Tom), Sharon Doctor (Robert), Dean Smith (Michael), Nancy Wilburn (Shannon Davis, Christine, and Kali) and Susan Williams (Shannon Atkison).
Back Christine Fimia-Moe: Gold Axe Award and
President’s Prize; Robert Jumbo (MGT): Gold Axe Award; Shannon Davis
(ACC): Gold Axe Award
Fron: Patrick Murphy (FIN): Gold Axe Award and
President’s Prize; Kali Laden (FIN): The W. A. Franke College of
Business Distinguished Senior Award; Tom Wahl: Gold Axe Award and
President’s Prize
Not shown: Michael Goldman (ECO) and Shannon Atkison
(MGT), Gold Axe Awards
Third Annual Business Learning Community Fieldtrip
The Business Learning Community is designed to foster a sense of community for freshmen by assigning them to a common dorm and classes. Additionally, the FCB plans special programs only for the learning community students, such as the annual fieldtrip. This year’s trip was to visit two companies in the Phoenix area, Vanguard and Taser.
Vanguard hosted the students, treating them to breakfast, a company overview, a tour and lunch. At Taser, a company representative gave the students a product overview and demonstration as well as a building tour.
The 2008 Louie Awards
The FCB was well represented at the 2008 LOUIE Awards. Accounting major Tom Wahl was the Master of Ceremonies.
NAU students nominate students, faculty, and staff for the LOUIE which is meant to embody the great characteristics of NAU. A student committee then selects one student, one staff, and one faculty member as the recipient of the award.
Twenty-two faculty across campus were nominated. Of those, eight were from the FCB: T.S. Amer, Bob Williams, Eric Yordy, Lisa Majure, Mary Bowers, David Allen, Chris Scherpereel, and Kay Pitt. Of the 19 staff members nominated, two are affiliated with the FCB: Sarah Presler-Hoefle and Ron Pitt. This year’s faculty recipient was Eric Yordy, assistant professor of practice in business law.
As part of the ceremony, student members of the Student Activities Council were honored. Two of the nine members of the council were business majors, Alex Propes (ECO) and Alex Grasser (ECO and FIN).
In addition, ten students received the Who’s Who Award. Among them, Katie Schmalzel is pursuing a business minor and Bobby Raquel, Jr. is an HRM major.
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 Alum brings textbook material to life for FCB students
Scott Coor (’76 MKT), vice president of sales and marketing of Trendwood Inc., hosted seven FCB students for a tour of the Phoenix-based manufacturing facility. Trendwood produces wooden children’s furniture. Several managers, including General Manager Jason Ravik, Plant 1 Manager Kevin Johnston, and MIS Specialist Brian Bivian, spent time with the group describing the processes and answering questions about the decisions involved in managing the facility.
The group toured the mill where the wood is cut and shaped for the furniture; the assembly plant where the furniture is assembled, finished, and packaged; and the distribution center.
Eric Gavel (ACC) summed it up when he said, “I learned more in six hours than I would out of reading a textbook for weeks.” Management faculty, David Albritton and Susan Williams accompanied the group.
Recognition at ASU
April 3-4, four students, Spencer Alldredge, Stefan Wortmann, Hyo Sun Kim, and José Antonio Bermudez Gonzalez, accompanied by Scott Hoefle, director of undergraduate programs, participated in the 4th Annual Western States Sales Competition hosted by ASU on the Polytechnic campus.
Each student competed in two different sales scenarios and was evaluated by three judges on their approach, product knowledge, and professionalism.
Alldredge, senior finance major, earned the “Overall First Runner-up” award and cash prize of $1,000 for his performance during both of the scenarios. Wortmann, finance exchange student from Germany, also earned the “Liberty Mutual Winner” award and $500 cash prize for his performance in the Liberty Mutual scenario. He notes that his Professional Selling class with Casey Donoho prepared him well for the event.
Special thanks to Tracy Haney, director of the Career Development Office, for her efforts in putting the NAU team together and arranging the trip.
SES Update
The Sustainable Energy Solutions team has been energized with a variety of fascinating projects this quarter. A group of students from ECO 499, Energy Economics and Policy, visited the APS Saguaro Solar Power Plant near Red Rock, Ariz. This introduced them to creative ideas for solving Arizona’s energy challenges. The students in this class also completed a major group project investigating the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report.
In April, Nicholas Sheets, junior economics; Patty West, Ecological Monitoring & Assessment Program & Foundation; William Auberle, civil and environmental engineering; and Dean Smith presented the early findings of the “Verde River Ecosystem Values” project at the 22nd Meeting of the Arizona Riparian Council in Prescott.
BizBlock Spring 2008
Cresendo, the jazz club, rose to the top of six BizBlock teams in the Spring 2008 BizBlock Venture Capitalist Competition. In the final round of competition against the teams Fall Line Brewing and Vivid Management Systems, Crescendo convinced the [mock] venture capitalist’s to spend the most dollars on their business plan. Congratulations!
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Competition team winners, Crescendo, with this semester’s Venture Capitalists
(l to r) Back: VC David Brandt (’82 MKT), VC Michael Manson, Pat Fleming, Fahad Aljassim, VC Thom Gyder (’84 ACC)
Front: Charles Dean, Tara Brooks, Sara Gandy, VC Steve Irons (’79 ENG), Nicole Rocheleau. Not in photo: VC Wayne Fox |
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