Events Archives - Page 2 of 8 - College of Business

November 9, 2015

Students learn to ‘Land the Job’

Every student received a resume starter kit.

Lindsay Vanek had always found writing a cover letter to be sort of “intimidating.”

But after attending the Oct. 20 “Land the Job” event at Austin Hall’s Stirek Auditorium, the Oregon State marketing student feels a lot more comfortable about that part of the employment search process.

Presenter Gala Jackson told Vanek and the other students in attendance to use their cover letter as a means of elaborating on the information in their resume – to go into detail about their background and qualifications so the letter builds on the resume rather than repeats what’s already there.

“You don’t just want to copy and paste,” Vanek said. “That shows you haven’t put in the time and effort.”

Vanek also noted that Jackson shared techniques for making a resume appear as rich and complete as possible, which is especially important for college students and new graduates who may feel as if they don’t have much to put on a resume. Volunteer service counts, for example, as do class projects in line with what a job would entail.

Jackson describes herself as a “millennial career expert and career coach” and travels the country as the national spokesman for the Land the Job campaign, sponsored by Neenah Paper, Inc. The sponsor provides “resume starter kits” featuring Southworth by Neenah products to all students attending a Land the Job workshop.

Rene Reitsma, professor of business information systems, was on hand for the OSU workshop as well.

“I think it was a useful event,” he said. “Good attendance, and an hour-long opportunity for students to reflect on how they present themselves on resumes and job fairs.” in 1972; he’s updated it annually ever since.

September 23, 2015October 21, 2015

Popcorn, iPad greet COB newcomers

On a sun-drenched afternoon already full of good cheer and start-of-the-school-year enthusiasm, Kelsey Walker of Philomath received an extra boost Wednesday afternoon when Dean Mitzi Montoya announced her as the grand-prize winner of the annual College of Business Popcorn Social’s taste-test contest.

Walker, a sophomore transfer from Linn-Benton Community College, was the only contest entrant to correctly identify all four flavors used to enliven the popcorn offerings: Coffee, dill, ketchup and pumpkin pie.

Her prize: an iPad mini.

“This is quite a welcome,” she said. “More than a welcome.”

Walker was joined by dozens of her fellow first-year COB students – of whom there are more than 600 – as well as college faculty and staff on Austin Hall’s north plaza for an hour of refreshments, mingling and games.

This school year, which starts Thursday, marks the college’s second year in Austin Hall. Austin’s neighbor to the north, the Learning Innovation Center classroom building, makes its debut Thursday; together LInC and Austin combine for arguably the most technologically integrated, innovatively designed, collaboration-focused 1-2 punch on the OSU campus.

After announcing Walker’s victory, Montoya wished all of the incoming students well on their first day of class at Oregon State and looked forward to the college helping them join the ranks of Beaver alumni “in the very near future.”

July 28, 2015August 4, 2015

Want to study in Germany?

Axel Gerloff speaks about study-abroad opportunities.

Prof. Dr. Axel Gerloff, an economics scholar from Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg, spoke to students and advisors July 27 about study-abroad opportunities in his home country of Germany.

Gerloff, who is teaching at OSU summer term, told the audience in the Austin Hall Events Room about his university’s two campuses, the main one in Mosbach and a branch campus in Bad Mergentheim. Both cities are in southern Germany and steeped in history; housing the branch campus, for example, is a Renaissance castle.

Gerloff explained that OSU business and engineering students who take part in an exchange would encounter a course schedule that had them focusing on a single subject for one or two weeks, then repeating the process throughout the term with new subjects.

“Our students like just focusing on one topic at a time,” he said. “They don’t have to focus on anything else. But some international students think it’s too intense, that you don’t have time to let it sink in.”

Class size tops out at about 30 students, Gerloff said, which is necessary because of the compressed, accelerated nature of the coursework.

“That works a lot better in smaller classes than larger ones,” he said.

The business program focuses on international business administration, with everything taught in English. Prior to the start of classes, however, is a German-language course geared toward helping international students make their away around the country. Classes feature a mix of students from different nations.

The program is available in one- or two-semester options and is available at both campuses in the spring and at Mosbach in the fall as well.

For more information, drop by the College of Business advising office, 122 Austin Hall, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays or call 541-737-3716.

July 8, 2015

College celebrates achievement

A collection of photos from the Celebration of Achievement.

The final Celebration of Achievement of the Ilene Kleinsorge era took place June 4 at Reser Stadium and included a collection of her colleagues paying a David Letterman-style tribute to the retiring dean: “Ten things we’ve always wanted to say to Ilene.”

The one-liners included a dig at Kleinsorge’s trademark running shoes, and an admission by one professor that she’d bumped into Kleinsorge at an airport not during a research term, as Kleinsorge had thought (and had found irksome enough), but during a teaching term.

“I had my classes covered,” the professor said to a din of laughter.

During the awards presentation part of the night, the following honors were bestowed:

College Service Outreach Award – Jonathan Arthurs;
Byron L. Newton Award – Excellence in Teaching – Anthony Klotz;
Outstanding Professional Faculty & Staff Service Award – Laura Scott;
Excellence in Scholarship Award – Pauline Schilpzand;
Experiential Learning Award – Christine Gallagher;
College Service Award – Jared Moore;
Betty and Forrest Simmons Excellence in Graduate Teaching Fellowship – Aimee Huff;
Newcomb Fellowships – Jenn Casey, Pam Knowles and VT Raja

June 22, 2015

MBA program graduates 88

MBA candidates take their seats before the graduation ceremony in Stirek Auditorium.

Eighty-eight students representing eight nations were recognized June 13 for having completed their MBA studies during the 2014-15 school year. The Oregon State MBA program features eight different tracks, and the graduation ceremony honored students from all eight: research thesis, commercialization, business analytics, marketing, accountancy, wealth management, global operations and executive leadership.

Prior to the ceremony, six MBA graduates one other College of Business student were inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, an international honor society serving schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The inductees were Sinae Cho, Casey Miller, Yuriy Mikitchenko, Gary Phibbs, Kevin Russell, Halley Todd, and Phil Walter.

Erick Frack, president of Katapult Partners, LLC, and a 1981 College of Business graduate, delivered the keynote address at the MBA graduation ceremony. Frack’s talk centered around leadership, which he believes centers around caring about other people and listening to them.

“Your ability to show yourself as a good leader will help you more than anything,” Frack said.

Three of the MBA graduates also addressed the audience: Perren Baker (business analytics), Feng Qiu (research thesis) and Lauren West (commercialization). Baker urged his cohort to strive for a work/life balance, Feng talked about the challenges of being an international student while thanking his major professor, Keith Leavitt, for changing his life, and West told her fellow graduates, “When opportunity comes knocking, always say yes.”

The ceremony also recognized Grace Berczel, Casey Miller, Thomas Nguyen, Sara Kelley and Dan McCain for completing their combined doctor of pharmacy/MBA degree.

Following the 75-minute program, graduates and their guests repaired to Austin Hall’s third floor for a reception.

It was the second celebratory event of the day at Austin Hall, which in the afternoon hosted an outdoor reception for the College of Business’ newest bachelor’s degree recipients and their families and friends. Each of the 753 graduating seniors who stopped by received a COB business card holder as a gift from the college, and the event also included a photo booth and a group picture of all of the graduates on hand.

Associate dean Jim Coakley, right, congratulates MBA graduate Ryan Perry.

June 3, 2015June 23, 2015

Capstone day for graphic design

Proposed logo for Western Washington football team.

Branding a college football team.

Integrating individuals’ compostable household waste into a green network that includes a community garden.

Building a campaign for an ongoing food drive by encouraging, via a popular online comic strip, grocery consumers to purchase “Just One More” item to continually bolster food banks.

Putting together apps to help you shop, cook and travel more enjoyably and efficiently.

Creating tools to keep young girls out of the sex trade, and to extricate them if they’re already there.

Those were just a handful of the roughly two dozen capstone projects on display June 3 in the Robert Family Events Room as graduating seniors in graphic design showcased and talked about the signature works of their academic careers in the College of Business.

The two-hour reception featured a steady bustle of students, faculty, staff and parents, all of whom could view the design work the students had put together and also hear them talk about the projects one on one.

The crowd included various business and design faculty, Dean Ilene Kleinsorge and community members such as Kari Rieck, the executive director for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Benton County. An interview with Rieck was part of the research conducted by student Chloie Parsons, whose work involved branding for nonprofits.

Project topics varied widely. Kevin Bradley’s focused on how to brand a college football team, specifically the one at Western Washington University in Bellingham. The university dropped football several years ago, but if it opts to restore the sport, it could do worse than to lean on the efforts of Bradley, who designed and prototyped everything from game schedules to decals to fan gear to team helmets.

Bradley’s premise is that strong branding leads to potent recruiting and an overall successful program.

He chose the topic simply because he’s passionate about college football. Professor Andrea Marks encourages students embarking on the two-term projects to begin by picking something that truly excites them – that’s the thesis stage – and then branching into considering the design aspects of what they’re doing later as the work progresses.

Marks marveled at the work of the 2015 graphic design cohort, and of OSU graphic design students in general.

“Their interest never wanes,” she said. “Our graphic design graduates go to work in graphic design; they’re not just getting a degree.”

Students Jasmine Hart, left, and Alyssa Johnson, center, visit with professor Andrea Marks.

May 25, 2015May 26, 2015

Logistics is big business

Randy Eck explained that "moving stuff" makes up 11 percent of the global gross domestic product. — Randy Eck explained that “moving stuff” makes up 11 percent of the global gross domestic product.

Think logistics is no big deal in terms of the global economy?

Think again.

Randy Eck, director of supply chain technology solutions for Intel, told MBA students May 12 that roughly 11 percent of the world’s gross domestic product is logistics: “just moving stuff.”

That percentage translates to $9 trillion – 25 times as much as the $350 billion accounted for by the semiconductor industry, Eck said.

Eck and another member of Intel’s Customer, Planning and Logistics Group, Cliff Parrish, gave an evening presentation in Austin Hall’s Robert Family Events Room regarding Intel’s approach to supply chain management. Parrish is the company’s product and customer data manager.

Eck and Parrish’s group handles the transportation and warehousing of the materials Intel needs. For a company of Intel’s size and scope, the responsibility is big business to say the least. If supply chain efficiencies result in even a 1 percent increase in gross margin, that means an additional $500 million in revenue, Parrish noted.

Those efficiencies can be gained, Eck pointed out, through moves as simple as giving truck drivers instruction on how to shift gears in ways that require engines to use less fuel.

A fundamental issue logisticians must deal with, the pair told the students, is balancing service with effective cost management.

Parrish provided an outline for successful strategizing, which begins with the vision to see what success is. From there comes the development of goals and objectives and an “environmental scan” to determine what obstacles are in place. Next comes making a strategy, and following that is “strategic exploration” to see if there’s an even better strategy out there than the one you’re using. Then you need a roadmap for executing the strategy and ways to measure performance. And communication is the oil in the engine – without it, nothing happens.

Other topics the pair touched on included the “Internet of Things” – the ever-growing collection of smart devices that share data with one another to create systems of systems – and Moore’s Law.

Moore’s Law is a 1965 prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that transistor size would be cut in half every two years, doubling the computing power of an integrated circuit while vastly improving its performance and efficiency. Fifty years later, the prediction has so far proven true.

Cliff Parrish noted that without communication, any strategy will fail.

Putting it in perspective, if a Volkswagen Beetle had improved at the same exponential rate as microchips, the car would now be capable of 2 million miles per gallon and 300,000 miles per hour.

May 20, 2015

Lessons from ‘Japan Matters’

Sakura Hamada addresses the audience during "Japan Matters." — Sakura Hamada addresses the audience during “Japan Matters.”

Planning to do business with a Japanese person?

Then among other skills, you better learn the proper way to hang up a land-line telephone.

That was one of the lessons May 8 during “Japan Matters,” a presentation at Austin Hall co-sponsored by the College of Business, Oregon State’s Japanese Student Association and INTO OSU, which helps international students make smooth transitions into the local culture after they arrive in Corvallis.

Among the speakers was Yosuke Masuda, a graduate student and kengido instructor at Oregon State; kengido is a Samurai-based combination of martial arts and performing arts.

Masuda, who holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Yokohama National University, explained to the audience of two dozen the wrong way and the right ways to hang up a phone if you’re interested in showing respect to the person on the other end of the line.

Wrong way: Set the receiver down noisily.

Right ways: Replace it quietly, depress the hang-up button with a finger, or wait for the other person to get off the line before putting the receiver back in place.

Masuda also described proper etiquette for the exchange of business cards: Bow, hold the car with two hands and so the writing is right-side-up to the recipient, and, if the recipient is also trying to give you his business card, try to get your card below his. This double exchange, Masuda admitted, can be awkward as each attempts to get his card under the other, but somehow it works out.

“In general people in Japan pay more attention to the respect of others compared to the U.S. or other countries,” Masuda said.

Masuda also noted that in Japan, people making each other’s acquaintance don’t shake hands but rather just bow and exchange business cards.

He added that the U.S. features more workplace gender equality than Japan, and a somewhat less driven workforce; in his country, he said, it’s not uncommon for workers to sleep in their offices.

May 14, 2015May 15, 2015

Event honors design high-achievers

Austin Hall hosted a display of design students' work May 1. — Austin Hall hosted a display of design students’ work May 1.

Jordan Clausen and her parents, Troy and Malissa Clausen of Salem, were among the happy throng of design students and their mothers and fathers on hand May 1 at Austin Hall.

“This is a great school for her,” Troy said of his daughter, who was among the honorees being recognized at the afternoon reception.

Jordan, a junior, is one of 19 recipients of a Cecelia T. Shuttle Worth Scholarship.

In all, some five dozen students in merchandising management and apparel, interior and graphic design were honored with various scholarships and awards during the event – recognition for their teaching, research, scholarship, creativity and overall excellence.

Among the honorees are five students selected as School of Design and Human Environment All-Stars: Ashtin Crawford, Lauren Davis, Eliot Frack, Haley Lillybridge and Sara Winick-Brown.

The event, which helped kick off Mom’s Weekend on the OSU campus, included a gallery of work by design students in multiple disciplines.

“This is so much fun,” textiles instructor Brigitte Cluver said as she toured the exhibits. “I never get to see what the other classes are doing.”

Design students Sarah Wilson, left, Sydney Juell and Brendan Spencer.

May 7, 2015

Why nation branding? Ask a Kazakh

Israeli diplomat Ido Aharoni told an Austin Hall audience that if a nation doesn’t brand itself, someone else will.

If anyone wonders what can happen when a nation doesn’t consciously, strategically and actively brand itself, just take a look at Kazakhstan, Israeli diplomat Ido Aharoni said.

Aharoni, speaking April 28 in Austin Hall’s Robert Family Events Room, noted how Kazakhstan’s brand is linked not to any actual aspects of the country but to British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and his 2006 movie, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

“Borat is a Turkish name,” said Aharoni, Israel’s consul general for the New York City area. “The language he spoke was not Kazakh – it was half Hebrew, half gibberish. The movie was shot in Romania. Sacha Baron Cohen has never set foot in Kazakhstan, yet he’s the most famous person from the country.”

His visit sponsored by the Jewish National Fund and Oregon Hillel, a campus organization for Jewish people, Aharoni told the audience that branding is the ability to create and then manage a personality.

“A brand is a promise. A strong brand is a promise delivered,” said Aharoni, who contrasted his country with Brazil, which has gotten the world to associate it with fun.

“Brand Brazil is very strong, very powerful, very attractive,” he said. “Brazil the place is a little inferior to the brand, and the gap between the two is worth billions and billions to Brazil’s economy.

“Israel is exactly the opposite. The product is very attractive, very much fun, but the brand is so inferior to the product that it creates a huge deficit. The brand is about conflict; that is what defines brand Israel.”

Aharoni noted that each year 300,000 American students study abroad but only 1,500 of those land in Israel.

“The number should be in the tens of thousands,” he said. “We offer courses in English and have some of the best universities in the world, but there are more American students in Cairo than in Israel.”

Israel is working hard at rebranding itself with a focus on its creative energy – “vibrant diversity, building the future, entrepreneurial zeal,” said Aharoni.

“Creative energy is not a campaign, not a slogan – it’s the essence of who we are,” he said. “It’s a basic right of every place in the world to promote itself. And it’s not just about tourism – not every person can afford to travel, and if you can’t, then my goal is to develop a healthy curiosity about Israel.”