SBA Alumni Week 2013 builds connections within the school and beyond

The School of Business Administration took the university's homecoming weekend to a new level this fall by turning the celebration into an entire week of opportunities for alumni, students, faculty and others to reconnect with old friends and make new connections.

The week kicked off Saturday, Oct. 5, at the WSU Alumni Association’s annual pancake tailgate before the homecoming football game. SBA Interim Dean Margaret Williams was on hand to greet alumni and friends who arrived early to see the Warriors defeat Northwood University.

Alumni in the classrooms

Throughout Alumni Week, individuals and panels of alumni were invited into SBA’s undergraduate core classes to share their personal, educational and professional experiences with current students. More than 20 alumni from diverse backgrounds and industries – including accounting, automotive, banking, insurance, government, and others – spoke at each of the core classes throughout the week.

Business School Forum

The signature event of Alumni Week 2013, was the Business School Forum on Tuesday, October 8. The forum featured two of our celebrated faculty members presenting talks on some of the hottest issues confronting our region’s business leaders and educators. The presentations were:

Flatlined for a Decade: The State of Women Leaders in Michigan's Top 100 Public Companies
Toni Somers – Chair, Department of Management and Information Systems, Professor of Information Systems Management

Rebuilding the Economy ... One Great Idea at a Time: How Blackstone LaunchPad is grooming Metro Detroit's Next Generation of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
William Volz, Professor of Accounting, Executive Director, Blackstone LaunchPad

In addition to hosting guests to the live event on WSU’s Main Campus, the event was also the forum was streamed live on the web as well as to a classroom at the university’s Oakland Center in Farmington Hills. Links to each presentation can be found here.

Plans for the future

A lot of work went into planning and executing a successful Alumni Week which, Dean Williams says, is precisely the point.

"It’s impossible to pull off an event like this without buy in and involvement from our faculty, staff, students and alumni volunteers," Williams says. "Building connections between all of those groups is vital to the success of the school."

While the next Alumni Week is not until Fall 2014, the school does plan to invite more alumni back to present in core classes in the winter semester. If you’re interested in presenting, please contact Randy Paschke at rcpaschke@wayne.edu.

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