Tabor College Business Department Journal

The beginning of the school year is always an exciting time for students.  It is a time where students get reacquainted with friends as well as begin acclimatizing themselves to the classroom setting.   For many of the students in the Business Studies Department, the beginning of the school year marks a chance for new opportunities to learn and grow into the STEWARDS Christ has called them to be.

In the past couple of years, the Business Club has given students opportunities to network with business professionals as well as see the inner workings of a variety of different business activities.  Junior Sharae Wadel has taken over as President of the Business Club and will serve the students for2009-1010 school year.   The agenda for the first Business Club meeting will include voting in students to hold different offices as well as taking a survey to establish goals for the year.

Along with the shift of a new Business Club President, the Business students will also see a new face in the classrooms this year.  Instructor Bruce Bostic will be joining the Business Studies Department and will aid in teaching lower level marketing classes.

This school year is going to be an exciting year full of many opportunities for the Business Students.  I encourage all students to take part in as many Business Club activities as their schedules will allow.  The contacts and networks that they could create with peers and other working professors in the business industry will last a lifetime.

With Thanksgiving break now over, the semester’s end is now approaching. With two weeks of academics left, followed by a week of finals, students are now looking to use their Thanksgiving feast/ break as fuel for their final home stretch.

Projects, papers, presentations, tests, finals, you name it; Tabor students will definitely have their noses in the books for these next three weeks. As for the business students, well, they are doing the exact same thing. However, with the continuous progression on group projects and/ or individual projects throughout the semester, business students are now in the process of wrapping up their hard work and polishing up any loose ends.

This semester has seen many successes both inside and outside of the classroom. Tabor College students are continuously receiving top quality education through its small yet ultimately beneficial student-to-teacher ratio. In addition, Tabor students are also seeing many benefits through community service/ awareness and community involvement. Furthermore, with the potential expansion of our academic program via the internet, Tabor has seen and will continue to see a lot of positive growth.

Our marketing class has been teamed up with Hillsboro Development Corporation (HDC) in studying the efficiency and effectiveness of the worldwide advertising usage of “Billboards.” Furthermore, the main purpose/ objective of this marketing project with HDC are, “To encourage economic growth in Hillsboro and the surrounding area through the use of billboard advertising.”

Also, the Tabor College Business Club (PRSSA) has taken multiple trips to local businesses and corporations, as well as visiting ground-zero of the devastating EF5 tornado disaster Greensburg, KS. The trip to Greensburg was a heart touching experience, inspirational and very educational. To see the aftermath first-hand, and see how the community of Greensburg is working together to re-build and re-shape was breathe taking and heart-warming. To see that even an EF5 tornado that wiped out 95% of the town was not going to stop the community from living and moving foward.

Lastly, is the potential expansion of the academic program via the internet, headed by out business departments own, Professor Jesse Schumacher. Professor Schumacher was hired to head the development and implementation of an online summer program, which has the potential of offering up to 20 classes. Although still in the process, the outlook is very positive and will be very beneficial to all students partaking.

Monday, October 27, 2008

The marketing class headed by Dr. Norman Hope, is currently teaming up with the Hillsboro Development Corporation (HDC) for their marketing group project. The class will be communicating with Clint Seibel, HDC director, routinely in order to keep the process and progress updated.

The classroom was strategically divided into groups, with each group responsible for completing specific tasks given to them. Each group is responsible for reporting all of the information gathered to Mr. Seibel, as well a present this information to various local community groups.

The main purposed/ objective of this project is, “To encourage economic growth in Hillsboro and the surrounding area through the use of billboard advertising.” This is a great opportunity for the marketing class to experience and study one of the most highly used advertising tools in the world, “Billboards.”

The overall vision of the marketing project is to “Increase the use of billboards by businesses and organizations providing constant awareness of retail businesses and community services available to the public.” Teaming up with HDC, is a great opportunity for both the marketing class of Tabor College and the City of Hillsboro.

Tabor College is beginning to stretch its arms and expand its learning environment by going electronic. “Distance Learning” is a new program at Tabor College that offers summer online classes to Tabor students. The program is headed by Business Department faculty member, Jesse Schumacher.

Professor Schumacher is the coordinator of the web based learning program that recently started during the summer of 2008. Jesse is currently training 13 faculty members for web based practices, and is currently developing/ updating the policies and procedure for the program. The classes offered through this program are open to all Tabor College Departments whom submit a class schedule.

The first session of Distance Learning that was offered during the summer of 2008, was very successful. For the upcoming summer of 2009, the program has already identified eight courses that they will implement, with the potential of more to come. The learning program is temporarily a summer program only, with future plans of becoming a yearly program.

Tabor thrives on community and embraces the concept of a Christian Community. Professor Schumacher and the Distance Learning staff is currently reading a book called “Building Online Learning Communities,” which teaches you how to upkeep and maintain a community online. Through this book, their goal is to be able to maintain the strongly emphasized Tabor Christian Community through their online summer courses.

Tabor College is experiencing a transition. This past December 31, president Larry Nikkel retired. Larry is a good friend to all he knows. I particularly appreciate his openness and friendliness. He takes a personal interest in the lives of students and employees. He is currently helping the advancement office raise funds for the centennial plaza project. Plans for the project were unveiled this past homecoming at the festival dinner. Individuals will have an opportunity to make a donation and secure a brick paver on which they may have a message or name engraved. Larry exemplifies what Tabor is about a life of learning, work, and service for Christ and Christ’s Kingdom.

This January Dave Kroeker taught his Tabor famous Personal Finance Course. Those of you who have taken the course remember his favorite saying “Pay God First, Pay Yourself Second, Be A Godly Steward Of What Is Left Over.” His approach to this subject says a lot about who we are as a department. God owns it all and we are called to manage those resources in a way that gives God glory. We are directed to serve the Lord with the resources he gives us and use those resources to the best of our ability to serve God and God’s kingdom.

As for me, I taught the Investments course. We looked at all forms of investing from securities to hard assets. I assigned the endowment fund project again. In that project, the students are given a hypothetical sum of money to invest. If they can beat the return on the S&P 500 index for the month, they earn a grade of A for the project. This month that was fairly easy as the S&P plummeted over 8% for the period the project ran. I guess it shows you don’t have to be a financial wizard to make money, put it in a savings account and let it draw interest. It was challenging for them to pick securities that had enough volatility for them to achieve a price move which would earn them a profit and yet not have just the opposite happen the security price move in the wrong direction and them lose money.

Linda spent the month supervising student internships. She had 4 students out working for the month at various places located in Kansas. From my conversations with her, the experiences have given some of our students more direction and insight as to just what form their post college careers should take.

Jesse did not teach classes this January, he took classes. He is pursuing a DBA at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. His classes started the week after Christmas and continued through the second week in January. He has an ethics course and for which he must write a paper. His topic is “Is It Unethical to Not Teach Accounting Ethics In An Accounting Course.” He has worked hard to refine the topic, it will be interesting to see just how it turns out.

Our new president Dr. Jules Glanzer is assuming his duties this next month. The campus community is planning a welcome for him on February 1, He will be speaking to us at 1:00 in the afternoon with a time of fellowship to follow. Jules two sons, Matt and Jeremy were both business majors at Tabor. Their spouses, Chrissy and Jody were graduates also.

On another note, I received an e-mail from one of our MSA graduates, Sullivan, Higdon, Sink, an Advertising Agency in Wichita is looking for accountants. If you have any interest, e-mail me at my address normh@tabor.edu. If you have word of positions available for our students or are aware of any internship possibilities, do not hesitate to contact us.

Norm

Linda Cantwell is teaching the Public Relations class this semester.

The 18 students from Linda Cantwell’s Public Relations class have partnered with the Department of Student Success, Career Services, and Stunt Development to develop and research Sophomore retention strategies. The class developed 7 initiatives designed to improve sophomore retention.

On the 7^th of each month the class provides free snow cones to all sophomores.

The class put on a swimming party the first week in September for the sophomores. The party was a reunion of sorts for the returning students, and good time for the new students to get connected.

The sophomore class was given an opportunity to go to the Presidents house for a dinner.

The Public Relations class helped with a sit-down dinner for the sophomore class.

The Classes objective is to Achieve a persistence rate of 85% for sophomores from fall 2007 to fall 2008.

In the Classroom researchers have gained an awareness that public relations is a leadership function that helps achieve organizational objectives, defines philosophy, and facilitates organizational change – and in our case, more specifically Tabor College. They are also learning the skills and responsibility’s of Public Relations with an emphasis in Corporate Event Planning.

The public relations class is currently preparing presentations to give to the President, Administrative cabinet, and Director of Student Success Initiatives. Although the class ends in December the initiative is going to continue through the rest of the school year. Linda Cantwell says “The Current PR class will leave the project before it is finished which mirrors life in the ‘real world.’ President Nikkel will leave before he sees the results of plans he launched.” The Advertising Management class will present the findings from both classes in a formal research report.

If you have any questions regarding the Public Relations BA 395 please contact business@tabor.edu.