Spears School News
Spears School of Business organizes program
in Moscow for entrepreneurship educators
Michael Morris
The demand for entrepreneurship education is a global phenomenon that Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business is helping solve.
In an effort to address the need for faculty who can teach entrepreneurship, the Spears School’s Michael Morris, Malone Mitchell Chair in Entrepreneurship, recently helped deliver a program called the Dynamic Entrepreneurship Classroom (DEC) in Moscow, Russia. DEC is an intensive seminar exposing faculty members from across the Russian Federation to best practices in entrepreneurship education.
The seminar is a partnership offered jointly by OSU, Texas Christian University and Syracuse University, among three of the top entrepreneurship programs in the United States.
The program was offered at Moscow State University, the leading institution of higher learning in Russia. Forty-two faculty members attended the three-day program. They were exposed to perspectives on the content, innovative pedagogy, course and curriculum design, and experiential learning tools and approaches.
Center for Executive and Professional Development
celebrates 60 years of serving Oklahoma
The Center for Executive and Professional Development (CEPD) in the Spears School of Business is marking 60 years of service and outreach to students and Oklahoma’s business community this year.
CEPD fulfills a vital role by providing quality executive, management and professional development programs and services for business, industry and government. The center also provides credit and media credit courses to traditional and nontraditional students. Overall, 560 programs were offered to more than 28,700 individuals this year.
“We have been truly honored over the years with Spears School faculty who embrace the land-grant mission of Oklahoma State University,” CEPD Director Julie Weathers said. “They take their knowledge and research and deliver executive and management development programs in the various departments of accounting, finance, management, entrepreneurship, legal studies, management information systems, economics, and marketing. The information the instructors give is practical and the participants enjoy being able to apply the information in their work and make a difference in their careers.” Continue Reading
Oklahoma State University student receives
graduation surprise from military brother
Sgt. Chris Upshaw of the U.S. Army flew to Stillwater from Guam to surprise his sister, Lauren Reid, prior to her graduation from Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business on Saturday, May 4. Reid, from Perry, Okla., graduated with a general business degree. Sgt. Upshaw is deployed to Camp Covington on the Naval Base Guam. He surprised his sister by showing up at the Spears School’s reception for graduates Saturday morning in the Student Union Ballroom.
Sgt. Chris Upshaw of the U.S. Army flew to Stillwater from Guam to surprise his sister, Lauren Reid, prior to her graduation from Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business on Saturday morning. Reid, from Perry, Okla., graduated with a general business degree.
Sgt. Upshaw, who serves with the 523rd Horizontal Engineer Company out of Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, is deployed to Camp Covington on the Naval Base Guam. He surprised his sister by showing up at the Spears School’s reception for graduates Saturday morning in the Student Union Ballroom.
Sgt. Upshaw was stationed in Iraq and missed his younger sister’s graduation from Perry High School several years ago, but he wanted to make sure to be in Stillwater for Saturday’s commencement ceremony.
“There is an 8-year gap between my sister and me. Although there is that gap, we are very close,” said Sgt. Upshaw. “I have a very good relationship with my family, and I am blessed to have a sibling that is as loving and caring as she is.
“She has been very supportive of everything that I have done in life and I want her to know how proud I am to have her graduate college. She was able to attend my graduation from basic training and now it’s my turn to show her the same support. I want my sister to have a great memory of this day and want it to be extra special for her.”
Click to watch a video of the surprise: http://www.ostate.tv/channels/spears-school-business?play=xV14zK90P7cdaJfN9xkkCITbdUj83Nyi
Chakraborty Named 2013 SAS Distinguished Professor Award winner
Goutam Chakraborty
Oklahoma State University marketing professor Goutam Chakraborty was honored Monday with the 2013 SAS Distinguished Professor Award at the SAS Global Forum in San Francisco.
Chakraborty earned the prestigious Distinguished Professor Award for using SAS (originally known as Statistical Analysis Systems) in teaching and/or research and supporting successful students use of SAS, a leader in business analytics software and services.
“I feel very honored and humbled by receiving this award from SAS. However, the success of our data mining and analytics programs would not have been possible without the support of Marketing and MSIS faculty and the hard work by OSU students,” said Chakraborty, founder of OSU’s SAS Data Mining Certificate program in the Spears School of Business.
Chakraborty was the only individual recognized as two other group awards were announced at the national convention in San Francisco. “These honorees represent the best analytics innovation in colleges and universities,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. “Their applications of SAS technology demonstrates the diverse ways SAS impacts higher education.”
Few have had the impact of Chakraborty in producing data mining experts who are in high demand. The Spears School’s data mining program had the most applicants and graduates since its launch eight years ago. All 75 graduates in 2012 received job offers within three months of graduation, including from companies such as Capital One, Apple, Google, Verizon and FedEx.
The Spears School marketing professor’s specialty in quantitative marketing inspired him to teach data mining to students. Chakraborty specifies SAS because it works well for university-based research and is valued in the business world.
Chakraborty has expanded the coursework to include text analytics and plans to offer high-performance analytics. Recently, Chakraborty’s students used SAS Text Analytics to analyze tweets for a company interested in measuring the value of customer sentiment.
Chakraborty will be one of the featured speakers Friday at SAS Analytics Day, hosted by the Spears School of Business. Click to learn more about SAS Analytics Day.
Headline News: Week of April 29, 2013
OSU’s entrepreneurship program receives
U.S. News & World Report top-25 ranking
The School of Entrepreneurship and the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship have placed Oklahoma State University’s program on the map in recent years. OSU’s program recently received another prestigious honor when it was named one of the top 25 business schools for entrepreneurship by U.S. News and World Report.
The OSU entrepreneurship program tied for No. 22 in the 2014 rankings of the nation’s best schools to help students channel their creativity, participate in business plan competitions, earn an MBA, and launch a business.
“Earning this distinction in the U.S. News and World Report rankings is a tremendous achievement for the entrepreneurship program, and is a reflection of the quality of the School of Entrepreneurship’s faculty and curriculum,” said Larry Crosby, dean of the Spears School. “The students, faculty and staff associated with the School of Entrepreneurship should be proud of this outstanding achievement.”
Spears School to offer graduate certificates in
Nonprofit Management, Sustainable Business
For more than 100 years the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University has been at the forefront in offering classes and degrees that are applicable to the business world. In keeping with that standard, the Spears School will begin offering this fall new graduate certificate programs in nonprofit management and sustainable business.
Graduate students will be able to earn certificates in either program in as little as one year. Classes will be offered through the Watson Graduate School of Management on the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses and also will be available online through the Spears School’s distance learning program.
“Each of these new programs is consistent with the Spears School’s mission to provide high-quality, engaging and accessible business education that is relevant and innovative targeted to improve the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation and the world,” said Larry Crosby, dean of the Spears School. “We believe each of these programs will help students transform their organizations and make a difference in the world.”
Three teams of OSU students win top prizes
in Riata Business Plan Competition
R2R Technologies was awarded a $25,000 check after winning first place in the Annual Riata Business Plan Competition. R2R Technologies team members, from left, are OSU students Carlo Branca, Aravind Seshadri and Pedro Velasco.
The fifth annual Riata Business Plan Competition awarded more than $43,000 in prize money on Saturday to help winning student teams finance their plans and turn them into viable business ventures.
The Riata Business Plan Competition is facilitated by the Oklahoma State University School of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business.
R2R Technologies, a solution that can eliminate the setup and wastage during product changeover due to misalignment issues in roll-to-roll (R2R) processes, received top honors and the $25,000 for capturing first place. R2R Technologies team members are OSU students Carlo Branca, Aravind Seshadri and Pedro Velasco. Continue Reading
Headline News: Week of April 22, 2013
OSU students capture fourth place at TCU’s Values and Ventures competition
OSU students Nick Cain and Flint Holbrook are congratulated by O. Homer Erekson, John V. Roach Dean of the Neeley School of Business, after capturing fourth place against students from 27 other universities from around the world during TCU’s business plan competition.
Virtue and Veneration, a two-man team of Oklahoma State University students Nick Cain and Flint Holbrook, placed fourth against 27 other universities last weekend at the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures™ Business Plan Competition at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
Cain, a mechanical engineering major, and Holbrook, a biosystems engineering major, presented Virtue and Veneration, a service providing comfort to grieving United States military veterans and their families. Cain and Holbrook have been working on their new business venture for the past year in the Cowboy Idea Hatchery, a student business incubator that is part of the Riata Center of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business.
School of Entrepreneurship students, teams
win more than $27,000 at Governor’s Cup
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (center) recognizes the R2R Technologies team members, from left, Carlo Branca, Aravind Seshadri, Pedro Velasco and Prabhakar Pagilla, professor of engineering.
A number of Oklahoma State University students and several teams from the Stillwater campus were among the winners during the 2013 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Competition.
The OSU students and teams won more than $27,000 in cash awards and scholarships. In addition, the R2R Technologies group of students qualified to travel to Las Vegas next month for the Tri-State Competition by placing second-place in the Graduate Division competition.
R2R is the first team since the inception of OSU’s School of Entrepreneurship to qualify for the Tri-State Competition, scheduled May 20-22 in Las Vegas where the team will have an opportunity to win an additional $25,000 to advance their venture.
OSU students will compete in TCU’s Values and Ventures competition
OSU students Flint Holbrook and Nick Cain will present their business, Virtue and Veneration, a service providing comfort to grieving U.S. military veterans and their families, against students from 27 other universities around the world during TCU’s business plan competition in Fort Worth.
A two-man team of Oklahoma State University undergraduate students will compete against students from 27 other universities Friday and Saturday at the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures™ Business Plan Competition at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
OSU students Nick Cain, a mechanical engineering major, and Flint Holbrook, a biosystems engineering major, will present Virtue and Veneration, a service providing comfort to grieving United States military veterans and their families. Cain and Holbrook have been working on their new business venture for the past year in the Cowboy Idea Hatchery, a student business incubator that is part of the Riata Center of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business.
“Virtue and Veneration offers a paid (initially free) service to place flowers on the gravesites of fallen servicemen and women, then provide a virtual website tour enabling customers to see the grave, the flower placement and the surrounding cemetery area,” said Cain. “This offers for a better connection than just ordering flowers for the gravesite. We provide the alternative means for loved ones who cant visit the memorial sites themselves.” Continue Reading
Headline News: Week of April 15, 2013
Students bring innovative, renewable
Off-Grid Box to United States, OSU
The Off-Grid Box™ is a collaborative effort of numerous organizations and individuals, including, back row from left, Jane Talkington, Riata Fellow, housed in the Institute of Creativity and Innovation; Brandon Burlingame, landscape architecture senior; Emiliano Cecchini, President of FdS; Claudia Cecchini, architect at FdS;the Cecchini’s child; David Grantham, FdS NA, International Business Development Officer based in Oklahoma; Angelo Scarlato, engineer at FdS; Irene Scarlato; David Fuqua, OSU alum; front row, Nizam Najd, SERC faculty advisor; David Bonsignore, FdS CEO, and Joe Cecchini.
Oklahoma State University’s student-led organization Sustainability, Energy, and Resources Collaborative (SERC) is responsible for bringing to the United States and OSU the first ever Off-Grid Box™, an onsite renewable energy and water harvesting system.
The innovative system arrived on campus Tuesday and will be on display in the parking lot east of the Classroom Building through April 19 on the Stillwater campus. It will be on display during OSU’s Earth Week (April 15-19) before it begins a campus tour for numerous research projects.
The Off-Grid Box™ is an innovation of construction, design and living. It houses all things necessary to run a home – water, gas, plumbing, electricity and heat – with a focus on clean energy. When connected to a house, the Off-Grid Box™ creates a completely self-sufficient secure structure, with no utility payments. It can be off-grid or partially grid-tied to reduce the energy base load.
The project is in conjunction with OSU’s Wake Up and Dream project, an effort led by the Institute for Creativity and Innovation in the Spears School of Business, encouraging students, faculty and staff to advance to sustainability awareness, research and curriculum.
“You own your home, why not own your electricity, water and everything else you need to be self-sufficient?” said Michael Solomon, president of SERC, a senior engineering major. “The system is created to tie into what people would like to be, which is more independent, more sustainable, and self-reliant, giving consumers more control of their energy use, consumption and even production.” Continue Reading
Spears School of Business will host
economists from around the world
The Department of Economics and Legal Studies at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business will host Gretl Conference 2013 this summer in which participants from all around the world will travel to Oklahoma.
The Gretl Conference 2013 is for econometricians who are devoted users and developers of Gretl, an open-source statistical package used worldwide.
The conference is scheduled for June 20-21 in Oklahoma City, and it is the first time the group will be meeting in the United States. The previous two conferences were held in Toruń, Poland (2011) and Bilbao, Spain (2009).
Five Spears School students qualify
for FBLA-PBL National Leadership Conference
From left, Drew Burkhart, Michael Gotwald, Craig Compton, Nicholas Keen, Aaron Barker and Morgan Melot (front row) were six of the seven students representing the Spears School of Business at the FBLA-PBL Oklahoma Leadership Conference earlier this month.
Five Spears School of Business students have qualified to attend the FBLA-PBL (Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda) National Leadership Conference after award-winning performances at the Oklahoma Leadership Conference earlier this month.
The five students – Aaron Barker, Reilee Berger, Drew Burkhart, Nicholas Keen and Morgan Melot – earned the opportunity to represent Oklahoma State University and the Spears School at the National Leadership Conference June 21-25 in Anaheim, Calif.
“Our students placed exceptionally well in their events and I am proud of their hard work and professionalism as they represented OSU and the Spears School at this statewide conference,” said Sarah Chabinak, senior academic counselor in the Spears School and OSU’s FBLA-PBL adviser.
OSU hosts Energy Conference on April 23
The 7th Annual Oklahoma State University Energy Conference will be held on April 23 from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Cox Business Convention Center in Oklahoma City. The event is offered by the Department of Finance and the Center for Executive and Professional Development in the Spears School of Business at OSU.
This conference is intended for participants to hear emerging topics of interest in the energy industry. These interests include federal policy, the progress of the Horizontal Mississippian Oil Play, the latest technologies in fracking, green energy myths debunked, the future of energy in Oklahoma, the transformation of America’s energy supply, domestic oil production, and global impacts of LNG exports from the United States.
Kylie Roper receives Raymond D. Thomas Award,
several other prestigious honors from OSU
Kylie Roper
Kylie Roper grew up in Edmond, Okla., in a house that bled crimson and cream. Her father was an ecstatic University of Oklahoma fan. But when it came time to decide what to do with her life and where to focus her studies, Roper contemplated a decision between OU and Oklahoma State University
After visiting the two schools, Roper said OSU made her feel more at ease and impressed her with its outstanding accounting program.
“I felt so much more at home (at OSU),” Roper said. “They’re both wonderful universities, but this was definitely the place I wanted to come and spend my four years, and call my home away from home.”
OSU embraced Roper with open arms and watched her succeed throughout the next four years. Roper, who will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, was recently selected to receive one of the most coveted awards given to OSU students.
OSU students to host Honda marketing campaign
on Stillwater campus
Orange Innovations, a student-run marketing agency consisting of Spears School of Business students at Oklahoma State University, has developed a marketing campaign to introduce the 2013 Honda Civic Sedan to the Stillwater campus.
The Honda Street Fest will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, April 8, on the southeast lawn of the Edmon Low library on the Stillwater campus.
Orange Innovations’ 32-member marketing team consists of undergraduate students from the Marketing Strategies and Marketing, taught by Marlys Mason, associate professor in the marketing department at the Spears School. Continue Reading
Spears School students earn top-20 finish
in prestigious Rotman Trading Competition
Spears School graduate students, from left, Shenglan He, Alex Berry, Shawn Santo, Jared Sposato, Sheena Narayanan and Layne Krizek at the Rotman International Trading Competition in Toronto.
Six graduate students of the Spears School of Business in the Master’s of Science Quantitative Financial Economics program competed in the Rotman International Trading Competition in Toronto, Canada, in February. The group placed 19th out of 48 schools around the world andsixth among other universities in the United States.
Representing the Spears School were Alex Berry, Shawn Santo, Jared Sposato, Layne Krizek, Sheena Narayanan and Shenglan He.
Some of the schools competing were Texas A&M, Duke and MIT. Also, various universities from outside of the country including Thailand, Italy and Ireland.
The teams competed in trading cases emphasizing different challenges faced by traders.
Longtime television journalist Tom Brokaw
embraces ‘big ideas’ during visit to Oklahoma
Tom Brokaw
A man whom America is accustomed to seeing behind a television anchor’s desk chose to stand in front of a podium Tuesday. Tom Brokaw, who United States citizens are accustomed to listening to during his longtime journalistic career with NBC News, chose to have a “conversation” on who Americans are in the 21st century and where he thinks the country needs to go in the future.
Brokaw was the final speaker in the 2012-2013 Tulsa Business Forums and Executive Management Briefings speaker series, coordinated by the Center for Executive and Professional Development at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business.
Headline News: Week of April 1, 2013
Three Oklahoma executives to share
with students during Spears School’s CEO Day
Executives from three successful Oklahoma businesses will be sharing with Oklahoma State University students during CEO Day from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. April 16 in Click Hall at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center.
A forum entitled “Vision and Strategy: A CEO’s Perspective,” will feature Sean Kouplen, President and CEO, Regent Bank; David Nimmo, President and CEO, Chickasaw Nation Industries, and Dana Weber, President, CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board, Webco Industries.
CEO Day is hosted by OSU’s Spears School of Business to bring successful business people to the Stillwater campus so students have opportunities to discover the challenges and issues that business leaders face, understand how CEOs chart their career paths, discover characteristics they seek in managers, interact with successful executives, and learn about their decision processes and leadership styles.
OSU’s ISyTE Academy is designed
for high school students interested in MIS
Oklahoma high school students will spend part of their time building a computer from start to finish during their week at the OSU ISyTE Academy.
The Oklahoma State University Information Systems Technology Exploration Academy (ISyTE) is now taking applications for its 2013 session. ISyTE, presented by the Department of Management Science and Information Systems in the Spears School of Business, will be held from June 2-7, 2013 on the Stillwater campus.
ISyTE is an activity-based, hands-on program designed for high school students interested in the vital intersection of business and technology. The program allows participants to interact with current Management Information Systems (MIS) students, faculty, and industry IT professionals. Students from across the state of Oklahoma will learn how to build a computer from start to finish, take part in a mock investigation where they use forensics technology to track down an imaginary criminal, and much more during the fifth annual OSU ISyTE Academy.
“The ISyTE Academy was a great program for me to meet others interested in the same things as me,” said former ISyTE student Austen Rozanski of Tulsa. “I am very thankful for this opportunity and felt it helped me greatly to understand computers and MIS.”
OSU accounting students to experience
IRS Criminal Investigation through simulation
The Oklahoma State University Student Union will be the scene of a criminal investigation later this week, a simulated one that is.
The Adrian Project, a program developed by the Internal Revenue Service, gives students interested in IRS criminal investigation a chance to try their hand at finding and examining evidence and using surveillance techniques all while working side by side with real IRS agents.
The OSU School of Accounting in the Spears School of Business and Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Fraternity are hosting the project.
Headline News: Week of March 25, 2013
OSU’s student-led team advances
to national cyber defense competition
Information Security Assurance Club (ISAC) students (front row) Steven Haddock, Michael Smith, David Waters, Corey Hadley, (back row) Chase Freeman, Zach Taylor, Clayton Griffith, and Eric Osmus, compete in eight-hour virtual cyber defense competition, advancing them to national competition.
Oklahoma State University students competed in the 2013 Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) Southwest Region Competition recently, qualifying for the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) to be held April 19-21 in San Antonio.
The eight-man team of Information Security Assurance Club (ISAC) students Chase Freeman, Clayton Griffith, Steven Haddock, Corey Hadley, Eric Osmus, Michael Smith, Zach Taylor and David Waters competed during an eight-hour regional competition at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
The competition requires teams of students to maintain a mock business network of computers while a team of computer security professionals are attacking it. Continue Reading
Three from Spears School of Business
selected 2013 Outstanding Seniors
Three seniors who will graduate in May from the Spears School of Business have been named 2013 Outstanding Seniors by the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association.
Jordan Mayes
The Outstanding Senior award recognizes seniors who excel through academic achievement; campus and community activities; academic, athletic or extra-curricular honors or awards; scholarships and work ethic during their time at OSU.
The Spears School of Business Outstanding Seniors with their hometowns and majors are:
- Jordan Mayes, Mount Vernon, Texas, accounting;
- Rachel Noland, Lake Quivira, Kan., marketing and public relations;
- Meg Sokolosky, Tulsa, Okla., finance.
Rachel Noland
The OSU Alumni Association Student Awards and Selection Committee selected the 14 winners after meeting with 46 of the Seniors of Significance selected in the fall of 2012 and reviewing their applications.
Meg Sokolosky
A public banquet honoring the Outstanding Seniors will be held April 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center in Stillwater.
OSU’s MBA program earns national honor
as 100 percent of graduates find employment
Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business is one of only four schools in the United States in which 100 percent of the full-time MBA students received jobs within three months after graduation, reports U.S. News & World Report.
All of the full-time MBA students who graduated in 2012 from Oklahoma State who applied for jobs were hired during the three-month time frame, according to U.S. News Short List, a regular series that provides students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel.
“This report is indicative of what people have been saying for years, that students in the Spears School are receiving a relevant and real world education that prepares them for career success,” said Larry Crosby, dean of the Spears School. “It’s a testament to the quality of our MBA students and the professors in the Watson Graduate School of Management that Oklahoma State was one of only four schools to be recognized with this honor.