Initiatives Serve the Community and AU Students
Shawn Green, Ph.D.
Director of the Dunham School of Business
630-844-5527
E-mail: sgreen@aurora.edu
Welcome to the Spring 2010 issue of the Dunham Business Chronicle. This edition is filled with examples of outstanding service initiatives that serve the community and Aurora University students.
Enjoy the updates. As always, feel free to reach out at any time to those of us in the Dunham School of Business.
Here's a look at the stories in this edition:
Students Clean Computers for Community on PC Check Up DayAUSA Awards MIT Club Outstanding Service Award
MIT Alumni Gives Tour of Kane County Technology Center
VITA Tax Program Reaches New Heights
M.B.A. Advisory Board Formed
Woodstock Center Offering M.B.A. in Leadership
Servant Leadership Initiative Continues to Grow
Student Marketing Involvement and Achievement on the Rise
Dunham Scholars Program Building Business Leaders
Students Clean Computers for Community on PC Check Up Day
By Dr. Dave Dulany
Associate Professor of Management Information Technology
The Management Information Club held its fourth annual PC Check Up Day at the end of March. Members of AU's MIT Club, undergraduate students in the MIT Advanced Topics course, and MIT and M.B.A. alumni tuned up more than 60 PCs brought in by local residents. In addition, another 22 PCs were serviced before and after the Saturday event. Several community members brought their PCs to be serviced when they came to have their taxes done by the VITA program the same day.
MIT Club President Trevor Thereon even made a special "house call" to the Fourth Street Methodist Church in Aurora to perform a checkup on a small network of computers in the church's business office. Christine Martin, the church secretary, said the machines ran like new afterward.
Viruses and other malware were removed from the majority of the machines, and free anti-virus software was installed to protect them. All the computers received a registry tune-up and had junk files removed to increase their efficiency. Everyone left with a tip sheet that explained how each user could tune up their own PCs and avoid malware.
AUSA Awards MIT Club Outstanding Service Award
AU's student government body, AUSA, recently awarded the MIT Club with an outstanding service award for its work with PC Check Up Day. The photo shows outgoing MIT Club President Steve Machnik handing over the award to incoming President Trevor Thereon. Machnik added, "It was great working with AUSA during the past year."
MIT Alumni Gives Tour of Kane County Technology Center
MIT alumnus John Zakosek, AU '05, graciously hosted a visit and tour of the Kane County Government Center several weeks ago. The visitors included members of the BUS 4590 Advanced MIT Topics course, Dr. Dave Dulany and M.B.A. student Diane Fowler.
John frequently attends AU MIT Club meetings and often updates students on current technology trends and events. In fact, John will be part of the MIT Club team, along with M.B.A. alumnus Naeem Ghani, to help determine the feasibility of the club affiliating itself with one of the national technology associations.
The hour-long tour included a walk-through of the Kane County Government information technology center. Students were able to see everything from virtualization to disaster-recovery operations in action. Zakosek reminded the students that his education at AU was a big help in his daily work at the county office. He closed the tour by inviting the students to apply for an IT internship opportunity.
VITA Tax Program Reaches New Heights
By David Diehl
Visiting Instructor of Business and Accounting
Tim Moran
Associate Professor of Accounting
For the eighth consecutive year, tax students from the Dunham School of Business prepared free personal tax returns for low-income and elderly members of our community. The Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, undertaken in cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service, offers AU students a tremendous experiential learning laboratory while simultaneously providing an important community service.
This year, under the direction of professors Tim Moran, Len Scholl and David Diehl, students prepared 554 tax returns totaling refunds of more than $575,000.
Both student and patron response to VITA has been enthusiastic. Students have said tax-preparation principles were strongly internalized through the experience. Clients expressed gratitude for our free service that, in many cases, saved them the substantial cost of a paid preparer. Three new initiatives further enhanced VITA this year: tax interns Luis Ayala and Ross Wegman effectively managed workflow and kept tax operations in process throughout the week; some volunteers reached beyond the university campus by preparing tax returns for local nursing home residents; and new procedures for taxpayer reception and return triage helped minimize patron waiting times.
It would be impossible to successfully mount a VITA initiative without the assistance we received from our past students and alumni, colleagues in the schools of Social Work and Nursing, and the many independent volunteers from throughout the campus. The VITA faculty, staff and volunteers are going to take a break to recover from the tax season, but we will be planning for 2011 in short order!
M.B.A. Advisory Board Formed to Continue Improving Program
By Tom Berliner
Director of the M.B.A. program
Twenty M.B.A.ers, mostly alumni, were invited in October 2009 to participate in what was called a Dream Session, a half-day Saturday morning workshop to explore the next success level for the program. Very significant deliverables resulted. As a result, a second Dream Session was held in December with a different set of attendees. The overlap of suggestions and recommendations led to the formation of an M.B.A. Advisory Board, with 20 individuals willing and able to help lead this advance.
The board has met twice, in January and April. At the first meeting, three teams were created, with membership comprised of everyone on the board: admission standards; faculty; and program visibility/recruitment. Teams met several times between board meetings in order to produce meaningful recommendations. At the second board meeting, specific proposals were presented by each team that met S.M.A.R.T. standards (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound). All of them are either being put into practice or are in the queue for near-term implementation.
The members of the M.B.A. Advisory Board are making significant contributions to the welfare of Aurora University's M.B.A. program. Everyone involved is looking to engage more alumni in helping further shape their graduate degree alma mater. Without asking for long-term commitments, some opportunities will arise. We hope you will want to participate.
Valuable, demanding and prestigious - that's today's Aurora University M.B.A. program. If you're an alum, the value of your legacy is growing. If you're currently attending the program, you are benefiting from its "today and tomorrow" approach. If you're simply interested in learning more, we invite you to do so.
Woodstock Center offering M.B.A. in Leadership
By Jason Harmon
Director of Enrollment for the George Williams Campus and the Woodstock Campus
It was just nine short months ago that we hosted our first event at our new location in McHenry County, an information session introducing the M.B.A. in Leadership program. Since then, we have hosted several additional information sessions, and built a new classroom and offices within the Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock. Now our new M.B.A. students are finishing their second course. We look forward to the program's continued growth as our students spread the word about the new opportunities our program has to offer.
After a short recruitment season this fall, we began our first course at the end of January with seven students. Weeks later, the second course has 12 students enrolled and we already have several students planning to join us for the course we will be offering this summer. We anticipate five to seven additional students joining us this fall with the potential to be larger.
Aurora University decided to offer the M.B.A. in Leadership at the new Woodstock Center location after hearing of the need expressed by residents and business leaders of McHenry County. It also became evident in early conversations that a weekend format for courses was attractive to prospective students.
Our first course was taught by Dr. Tom Berliner, and our students still cannot stop talking about their experience. Initially, the students were nervous about getting back into academics. Once into it, they completed the course with confidence and excitement.
As we move into the summer and fall, we will be hosting several information sessions on the M.B.A. in Leadership program. We will also continue to work on cultivating relationships with area businesses and business leaders. It is an exciting time as we grow the M.B.A. program at our new location at Aurora University - Woodstock Center.
Servant Leadership Initiative Continues to Grow at AU
By Mary Tarling
Director of the Servant Leadership Initiative
The second graduate Servant Leadership course just completed its final retreat weekend up at the George Williams College campus. Throughout the course, students spent time with guest speakers from businesses, social services and education, as well as former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The retreat weekend featured a mini-seminar presented by the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, and allowed students to distance themselves from the chaos and distractions of life long enough to network and reflect on the essence of servant leadership.
Aurora University's Servant Leadership Initiative has moved forward with the launching of the Roots to Reality program. The first Friday morning seminar, "Leveraging Motivation in Tough Times," was made available to 40 community participants on April 16. The discussion focused on the connections between motivation, personal meaning and servant leadership. Currently, registrations are being taken for Discussion Forums on July 30 and October 15. Information can be found under the "Events" tab at aurora.edu/servantleadership. Additional panel events and Friday Strength Series seminars will be made available on an ongoing basis in the hope that Aurora University will provide training and support for a service-oriented approach to any discipline or endeavor.
Student Marketing Involvement and Achievement on the Rise
By Dr. Brian Vander Schee
Associate Professor of Marketing
The Student Marketing Association became an official AU student organization in fall 2007 to provide professional development opportunities for students with an interest in the marketing profession. First-year membership averaged around 15 students. Students participated in community service projects, brought guest speakers to campus and orchestrated a number of successful fundraisers.
Interest grew in fall 2008 to the point where students voted in favor of initiating an AU collegiate chapter of the American Marketing Association. Thirteen students formed the core of this group. Involvement grew in a number of ways, including attending a regional AMA conference at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the fall and the Direct Marketing Association Okner Collegiate Symposium at Loyola University-Chicago in the spring. Corporate sponsorships helped to fund travel, as two students represented AU at the International AMA Collegiate Conference in New Orleans.
The collegiate chapter is now in its second year. The leadership team has organized monthly guest speaker meetings held on the third Thursday of the month. Student membership has grown to 57. We held our first Alpha Mu Alpha honorary induction ceremony this spring, when 15 graduating marketing students were recognized for their academic achievement. Next year, we anticipate participating in several AMA competitions. The group was inspired this spring by being recognized by the AMA as having one of the best events in the AMASavesLives initiatives.
Dunham Scholars Program Building Future Business Leaders
By Dr. Ileana Brooks
Vernon Haase Chaired Professor of Business and Economics
The Dunham Scholars program is a unique educational program that serves as a business leadership program for select business students. The mission of the program is best described by the program's original benefactor, John Dunham: "I want to assist accomplished, well-rounded students who have a sense of what it means to give back to society, who will develop an ethical framework along with the skills to be successful in our free enterprise system." Students are chosen to participate in the program not so much for their academic standing alone but also for character, work ethic and potential.
This past academic year, the Dunham Scholars read and discussed several books on leadership. Two books in particular, "Lincoln on Leadership" by Donald Phillips and "The Case for Servant Leadership" by Kent Keith, were well-received by the students.
Among the business highlights, Dunham Scholars were invited last fall to attend the Chicago Executive Luncheon featuring as keynote speaker 3M CEO George Buckley. This positive experience prompted another luncheon visit this spring with Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini as the keynote speaker. Students were also treated with a VIP tour of McDonald's Hamburger University given by Paul Price, Director of U.S. Operations.
Community service is also an important component of the Dunham Scholars program. This past year, the Dunham Scholars served a number of organizations in the community as a group and individually, including the Angel Tree Project, Wayside Cross Ministries, Ronald McDonald House and providing tutoring assistance at local school districts.
