School of Business Newsletter
School of Business News
Alumni Updates
Since the fall of 2018, Dean Bodvarsson has connected with alumni in various cities around the country to get acquainted with them, hear about their accomplishments and activities since graduation, and update them on what's been happening in the Gore School and Westminster. One of the dean's highest priorities is recognizing the college's alumni as extremely important stakeholders.
His alumni tour began with a luncheon visit to alumni in and around Portland on December 8, followed on December 17, by a dinner for the Phoenix-area alumni. Other scheduled trips include visits to Atlanta-area alumni in late January and Seattle-area alumni in February. There are also plans to visit alums in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Program Updates
Women in Aviation Chapter
To support our female students, we have an active student club, a local chapter of the Women in Aviation, an international organization. The chapter hosted a very successful “Girls in Aviation” Day event at the South Valley Regional Airport this past October. The event brought together numerous aviation businesses, schools, and nearly 200 girls from our local community who wanted to learn more about aviation and flying careers. The student chapter meets regularly and plans a variety of social events throughout the year, but they also attend the WAI conference every spring. Several students will attend the WAI conference in Long Beach, CA, in March.
Center Updates
For the first time since its inception, the Westminster Tax Clinic has been named a recipient of the IRS VITA Grant. This award of $97,000 ($48,500 each for the 2019 and 2020 tax filing seasons) will allow the Clinic to Increase VITA services to the under-served; increase the number of returns filed electronically; enhance volunteer training, and significantly improve the accuracy of returns prepared at volunteer sites.
Prior to taking the Westminster Tax Clinic to an off-campus location in the spring of 2015, the Clinic was held on campus and served only a couple hundred clients in its best year. Over the last few years, the Clinic has expanded so much that there will be another site opening in West Valley this year. During the spring of 2018, the Tax Clinic served 1,921 taxpayers and brought approximately $2.5M to the community.
It’s official—Michael Pacanowsky, director of the Center for Innovative Cultures and
Gore-Giovale Chair in Business Innovation, has published his latest book.
The Thriving Organization highlights the underlying dynamics that drive high-performing organizational cultures and is now available in print through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. We are excited that this 2-year endeavor has now come to fruition.
Please be sure to join us at our next Innovative Cultures Guest Lecture in the Gore
Auditorium on January 30. Tom King will be presenting “Building the Culture for a
Team to Take Risks.” The lecture begins at 6:00 p.m., with a 21+ reception beginning
at 5:00 p.m. in the Gore Atrium. Please register if you plan to attend on this link. If you are a faculty member and would like your students to attend, please send
a list of student names to bworkman@westminstercollege.edu.
Want to know more about who we are and what we do?
Stop by and talk to us anytime in Gore 217
Opportunity Quest (OQ) is an annual business innovation competition open to all students at Westminster College. Directed and led by Westminster students, the competition fosters and promotes business growth at the college level by giving students a chance to organize, direct, and present a business idea to a panel of judges. This year, 17 people competed in the Opportunity Quest General Business Category, and 5 people competed in the Social Category. This is the largest number of young, rising entrepreneurs to compete in OQ in the last 4 years!
The 2019 Lecture Series in Entrepreneurship: A college-level class open to the public, the lecture series invites successful entrepreneurs to discuss critical issues relevant to their success. By bridging the gap between formal education and real-world experience, we can better help students master the entrepreneurial skills critical to successful careers in business, corporate, or social entrepreneurship.