GRADUATE STUDIES NEWS

Transcription

1 GRADUATE STUDIES NEWS A publication for MA, MBA, and MSN students at Alverno College January 16-18, 2009 Welcome to All New Students A hearty welcome to the new students in the graduate degree and licensure programs. As the newsletter goes to press, there are 42 new degree and licensure students beginning graduate level education programs. There are 17 new MBA students. And we have 11 new students in the Master of Science in Nursing Program as well. Please welcome them as you meet them. Always check your Alverno Important notices from the Registrar and Business Office come to you via your Alverno so check it regularly! The Graduate Newsletter is available on-line each Weekend College weekend. Each WEC weekend, you ll receive an notifying you when you can access it usually Thursday afternoon or Friday before WEC. Whenever we receive job opening notices, we also post them with the newsletter. So be sure to check your Alverno for this and other important messages. Student ID s If you missed getting your student ID taken, you can go to Student Services on weekdays between 11-1 and 4-5 or on Weekend College Saturdays News about graduate students, graduates, and faculty Current Students MSN student Alicia Pacala gave birth to a son, Elijah Enedino Morales, in November, Elijah joins siblings Abbie, Abel, and Soila as well as Alicia and husband and father, Julio. Alums Linda Bay, MSN 07 recently took and passed the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Adult Health CNS exam. She may now use the initials ACNS-BC after her name these initials convey to the public that Ms. Bay is an Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist-Board Certified advanced practice nurse. She also recommends MSN graduates take a CNS exam review course from ANCC prior to sitting the credentialing exam. Ms. Bay recently returned to the Milwaukee Veterans Administration Hospital to assume a position as a CNS on a telemetry/ oncology unit. Keith Carrington, MA 07 has been accepted into new Leaders for New Schools Program. He will participate in the intensive summer training and then be appointed assistant principal at an MPS for fall 2009.

2 Anne Roets, MA 08 has a new position with Milwaukee Achiever, a literacy program sponsored by the congregations of women religious linked to Alverno College, Cardinal Stritch University and Mount Mary College. Anne is directing the northside center, as well serving a grant writer. Connie Thompson, MBA 09 has been awarded a scholarship to attend the Women in Government Seminar program. The program is offered by the Women in Government organization in conjunction with the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Faculty MA Faculty members Sandra Graham and Patricia Jensen are on sabbatical in spring. Graduate Dean Mary Diez is on half time sabbatical all year and will be traveling to Hong Kong, China, and Japan in March. Her advisees need to attend to information about early advising, because she will be away when you should be preparing for registration. Watch upcoming newsletters News to share? If you have a new position, have made a presentation, have received an honor, or have other news to share, please send the details to mary.diez@alverno.edu Check out resources for Computer/Library Support Students who need help with computer and/or library skills can receive further assistance in developing these skills by: Scheduling a one-to-one session in the library. Contact Carol A. Brill, Library Director, at or carol.brill@alverno.edu Contacting your program s library liaison (MA and MBA:Jeff Desannoy at jeff.desannoy@alverno.edu; MSN: Delores delores.skowronek@alverno.edu) Researching Alverno s Technology Services web site for detailed directions about Alverno s technology resources Completing on-line Information Literacy tutorials at Registering for one of the following courses: CIL 100 (Basic Computer Skills) and/or Computer Literacy (CL) Workshops. These are both offered at Alverno each semester. CL 11 teaches students to use Microsoft Word and . CL 113 teaches students Power Point skills to enhance professional presentations. Accessing information and training resources for Office 2007 at Contacting Anita Eikens for further questions about technology resources: anita.eikens@alverno.edu K-12 Teachers Learn about/prepare for National Board Certification Alverno is sponsoring a workshop for teachers interested in learning about National Board Certification. Six Saturday morning sessions are scheduled 8:30 a.m.-12:00 noon, January 24,

3 February 7 and 21; March 7 and 21 and April 4. There is a $50 fee for the workshop. For more information, Mary Diez at mary.diez@alverno.edu. MA Student Handbooks Are on the College s Web Page You are responsible for the information in the college handbook and in the Master of Arts Handbook. You can access these by going to Click on student resources and again on student handbooks. MBA Brown Bag Lunch to be Held on January 31 Bill McEachern, MBA Program Director, and Dena Lieberman, School of Business Dean, will hold a listening/sharing/continuous improvement brown bag luncheon session in Alumnae Hall at Noon on Saturday, January 31. All MBA students are invited to attend. This is an opportunity to hear about recent School of Business/MBA program developments and provide your ideas and input on issues that concern you. Mark your calendars now! Bring your lunch refreshments will be provided by the School of Business. Participate in MBA Student Directory Each semester the School of Business publishes an MBA Student Directory to assist students and graduates to keep in touch. However, FERPA (Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) requires that you give us permission to include your contact information. If you are a continuing student and are not currently listed in the directory or want to update your contact information, please submit the release form found at the end of this newsletter to William McEachern s mail drawer by January 21. NEW MBA students will have an opportunity to complete the release form and add their contact information to the directory during orientation. The student directory will be available through Educator when finalized. Business Groups are Booming JS Online ran a story with this headline on November 25, In the article, author Tannette Johnson-Elie noted that with the recessionary economy and unemployment hitting new highs, professionals are joining business associations in growing numbers. She and the professionals quoted in the article point out a number of benefits associated with membership and participation in professional group activities: Opportunity to stay abreast of business trends. Build professional connections and peer networks. Provide a sense of belong, community, shared values, and interests. Personal and professional growth and career advancement. The article features ASQ, the Milwaukee-based American Society for Quality, as one professional organization provides such benefits. The article also cites a study released earlier this year by the William E. Smith Institute for Association Research that found

4 association members are happy and enjoy higher incomes than their non-association member counterparts. Learn about the Career Education Center The purpose of Alverno s CEC (Career Education Center) is to assist students to develop careering skills so that they can find employment that will lead them toward professional fulfillment. They do this through teaching, counseling, and career events. The CEC teaches career theory, interview theories and strategies, job information research techniques, career planning analysis, and resume/portfolio design skills. Free career counseling is offered to all Alverno students as well as alumnae/alumni who are within two years of their graduation date. The CEC Career Lab is a major resource. Here, students can find salary information, information on career planning, and cost-free career planning materials. Alverno LINKS, another great resource, is a comprehensive software program available 24/7 for employers to post and manage jobs and for students to view and apply for positions of interest. To learn more about the CEC, visit its web site at Alverno MBA Networking Group Formed A group of MBA students (Maria Cadenas, Noelle Joers-Yanisch, Kari Krause, Anna Oakes, and Nicole Zielski) have been discussing the formation of a networking group for Alverno MBA students. The group plans to hold two brown bag luncheons this semester; they are scheduled for Saturday, February 14 and Saturday, March 28 over the lunch hour--location TBA. Proposed agendas include a speed dating activity on February 14 where participants exchange business cards, ask questions, and get to know one another quickly. The second session will focus more on the purpose and plans for the group as it moves forward. Add these dates to your calendar now and watch for further information in upcoming Grad newsletters and through your MBA classes! The group created an online networking community at LinkedIn. Login to the AlvernoMBA Group at You will need to join LinkedIn but it s free. Scholarship Opportunities for MSN students The United States Air Force offers a Health Professions Scholarship Program. For more information, contact TSgt Kristine Oliver at Kristine.Oliver@rs.af.mil

5 Conferences of Interest to MSN Students The 2009 Annual National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists conference will be held in St Louis, MO from March 12-14, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency. For more information or to register, go to The 23 nd Annual Pharmacology and Clinical Update conference will be held April 30- May 2, 2009 at the Chula Vista Resort, Wisconsin Dells, WI. For more information contact the Wisconsin Nurses Association at or The Marshfield Clinic is sponsoring a conference on Practical Strategies in the Management of the Geriatric Patient on Friday, March 6, 2009 at the Stoney Creek Inn in Rothschild, Wisconsin. For more information go to The Academic Center for Evidence-Based Practice at UT Health Science Center is sponsoring the 8 th Annual Summer Institute on Evidence-Based Practice July 9-11, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, visit: PESI HealthCare is sponsoring a Neurological Emergencies course in Appleton (2/23/09), Brookfield (2/24/09) and Madison (2/25/09). For more information, go to The Robert K Greenleaf Center is hosting the 19 th Annual International Conference on Servant Leadership in Milwaukee, WI at the Midwest Airlines Center, June 10-13, For more information, go to Invitations to visit classes You re welcome to invite friends or colleagues interested in the Alverno Graduate Programs to visit classes. Just check with your instructor in advance. If your friend or colleague is unable to visit a class, you can request that a packet be sent to them. Contact Sarajane Kennedy ( or Sarajane.kennedy@alverno.edu or Carolyn Wise ( ) or carolyn.wise@alverno.edu ) to request that a packet be sent. Read Report on Conversations with the President Once ear year we sponsor Conversations with the President, an informal conversation with the Mary Meehan, President of Alverno College. The conversations offer an opportunity for the President to share information about the College and for you to offer feedback and observations that can be used to improve our practice. The following questions will be posed: Why did you choose Alverno and why do you stay? If you were President, what would you change? Attached is a summary of the Conversations from last semester

6 Alverno College Conversations with the President NOTES 1st Semester, Graduate students November 15, 2009, 12:00-1:00 p.m. 18 attended out of 28 signed up 1 MA 15 MBA 2 MSN The recommendations from the students were sent to the appropriate departments for a response. These responses are included with the notes. GRADUATE STUDENTS What brought you to Alverno? Why do you stay? Impressed with the curriculum and the educational experiences. Also like the easy access to the instructors. Felt supported throughout the process. If you were president, what would you change? Recommendation Responses Marketing Really like the marketing campaign. It s made Alverno more visible and it has assisted me with job hunting and in exploring positions. Alverno is more known to potential employers. Would like more marketing targeted to the MBA program. Alverno is more known for education and nursing, and the business program is not as well known. We are actually expending quite a bit of money against the MBA (Business Journal, Small Biz Times, commercial radio, online in JSonline and others, etc). We ll continue doing this but word of mouth is a huge piece of grad school marketing. This will get easier when we have graduates in the workforce. (Michael Harryman, Asst. VP for Marketing) Perhaps you could use persons in the MBA program who have expertise in marketing to help brainstorm about potential marketing efforts. Market more to males. The billboards include all women. Have direct pieces with male pictures. We re already doing some of this. Stay tuned for more testimonials and students in future efforts. (Michael Harryman, Asst. VP for Marketing) The branding pieces are not currently being considered for male imagery, it s a fairly small market for us and it would confuse the women s college brand. However, our website, direct mail pieces and more targeted advertising will start targeting men more. At

7 the heart of this is our male students want to see themselves, we re trying hard to find a balance for that. (Michael Harryman, Asst. VP for Marketing) We have made suggestions to Marketing about including males in the planning of graduate marketing. The MA has pictured males in brochures. There was a piece in the Alverno magazine a couple years ago about Men of Alverno. (Mary Diez, Dean of Grad Program) Highlight graduates of the MBA program. This is possible now that we have a class graduating. We re doing some of this now and we ll be doing more of it in the future. (Michael Harryman, Asst. VP for Marketing) This reputation will develop over time. (Sue Smith, VP Enrollment Planning and Mgt) As MBA students, it s important to us that the MBA program is respected and well known. We have an MBA/MSN track available to students who are interested and we continue to market our MBA to teachers and nurses. (Sue Smith, VP Enrollment Planning and Mgt) Market the MBA program to teachers and nurses. Perhaps create an MBA/MSN for nurses. MBA Program Would like to see more OD electives. The marketing/visibility issue has been addressed in part through new ads. December graduates are being announced in a full page ad in the Milwaukee Business Journal. We do have a joint MBA/MSN program (information is on the web site) but we have not aggressively marketed it. MBA and MSN Program Directors and Admissions recently reviewed current joint program information and addressed policy and administration issues. We revised materials and broader exposure will be forthcoming. The MBA as designed does not have tracks. (Some MBA programs do have finance, marketing, HR, etc. tracks). This is a design (only 2 electives) in the program) and a resource issue. In the short run, we have no plans to change the original design. (Bill McEachern) We currently offer 5 OD electives although some conflict with Saturday core courses. A Friday evening elective and summer OD elective(s) are available for students that are interested in this area. (That means they can

8 Would like more electives focused on issues that businesses are experiencing e.g. changes in our work force especially multi racial, multi-generational. Appreciate electives overlapping with other classes. This is great for networking and getting to know the strengths of other students. take 3/5). Every fall I survey MBA students regarding elective interests. Of 35 responses this fall, students expressed an interest in the OD courses currently offered. Only one student identified interest in additional OD courses in an open ended question asking for additional elective suggestions. In terms of specific courses, interest ranged from 3-15 students with the highest interest in the summer consulting course elective. I will discuss scheduling options with the MA Program Director to see if we can offer more Friday evening and summer choices. (Bill McEachern, MBA Program Director) What about an Organization Behavior track in the MBA program? I currently schedule one Brown Bag Lunch a semester on the weekend prior to registration. The focus is on advising and registration. This spring I will schedule an earlier Brown Bag Listening Session and invite the Dean of the Business School. I respond to individual students who contact me regarding questions and concerns. Sometimes the issue is such that a more public response is not appropriate. I will investigate strategies to address the feedback on feedback question. (Bill McEachern, MBA Program Director) The MBA program still has growing pains. Would appreciate more transparent feedback. We ve given feedback in the past but don t know how or if it s being used. We don t get feedback from our feedback. Perhaps there could be periodic meetings with the Dean and/or the Director of the Program. We are students, consumers, and ambassadors of the program and we need to feel confident about the program and our education. We would like direct contact with our Dean perhaps without the faculty in the room. The visibility/business connections question has arisen before. Every fall Jim Henderson organizes a leadership panel that brings business leaders on campus and provides an opportunity for interaction. The Alverno Global Breakfast Series has been another initiative to connect the Business School with the Business Community. We will continue to explore strategies to strengthen connections. Visibility of the program is important for recruitment but also for job placement of grads. I believe the new position in Admissions will provide opportunity for site visits to promote our grad programs. Perhaps there are ways to leverage outreach activities already in place. (Bill McEachern, Director of MBA Program) Is there any way that Alverno could make links to companies to assist Alverno students? Businesses often connect with particular schools. For

9 example, Target connects with Marquette. They have a lot of Marquette interns. Does Alverno have specific business links? It s difficult to explain the way Alverno teaches. Often businesses criticize MBA programs because their graduates are unable to think broadly. Alverno teaches the students to think broadly. How can we assist businesses to know what an MBA graduate from Alverno will help the business to do? Overall, we talk about the curriculum being REAL (relevant, experiential, active learning). We do this through the outcomes (strategic analysis, execution, innovation and creativity, global and cultural competence, ethical managing and leading) and through the Alverno Professional Competence Model that identifies competences in each of these areas. (Bill McEachern, MBA Program Director) Graduate Culture What is being done to instill a graduate culture? We have a number of things in place, including the use of LA 3 rd floor for grad classes, the spring luncheon, aspects of orientation, the graduate studies newsletter, etc. Are graduates involved in helping think about the programs? We have held focus groups in the MA adult education programs grads and current students to provide input. The development of the special education program involved some grads who work in that area. Is there a student grad council? Not at present. When we held an open meeting to follow up on ideas from the spring luncheon, we had very few attend. There are currently two MSN students serving on the Graduate Nursing Advisory Board. Could classes for the MA program be only on Saturday? In order to have students have options for classes to take without multiple conflicts, we need to use Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. All of the core courses are only on Saturday. (Mary Diez, Dean of the Grad Program) We will explore the suggestions about scheduling, although this is a challenge.

10 (Bill McEachern, Director of MBA program) Like the cohort. It creates an intimacy. Take advantage of that. The lunch last year with all the graduates was great. What about having lunches 2 x a year within the programs e.g. MBA lunch for all students? Bring students together so networking happens naturally. Periodically sponsor an event in the evening so that we could bring our spouses/partners. What about an MBA social hour? But involve the students in planning it. We ll be more invested then. The obvious time to meet is over lunch on Saturdays or following class on Saturday. I am reluctant to over schedule since there are several events already in place e.g. grad Council Forum, Conversation with the President, MBA Brown Bag. I do not want and cannot staff something every weekend. It is also a resource question since all MBA faculty teach from 8am 5pm. That said, this spring we could pilot an after-hours event during the week. There are also budget issues associated with such events. I will build funding into the next budget and explore some specific gatherings. (Bill McEachern, Director of MBA Program) Sponsor Dean lunches so that we can get to know them. Scholarships Are there opportunities for scholarships for the MBA program? We have no Alverno-funded MBA scholarships. Anywhere from 50-75% of our MBA students receive financial support from their employers. We included some scholarship strategies in our original MBA Business Plan. This is again a budget issue. There are external scholarship web sites that list scholarships for specific groups but often students must register and this generates additional spam . (Bill McEachern, Director MBA Program) Follow-up to this meeting Students would like follow-up on what happens as a result of this meeting. Good idea! We ll include a report of the meeting and the program responses in the grad studies newsletter. (Mary Diez, Dean of the Grad Program) Since some of these issues involve other areas e.g. Admissions, Marketing/Communications, other grad programs, input and responses from these other areas will be critical. I will schedule a listening session early next semester. We can use this as an opportunity to report back to the students and the School of Business Dean and I can solicit additional ideas from them. However, scheduling space on weekend college weekends can be challenging due to both internal and external

11 classes, events, etc. (Bill McEachern, Director of MBA Program) Questions to the President What is the strategic plan for the college? Mary Meehan said that her predecessor had been at Alverno for over 30 years. When Mary Meehan was hired, she was given an agenda for the future. The 8 goals were to: 1. Continue Alverno s national and international reputation of educational creativity 2. Increase enrollment to 2500 students, with particular emphasis on the growth of the weekday program 3. Complete the long-range facilities plan 4. Maintain financial stability and achieve stronger fiscal foundations for future growth and development 5. Increase faculty and staff salary and benefits 6. Continue the growth and strengthening of the board of trustees 7. Place greater emphasis on programs for students outside the classroom 8. Implement the recently completed marketing plan These goals are almost complete. We are increasing the enrollment to 3000 students with an emphasis now on increasing the graduate student population. For the future, we want to continue to be respected, to be the best we can be and to grow to 3000 students. What are the future masters programs? Currently there is a proposal to begin an educational track in Special Education. We would like to have a graduate program within each school of the college. We re looking for a Masters in Arts and Sciences. There is a possibility that we will be offering a masters in community counseling. Notes by Virginia Wagner Associate Vice President for Student Services