October 15, 2018
This past Thursday and Friday was Fall Break for Appalachian, signaling the mid-way point in our semester. While our students take the time to rest and reset, we are looking ahead to coming events in the Walker College, including the Carole McLeod Entrepreneur Summit and student Pitch Your Idea contest on Friday, November 2. The event is open to the public; make plans to return to campus and hear a myriad of speakers sharing relevant experiences from industry. Keynote Rachel Jarosh, Global President and CEO of Enactus, will speak on Building a Sustainable World through Entrepreneurial Action. Her message aligns with our values at Appalachian. Ms. Jarosh will share how business can be a force for good in the world and how students are demonstrating that each day. I invite you to register today or learn more about the summit online, summit.appstate.edu. Below are just a few highlights we've experienced since classes began August 21.
A strong network
On September 29 Appalachian State University celebrated Homecoming, and the Walker College hosted hundreds of our alumni and friends at a tailgate at Peacock Hall. Opportunities like these help provide the foundation for long-lasting relationships and serve to strengthen our Walker College of Business network and our Appalachian family. I enjoyed a field-side introduction to the game-goers along with our fellow college's leaders.
Connecting Students to Jobs
On September 20, just six days after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, the Walker College hosted the sixth annual Business Connections event. While classes were canceled in the days prior to and immediately following the storm's slow trek through the state, our students were back to business by the big day, networking with represenatitves from more than 115 recruiting companies on campus. In pursuit of our mission to deliver transformational educational experiences, the Walker College continues to emphasize the importance of connecting industry professionals with our students. To many of the 1200 business students who attended, Business Connections was key to setting them on the path of connecting their academic experience here in Peacock Hall to their future success. Two weeks later, those who missed the event and those looking for additional opportunities to seek out internships or secure a full-time position attended the university-wide Internship and Job Fair hosted by the Career Development Center on October 3.
Celebrating a strong foundation for outstanding programming
On September 5 we celebrated our history and the legacy of the Dougherty family with a Founders Day celebration on the anniversary of the first day of classes at Watauga Academy in 1899. It was an opportunity for me to remember our college's founding families, too, including the Broyhills for whom our Broyhill Commons in Peacock Hall is named, and to reflect on a wealth of good our Appalachian family has done throughout the years. Read more about Founders Day. During the 2020-21 academic year, the Walker College of Business will pass its own 50th anniversary. Those we'll celebrate, who lay the foundation for our outstanding curricular and co-curricular programs, would be proud of the ever-present opportunity for students to engage and develop in our college. Our university continues to expand in key areas, including the health sciences. Many on campus attended the grand opening of Levine Leon Hall, home of our fellow campus college, the Beaver College of Health Sciences.
An energy of collaboration and innovation
Indeed there is an energy of collaboration and innovation on Appalachian's campus, most notably so here in Peacock Hall. Even from the first week of classes this semester -- through our Business Club Expo that gave hundreds of our students the opportunity to connect with student groups who are engaged in professional and social development -- and at Business for Good, which allowed many students and most faculty members the opportunity to learn how sustainable business practices relate to us all -- we have kept a few key goals close to heart: developing our network and meaningful connections with others and aligning our work in the Walker College with sustainability best practices.
