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In Brief
Sherry Shafer, LA'63, was named the new director of the the Drake Small Business Development Center and the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. The University's West Des Moines office and the campus office have been combined into one location at 2429 University along with the Pappajohn Center. Wendy DeVries, MBA'94, was selected to be the assistant director. The center offers new services and opportunities for entrepreneurs in a four-county area of Polk, Jasper, Warren and Marion as well as businesses from other counties that require certain special programs. The SBDC provides free, one-on-one confidential counseling to existing businesses and start-ups. It offers workshops, conferences and special programs. Other services provided by SBDC include a Web lab to help small businesses develop Web sites; international trade business assistance; "Made It," a mother-daughter program; and Quick Book Pro training. The statewide Targeted Small Business Marketing program is now located at the center. This new service promotes women, minority and handicapped entrepreneurs. The center also has an extensive small business library available for use by Drake students, faculty and entrepreneurs and contains tapes, magazines, research material, books, best sellers and other resources. A new Web site will be on the Internet in May. The Pappajohn Center offers $10,000 seed grants to Drake students seeking to start a new innovative/technology business in a twice-a-year competition. The center provides loan packaging, feasibility, strategic planning and other services to businesses. New programs are being planned, and collaboration and partnering with the other colleges at Drake as well as community organizations and businesses are growing. As part of the CBPA, the SBDC and Pappajohn centers held an open house on May11. For information, contact the SBDC at 515-271-2655.
Longfield Featured Speaker at Annual Business Days William H. Longfield, chairman and chief executive officer of C. R. Bard Inc., a business that develops, manufactures and supplies health care products that focus on vascular, urology and oncology disease states, was the keynote speaker at Drake University's annual Business Days Awards Banquet on April 5.
Longfield, who received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Drake in 1960, discussed many challenges he's faced during his 40-year career. Longfield joined C. R. Bard in Murray Hill, N.J., in 1989 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He became president in 1991 and CEO in 1994. He recently was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, the world's largest trade association for innovators and manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products and medical information systems. Other highlights of Business Days included a forum by Carl Williams, chief information officer of The Principal Financial Group, entitled "Information Systems in the Real World"; an ice cream social sponsored by Alpha Kappa Psi; and a banquet where more than 80 CBPA students received scholarships and honors. Drake's Business Days is made possible by Arthur Andersen LLP.
CBPA Students Learn About Adversities First-hand Tuesday, March 6, 2001, 50 CBPA students entered a world that most never had to face before. It was a world that illustrated the challenges of the disabled. Sponsored by the Drake Chapter of SHRM, two members of the Central Iowa Center for Independent Living (CICIL) came to Drake to speak about their jobs and to share information about people with disabilities. Bob Jeppesen and Frank Strong presented activities designed to give a better understanding of what it is like to live with a disability. Students were asked to form teams of two or three and help each other out at the various stops. Some of the students started at the "Blindness" station. Here, students wore darkened sunglasses and used a walking stick to find their way up and down the stairs. "Fine Motor Skills Improvement" was another station that allowed students to realize how hard it is to be confined to a wheelchair. The students then had to navigate their way through the hallways to the bathroom and water fountain. "Learning Disabilities" was a more challenging activity where students had to read a paragraph written backwards in order to experience what it would mean to have a learning disability. Students realized how hard and frustraiting having a disability can be. Finally students who thought that they had weathered the harder activities had one more to go through - "Speech Impediment." Here students faced the difficulty of trying to communicate clearly while three marshmallows were placed in their mouths. Their partners during this time asked them interview questions which they could not answer just "yes" or "no." One student commented on this exercise, expressing "how frustrating it was and I just wanted to get out the fastest answer possible without explaining, going into detail or spitting out one of my marshmallows." After students had completed all the activities, they asked questions and discussed their reactions to each activity. Overall, the students had fun and found the presentation very educational. Each of these activities allowed them to realize that we do take things for granted and, until placed in that situation, cannot understand how hard it is to live with a disability. This sensitivity training will be very beneficial to Drake students in working in the "real world." By Debbie Broneck
Behrends Joins
Drake Development Office
CBPA Grads Elected to Drake Board of Trustees Three of the four new members elected to the Drake University Board of Trustees are CBPA grads. They are:
The new members will serve three-year terms on the Board of Trustees, which meets four times yearly and serves as the University's policy-making and governing body.
New Nexus Hot Off the Press The spring 2001 printing marks the first edition of the newly redesigned Nexus. The newsletter has been reworked by Drake's Office of Marketing and Communications to give the publication a more reader-friendly, contemporary feel. In addition to the visual enhancements, the content of Nexus has been updated to include more Drake CBPA students, faculty and graduates in new and unique ways. If you have a comment on the newsletter or would like to contribute to Nexus, e-mail Editor Casey Gradischnig at casey.gradischnig@drake.edu or call 515-271-3779. |
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