|
> College of Business
College of Business
This page highlights College of Business faculty
and staff who have demonstrated the best of what we want to be. If you have had a positive experience with one of our faculty or staff
that you would like to share, please e-mail your experience to the Office
of the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance (braymond@montana.edu),
and we'll add it to this page. Thanks!
December 2007
Dear College of Business Administration:
My name is Travis Lulay and I graduated from the Montana State College of Business in December of 2006 with an emphasis in Finance. I am writing this letter to show appreciation for the effort of Professor Greg Durham, who served as my academic advisor in the aforementioned department from the spring semester of 2004 through the fall semester of 2006.
Professor Durham had always been an informative, hard-working, and knowledgeable person in my interactions with him, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2006 that I was truly aware of what an asset he is to Montana State’s College of Business. I had decided to leave school in the spring semester of 2006, with just thirteen credits remaining to graduate, in order to pursue a career in professional football. The decision was difficult, but after discussing it with several people close to me, including Professor Durham, I made the best decision for myself at the time. I was released from my professional team that next September, and decided to finish my schooling in the fall semester of 2006. This is where Professor Durham stepped up to the plate.
During the first week of school I was trying to develop the same schedule of classes I would have taken the previous spring semester. I met some resistance, however, when I realized the only Finance electives (I needed one more Finance elective to graduate) offered that fall were ones that I had already taken. The problem was that I was not going to be able to attend school during the spring of 2007 since I would be pursuing other professional football opportunities, so I needed to graduate in the fall.
After meeting with Greg, I found that there was one other student in the same predicament as myself (needing to graduate in December) and there was a solution. Greg developed an independent study course, Finance 470, that would count as my final Finance elective! This course was not in the course schedule, and Greg used his own free time in between all his other classes to meet with us. Not only was the course convenient and necessary for us, it was an informative course that I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to take. Had he not been willing to sacrifice his time and energy for us, I still would not have my degree as my professional endeavors have taken me all over the world since that fall.
Greg’s efforts to help me graduate did not stop with that class. Late in October of that same fall, I was flown across the country to pursue a potential future job opportunity in Florida. When I got there, I was informed by the prospective employer that they might want me to stay there and they would let me know the next morning. This news caught me off guard, and it made me a little nervous since I was deep into the semester and close to getting my degree. I didn’t want to have to start over at a later time. I made a call to Professor Durham, not expecting to hear back from him that day, but just to give him a head’s up. To my surprise, I got a call back within a couple hours. Not only did he inform me that I would not lose credit for my work with him if I stayed in Florida, but he had taken the time to speak to my other professors in the College of Business and inform them of my situation as well! Needless to say, that conversation eased my mind and made a potentially difficult situation much more manageable.
Professor Durham went above and beyond the call of duty to help me graduate, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the effort and concern he showed for me as my advisor during my college years. Montana State is fortunate to have such a staff member in the College of Business.
Respectfully,
Travis Lulay
Thanks Greg, You Made My Day!
October 2007
Mr, Semenik,
I wanted to take time out of my day to send this kudos for Dan Moshavi to you. My experience in his BUS 301 class has been exceptional. I have some background in management and am aware of the material discussed in his class. This being the case, I am still excited to learn in his class. His style and interaction is beyond that of most educators. It feels more like a seminar in motivational learning that I would expect to pay for. I have paid for such events (religious and real estate) and definitely see him as that caliber of speaker. He's an asset to the CoB and hope this bodes him well.
Appreciatively,
Gabriel Alexander
Thanks Dan, You Made My Day!
August 2007
As part of the parent’s breakfast during new student orientation the parents are asked to come to the microphone and share “their story.” This invitation is to encourage parents to tell why their son or daughter chose MSU. At breakfast on Thursday, August 23rd I heard an amazing story from a New Hampshire mother.
When considering where to go to college her son was giving serious consideration to the MSU accounting program. During the time they were researching MSU they contacted a member of our accounting faculty to get more information. It took some time but eventually the decision was made to come to MSU.
They were not able to find two coach plane tickets to fly to Bozeman, so, they booked one ticket on Northwest Airlines and another ticket on United. Their flights were scheduled to both arrive in Bozeman at about the same time. Unfortunately, her flight was delayed and it was clear that she would be stranded in Denver over night. During her lay-over in Chicago she tried to call her son to let him know that she would be stranded, but his plane was in the air so she left a voice mail message for him. Then, she called her contact in the accounting faculty to see if anything could be done to meet her son at the Bozeman airport when his flight arrived at 11:00 pm. Unfortunately, no one answered the phone. So, she left a pleading voice mail message asking if this faculty member would make arrangements to have someone pick up her son and take him to a local motel.
When her plane landed in Denver she checked her cell phone and found two voice messages waiting for her. One was from her son indicating that he was just boarding his plane in Minneapolis and was headed for Bozeman, wondering what was the plan? The second message was from the faculty member indicating that he and his wife would be picking up her son and taking him home with them for the night---no point in spending your first night in Bozeman alone in a motel room. She quickly dialed her son’s cell phone number and found that he was on the ground in Bozeman and was waiting for his luggage with the accounting professor.
Later I learned that Marc and Marianne Giullian had prepared a sign with the student's name, met him at the airport, put him up for the night, fed him breakfast and took him to the dorms to get him checked in.
Thanks Marc (and Marianne), you made my day!
April 2007
Dear MSU College of Business,
Thank you for the 2006 Annual Report! I am happy to see the great and future success the COB will continue to have. I must say I am so happy about the education I recieved in your program. I now own my own businesses. Since I graduated from COB, I went into real estate in Rapid City, S.D. A lot of my associates ask me, "Why did you get a degree if you were only going to go into real estate?" Well, with just three and a half years at Coldwell Banker, I've successfull branded myself as the top commercial broker. I now average over $30 million a year in sales volume with commissions over $500,000. I've bought a club that was in foreclosure and revamped the business model and now experience over $600,000 in liqour sales there. I've also bought a motel in Deadwood and started a casino and now own the largest amount of "Main St" frontage in Deadwood that is considered "non-historic". I also have increased my real estate holding and have gotten into the apartment complex market. All of this was due to my great education I recieved from you. I now am in the top 1% of all Coldwell Banker agents in the world, being licensed in multiple states in the midwest. It's the business values that were so important. Things like ethics, marketing, and all of the real world experience.
Thanks again,
Luke T. Lester
Thanks Luke, You Made My Day!
|
