Taking Care of Business
Personal and Professional Development Program Prepares Sidhu School Students for Success
Taking Care of Business
Personal and Professional Development Program Prepares Sidhu School Students for Success
By Vicki Mayk MFA ’13
Students see how AxelRad designed and printed its way to success.
Instructor Mary Simmons ’10, MBA ’16 shares a chart showing components of a new concept: emotional intelligence.
“Emotional intelligence is a great way to understand who you are,” says Simmons, who also is director of advancement and campaign operations at Wilkes. “It is defined as the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and the emotions of others and to manage them to be successful in interactions with others. High emotional intelligence is tied to being a good leader.”
She reviews the emotional intelligence components on the slide: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. In a few minutes, the students will be asked to identify their strengths and their weaknesses among the components. “Just because something is a weakness doesn’t mean you can’t work on it,” Simmons says.
The lesson on emotional intelligence is part of Personal and Professional Development 101, a required course for all first-year Sidhu students. Business majors take a one-credit Personal and Professional Development class in each of their four years in the College of Business and Engineering with the goal of preparing them to be business professionals by the time they graduate. Commonly referred to as PPD, it is the Sidhu School’s signature program.
Now in its 20th year as an integral part of the business curriculum, PPD and the Integrative Management Experience, also required of all first-year business students (see box), were praised in the peer review team’s evaluation when the Sidhu School earned its prestigious AACSB accreditation. In the team’s final report, the classes were highlighted among “Strengths, Unique Features and Effective Practices,” noting that they “help prepare students to learn about the totality of business early (IME) AND forces students to think about their future beginning in their freshman year (PPD).”
A Unique Concept
“It could never have happened without him,” Batory recalls. “He believed in it and provided the economic support we needed to get going. Jay was really interested in emotional intelligence, authentic leadership and experiential learning.”
The idea of emotional intelligence was pioneered by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. The concept remains part of the PPD curriculum. As the team researched the idea of a personal and professional development program for undergraduates, they discovered it was unique.
“When I was doing the literature review, the only thing I could find that was anything like it was at the graduate level,” Batory says, adding that Wilkes offered an environment that encouraged that kind of innovation. “I don’t think it could have been initiated at a large university. It would be too bureaucratic to do it.”
She says including community service in the IME experience was a priority. Student businesses choose a charity to be the beneficiary of their profits. “This showed our students that when you become a successful businessperson, you will see it’s important to be part of the community,” Batory notes.
The Cohen family has made a $1.5 million gift to fund the Cohen Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Wilkes University. The CCEI will give students valuable hands-on experience and provide small businesses with tools and resources to aid in their success. Learn more in the next issue of Wilkes magazine.
Sally Cohen, Lawrence “Larry” Cohen, Charles “Chuck” Cohen
Integrative Management Experience
“I was really scared when the syllabus said we were going to run a business,” Coleman recalls.
All first-year Wilkes business students share the IME experience. The year-long class — which also received praise during the AACSB accreditation process — gives students hands-on experience running a business. Each team sells a real product on campus, with proceeds benefiting a charity. The community service aspect of the class gets students thinking about the importance of giving back to the community as a business owner.
Looking back, Coleman says the IME class set her team — called the Sixth Dynasty — up for success. It provided the tools that enabled them to run a business that gave them a taste of what running a larger business is like. Their business produced a powder blue, long-sleeve shirt with a “W” in the corner and the word “Colonels” running down the spine. They sold it during club hours and proceeds benefited St. Jude’s Research Hospital.
“I can’t speak highly enough of that experience,” she says. “It really encompasses every part of business: finance, marketing, management. Whatever your major was, you got to experience it in that project.”
Seniors Succeed
Leveraging Lessons from PPD Program
“Professor (Bridget) Turel actually helped me get an internship last spring. So I’m very grateful for that,” says Richards, who interned with a small local firm before interning with PwC. “I think we do a good job at Wilkes, making sure students are getting an internship. The PPD program prepares you for that and for how to operate in the business world and in a professional setting.”
Those lessons came in handy during Richards’ PwC internship — an experience that began with a conference at Walt Disney World and ended with a return trip to the Florida resort for those who were offered jobs. Richards says that PwC assessed more than accounting skills among interns.
“The big emphasis…throughout the internship was on networking, asking questions, being personable, making sure you attend things regularly. It’s a people business. And the other big emphasis was continuous learning. If you were somebody who was willing to continuously learn then I think you’d probably be a great fit,” Richards says, noting that the PPD program promotes networking and developing skills to interact in business settings.
Brenda Arias, a senior hospitality management major, felt she also leveraged those lessons during her internship at the Hotel Hershey, a four-star luxury hotel. Arias says she first connected with hotel representatives at a campus career fair, eventually leading to an internship in hotel operations where she gained experience in front desk operations and guest services.
She praises the PPD program for the way it has helped her to focus on her goals and consider different career options. “It makes you think about what your major can do within other places,” Arias notes, saying that her internship made her realize she is more interested in hotel operations management.
The PPD lessons about emotional intelligence she heard as a first-year student are still relevant. “….I think having one of the (required) presentations centered around emotional intelligence made me figure out what it is that I need to work on when dealing with other people and in my professional life,” she says.
Senior business management major Brooke Coleman, who plans to enter the Wilkes 4+1 MBA program, agrees. Describing herself as “a little bit on the timid side” when she first came to Wilkes, she says, “I really credit a lot of my confidence in my own ability to speak to professionals to the business school and the opportunities they give us to network and grow that skill.”
Having those opportunities built into the curriculum makes it easy. Coleman, who is on the Dean’s Student Advisory Council in the Sidhu School, says, “In our second year, it’s a requirement to build a LinkedIn page and start thinking about your resume. You have to know your elevator pitch….We were required to submit that in the PPD course in the form of assignments. It’s as if they asked, ‘How can we best prepare our students to be successful in the business world?’”
A Map To Student Success
In the second year of the program, Sidhu sophomores build their credentials, including developing a resume and cover letters. “They also do mock interviews and a skills inventory,” Turel says. “We talk about doing internships for credit and about company culture. And then they attend the career fair on campus: that’s required.”
In the third year, students develop a personal mission statement, professional philosophy and an elevator pitch used to introduce themselves. They begin to create an e-portfolio using Google Sites and also obtain business cards and professional headshots. Students attend speaker presentations and a networking event. They also participate in mock interviews and learn about business and dining etiquette.
Although students in all four years of the program attend speakers and events, those opportunities form a significant part of the PPD experience for seniors. They attend off-campus site visits to companies such as Mondelēz International, screen-printing company AxelRad, Berkshire Hathaway GUARD and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. They also can attend on-campus speakers from companies as diverse as Jacobi Capital, Fastenal and Hershey Entertainment and Resorts.
A reverse career fair, first introduced in 2023, has employers visit students at their tables instead of students making the rounds of employers. At this unique event, students have a chance to practice their elevator pitches to introduce themselves to employers. Seniors also attend the College of Business and Engineering Internship and Career Fair.
Lasting Lessons
Jared Lyman ’08 and Marissa Treanor Lyman ’08 of Mertztown, Pennsylvania, were among the first students to benefit from the PPD program during their years at Wilkes. After graduating with degrees in entrepreneurship, both attest to those lasting lessons.
Marissa Lyman is a virtual lab manager for Zoetis, Inc., a Fortune 500 company and a leading manufacturer of medicines and vaccines for animals. She is responsible for working with and coordinating teams in a virtual lab environment, where she leverages what she learned at Wilkes.
“I felt PPD and IME prepared me to be a part of the working world and allowed me to feel confident in my ability to communicate. It taught me to value communication and how important this basic skill is… If you can relay respect and understanding to someone, no matter their level in a company or their personal background, you can be very successful,” Marissa Lyman says.
Her husband, Jared, agrees. He leads the human resources team for manufacturing, supply chain and transportation at BlueTriton Brands. In PPD, he acquired networking skills, friendships and learned the value of surrounding yourself with the right people.
Their classmate, Andrea Smallacombe ’08 of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, says she still applies what she learned in PPD in her work as a senior human resources specialist – labor and employee relations for Strategic Systems Programs in the U.S. Department of the Navy. She jokes that having to dress professionally for an 8 a.m. PPD class was not her favorite. “But I truly believe that helped to prepare me for what was going to be expected after graduation,” she says.
“An invaluable lesson that PPD taught me that I didn’t understand at the time — but now recommend to everyone I speak to about careers — is the importance of keeping an up-to-date resume on hand,” says Smallacombe, who majored in business administration with a marketing concentration and a minor in entrepreneurship. “I have become the go-to for many on providing resume reviews, and I warn them at the outset that I am a ‘red-ink queen’ because of the things I learned in PPD.”
Recent graduates also talk about the lasting lessons from the one-credit class. Ashley Abbey ’20, a marketing and management graduate, is director of development at Pottstown Beacon of Hope, a homeless shelter in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. She says she uses the networking skills learned in PPD in her job raising funds for her organization. She credits her early career success to the one-credit classes.
“The PPD program at Wilkes has not only helped me stand out as I begin my career but has also demonstrated to me the importance of ongoing personal and professional development,” Abbey says. “I firmly believe that my commitment to continuous personal and professional development is the reason why I am often the youngest person in a room, serving as the youngest board member of the Pottstown Library and have progressed to a director level early in my career.”
Jay S. Sidhu School of Business and Leadership Earns Elite AACSB Accreditation
“The analogy is, I went into the kitchen and saw that we have the ingredients, so let’s cook the meal,” Adekola says of the decision to embark on the seven-year accreditation process. “We just needed somebody to turn on the stove.”
Wilkes had all the ingredients necessary to meet the gold standard set for accrediting both undergraduate and graduate business education, but a little seasoning was needed, he says.
Adekola was right. The University announced in April that it had earned accreditation from AACSB, the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools, and the largest business education network connecting learners, educators and businesses worldwide. Less than 6% of the world’s schools offering business degree programs hold AACSB accreditation.
Seeking the accreditation requires more than submitting paperwork and completing an application. It involves a commitment to continuous improvement. After an initial application was approved, Sidhu School faculty and staff engaged in a self-evaluation process spanning more than two years. After that, another two years was spent making improvements and strengthening programs identified in the self-evaluation process. A team that included Ruth Hughes, associate professor and chair of the Department of Finance, Accounting and Management, Woojun Lee, associate professor, associate dean and director of graduate programs and Bridget Turel ’05, MBA ’07, director of professional development and external engagement, led the initiative.
Innovations made in the Sidhu School since 2017 relate to standards set by AACSB. Schools must demonstrate a focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curriculum development and student learning. This meant an increased emphasis on faculty research and scholarship. Adekola notes that Wilkes made a financial commitment to support research and to send faculty to present their work at international conferences.
That emphasis extended to students, who were required to complete research projects as part of their academic requirements. The launch of the annual Sidhu Research Symposium spotlighted their work. In many cases, students and faculty also worked together on research projects.
The accreditation process culminated in a site visit by a peer review team that included deans from other AACSB-accredited institutions. In addition to meeting with faculty and students in the Sidhu School, the team met with virtually every office and department that interacts with business programs. It included meetings with the registrar, bursar, provost, marketing communications department, students on the dean’s advisory council and others.
