Dear colleagues,

Happy New Year! I hope everyone’s semester is off to a great start. 

As we plan for the year ahead, I am especially excited about expanding high-impact experiences for all of our students. This is a key focus area of the college’s Strategic Framework (Goal 1, Theme 1) for good reason: Research shows that students who participate in high-impact experiences are more career-ready and see better job market outcomes. 

I believe in the value of high-impact experiences as part of our holistic approach to developing leaders who are prepared — and inspired — to make the world a better place to live and work. 

Thanks to the generosity of a donor family, our new Director of High-Impact Experiences, Tyler Wiersma, joined the college in October. He brings a wealth of higher education experience to the role, most recently having led undergraduate professional development initiatives in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNC Greensboro. 

Tyler’s top priorities are: 

• Develop an inventory of current high-impact experiences (HIE) available to Poole undergraduate students to streamline processes and increase awareness of HIE among faculty, staff and students.
• Elevate and expand accessible and equitable high-impact experience opportunities for Poole undergraduate students with the goal of getting every student to participate in at least one HIE during their academic career.
• Provide a platform for students to track their HIE progress, reflect on their experience(s), and equip them with the skills needed to articulate key takeaways and transferable skills to various audiences.

High-impact experiences can include practicums, project-based courses, global experiences and more. There are many excellent examples of Poole College faculty providing high-impact experiences to their students. I would like to highlight a few for our undergraduate students here: 

• Pieter Verhallen, assistant teaching professor of marketing, coaches student teams at national and international case competitions. One of his recent teams made a splash at a national innovation challenge with their unique proposal. 
• Reza Estilaei, professor of practice in business management, teaches a portfolio management course through which students use cutting-edge industry methods to implement theory into practice.
• Jessica Yinka Thomas, director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative and associate professor of practice, teaches a sustainability practicum known as B Corp Clinic, through which students are paired with aspiring B Corporations to help them strengthen their social and environmental impact. 
• Patrice Nealon, senior lecturer of marketing, teaches a practicum in which students develop digital marketing campaigns for industry clients. 
• Patrick Flynn, assistant professor of human resource management, teaches several courses that offer team consulting projects including the HR practicum, through which a student team works hand-in-hand with client organizations to address a business problem.
• Haley Huie is an assistant professor of practice and director of NC State’s Entrepreneurship Clinic, through which students work with startup, corporate, nonprofit and government agencies to achieve organizational goals.

Again, these are a small sample of the numerous high-impact experiences offered in Poole College. They represent a tremendous foundation upon which we can build as we aim to expand opportunities to all of our students. 

For further insight into the college's critical discussions, I invite you to review the Executive Team meeting minutes located on the faculty and staff shared drive. 

Thank you for all you do for Poole College!

Best,

Frank Buckless

Stephen P. Zelnak Jr. Dean

Poole College of Management