Pi Sigma Epsilon is hosting their 8th annual Giving Tree from November 9 - December 4.  Giving Tree is their biggest community service event for which they won top service project for at their National Convention last year.

Giving Tree is designed to provide presents to children in need in the Bloomington-Normal area.  Please help by picking an ornament up off the tree located in the College of Business Atrium and purchasing a $10-20 gift.

Return the gifts to any drop box located on all floors of the College of Business by December 4.  Wrapping is appreciated but not required.

Monetary donations are also welcome in the form of cash or check, made to Pi Sigma Epsilon, to the Marketing Department - COB 352, Campus Box 5590  c/o Jan Staley.  Thank you and Happy Holidays!!

Congratulations are in order to Doug Johnson, Senior Insurance & Finance major, for winning recognition by the prestigious Lincoln Academy!

The Lincoln Academy of Illinois will honor outstanding senior college students during the annual Student Laureate Convocation at 11 a.m. Saturday, November 7 the Old State Capitol State Historic Site in Springfield.

The Lincoln Academy’s Student Laureate Awards are presented for excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities to seniors from each of the four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities in Illinois.

At the Student Laureate Convocation, each will receive a Student Laureate Medallion, along with an honorarium check and certificate of achievement.  This event will mark the 35th year that students have been honored by the Academy.

“These students have exhibited a personal commitment to excel as seen by their remarkable academic accomplishments,” said John B. Simon, Chancellor of the Lincoln Academy, who added, “They serve as role models to other Illinois students.  With hard-working and dedicated young leaders such as these, Illinois and the rest of the nation can look forward to a bright future.”

Honorable Richard Mills, Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, will deliver the keynote address.  The invocation will be delivered by Academy Trustee Rev. Ruben I. Cruz, and the benediction will be given by Southern Illinois University Carbondale Chancellor Dr. Samuel Goldman.  The Sangamon Woodwind Consort will provide music, and a luncheon at the Illinois Executive Mansion will follow the Student Laureate Convocation.

The Lincoln Academy, unique among the 50 states, was established 45 years ago to honor Illinois’ most distinguished citizens with the state’s highest award, the Order of Lincoln.  The 2010 Order of Lincoln Convocation will be held April 17, 2010 in Chicago.

Dean Johnson would like to invite you and your family to join him along with department chairpersons, faculty and staff for a continental breakfast and open house on:

November 7, 2009
8:30 – 11:00 am
College of Business Building

There will be opportunities to:

• Meet and mingle with the Dean, professors and staff
• Explore the building and all of the specialized technology rooms at your leisure including:
  • Financial Markets Lab
  • Marketing Focus Group Room
  •  Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation Professional Sales Learning Lab
  • Attend a presentation on Summer Study Abroad at 10:00am

We look forward to seeing you then!

The Professional Sales Institute is proud to host one of the top-rated sales career fairs in the country.  Held during the fall semester each year, this special-focus, Sales Career Fair brings over 45 companies interested in hiring sales professionals together with over 200 students interested in sales careers.

Participate in the Sixth annual Professional Sales Career Fair and Networking Reception to be held Wednesday, October 21, 2009 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Bone Student Center. The event will provide company representatives an opportunity to interact with students who are interested in pursuing a career in sales, and enjoy light appetizers throughout the event. The combined event will provide the formality of a traditional career fair plus a more informal setting wherein company representatives can socialize with interested candidates.

• Recruiters – Please join us!  Register today and come to the 2009 Sales Career Fair ready to meet outstanding candidates looking to begin their professional selling careers. To ensure your company information is included in the Fall 2009 career section of our magazine, submit your completed registration form and pledge by September 30, 2009.

• Students – Register Today! Save the date and make plans to attend the Sales Career Fair and learn more about professional sales positions offered by some of the country’s leading sales organizations.  Make sure your resumes are up-to-date.  Dress is business professional.

More than 70 accounting students will learn what it takes to be criminal investigators with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during a day-long fraud investigation simulation at Illinois State University on Friday, Sept. 18.  The students will take part in the IRS’s “Adrian Project” Student Fraud Conference to solve hypothetical financial crimes using forensic accounting techniques.

IRS special agents are sometime referred to as “accountants with guns.”  The “Adrian Project” allows students to experience the inner workings of a fraud investigation through the eyes of IRS special agents and learn about forensic career opportunities open to students with degrees in accounting.

Students will work in groups under the direction of current and retired IRS special agents to investigate crime scenarios such as business owners skimming funds from their company, a bar owner who keeps two sets of books, a multi-filer tax scheme, and a drug trafficking operation.  In addition to using forensic accounting to follow a paper trail of financial wrongdoing, students will employ the tools available to federal law enforcement officers, including the use of undercover operations, surveillance, subpoenas, and search warrants.  Participants will also make mock arrests of suspects in the crime scenarios.

“The ‘Adrian Project’ fraud investigation simulation is a great out-of-class experience for students,” said Gerry McKean, interim chair of Illinois State’s Department of Accounting.  “It gives students a chance to see the forensic accounting and criminal investigation work done by IRS special agents and learn more about an exciting career option in governmental accounting.”

The Great Urban Race is exactly that.  Founded by College of Business entrepreneurial program graduate Joseph Reynolds ’03 these fun challenges have already been a hit in 20 major cities across the United States.

So grab a partner, solve 12 clues and complete fun challenges while discovering the Normal community in a fresh way. The Great Urban Race, which is just one fun part of Homecoming, begins at 10 a.m. on October 16th  at the Alumni Center and ends on the Quad.

A portion of your registration fee will help establish the ISU Student Foundation Service Award Scholarship.

Prizes: $300 and free entry to the New Orleans national championship for first place, $150 and free championship entry for second place, free championship entry for third place, best costume, funniest pictures, and top family team. There is a $1,000 cash prize to the group that signs up the most teams.

To register go to www.greaturbanrace.com. The cost is $45 per person through September 21, with the fee then increasing to $55 per person until October 15, and $70 per person on race day.

Interested in learning more? Visit http://illinoisstatehomecoming.com/events/great-urban-race to find out about the company go to www.greaturbanrace.com.

The College of Business is pleased to announce the 2009-2010 Caterpillar Excellence Fund Scholarship Winners.  Seventy-six highly-qualified applicants applied for a scholarship and 10 students were selected to each receive a $2,500 award.  Please take a moment to congratulate those students that you know.

2009 Caterpillar Excellence Fund Scholarship Recipients:

• Brittany Applegate - Sophomore, Finance Major
• Hussein Badrudin - Senior, Accounting Major
• Elisabeth Bellinger - Senior, International Business Major
• Chelsea DuBois - Senior, Entrepreneurship Major
• Elizabeth Flores - Sophomore, Entrepreneurship Major
• Kyle Koniewicz - Sophomore, Marketing Major
• Kristen Mense - Senior, Business Information Systems Major
• Kelsey Rayphole - Junior, Marketing & Business Administration Major
• Carlos Torres - Junior, BS/MPA Major
• Patrick Wu - Junio, Finance Major

The College of Business is pleased to announce the 2009-2010 Archer Daniels Midland Scholarship recipients.  Seventy-five highly-qualified students applied for a scholarship.

Nine were selected; each receiving a $3,000 award.

2009-2010 Archer Daniels Midland Scholarship Recipients:

• Michael Belpedio,  Junior Finance major
• Ashley Brewer,  Graduate student, BS/MPA
• Joseph DeLazzer,  Senior Finance major
• Lisa Martin,  Senior Accounting major
• Rebecca Meyer,  Graduate student, MSA
• Kyle Newnam,  Senior Accounting major
• Amy Paulsen,  Graduate student, MBA
• Amanda Preston,  Junior Accounting major
• Daniel Tadder,  Junior Finance major

Beta Gamma Sigma is the national scholastic honor society in the field of business administration recognized by AACSB International -– The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.  Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is considered one of the highest recognitions that a business student anywhere in the world can receive in an accredited business program.

A formal induction ceremony is held each spring to recognize the scholastic achievements of individual students. To be eligible for membership, students’ academic rankings must place them in the upper 10 percent of the junior class, upper 10 percent of the senior class, or upper 20 percent of master’s graduates.

The 2008/2009 Beta Gamma Sigma Induction Ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 25th at 2pm in the Caterpillar Auditorium.  An open reception will follow in the Atrium.  We will welcome this year’s class and recognize our Chapter Honoree, Robert Crowell ’95, Senior Vice President of Development for E.ON Climate and Renewables North America.  Mr. Crowell will speak at the event and will be available at the reception that follows.

You can learn more about the benefits of membership by visiting the national Beta Gamma Sigma web site.

Learn more about Robert Crowell,  our Chapter Honoree.

Members of our various Advisory Councils, our corporate partners and recruiters consistently tell us that students entering the work force must have soft skills that compliment all they are mastering through coursework. They know Illinois State’s College of Business students are very well-prepared academically, but have asked that we continue helping our graduates develop skills that truly differentiate them from other candidates competing for the same positions.

The array of events that comprise Business Week 2009 are designed specifically to build these competencies and truly capture the spirit of Educating Illinois. They also provide valuable opportunities for alumni and external partners to get connected and hear the perspectives of top business leaders from across the nation. The Business Week 2009 brochure has all the details you’ll need.

http://www.cob.ilstu.edu/pdfs/business_week_brochure09.pdf