Monthly Archives: April 2015

The Medline DePaul MBA cohort takes classes at the company’s Mundelein, Ill., headquarters through a partnership forged by DePaul’s CEO Initiative.

A new university initiative is giving employees at large Chicago corporations another way to attend DePaul. Thanks to DePaul’s Corporate and Employer Outreach (CEO), instead of hopping on a bus or train and commuting to campus, employees can head to a classroom or conference room at their workplaces to earn degrees.

“The flexibility of being able to walk down the hall and start a graduate degree right after a busy workday is a real benefit to the employee,” says Suzanne Depeder, DePaul’s associate vice president for Graduate Admission in Enrollment Management and Marketing. “Employers benefit as well because talent development is a key driver of organizational growth and success.

They are able to offer their employees an onsite degree program and tuition reimbursement as part of a strategy for improving their talent and keeping them from moving to competitors.”

The CEO Initiative partners with area corporations to identify and customize degree and certificate programs that help employers develop their workforces. The partnership involves DePaul offering scholarships to employees, who then either take courses through an onsite program or attend any of the 150 undergraduate or graduate degree programs offered on campus. DePaul lets employees know about potential degrees through onsite information sessions, as well as lunch and learn seminars featuring professors.

For companies that choose onsite programs, it’s a significant benefit that employees don’t have to commute to campus. One such company is Medline, a major manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies that is headquartered in Mundelein, Ill., near the Wisconsin border. The company launched an MBA cohort in 2014.

“The CEO Initiative helps DePaul reach a broader prospective student base, in that we can connect with students who might not have considered us simply based on location,” Depeder explains. “The Medline cohort is a great example of how this initiative has allowed us to expand our geographic reach.”

Associate Professor of Management William Marty Martin says he appreciates what the programs offer to all parties. “The benefits to students and alumni are invaluable, from securing employment to moving up the ladder. For DePaul, we get exposure and placements for our students,” says Martin, who has spoken at onsite lunch and learns about DePaul’s Health Sector Management MBA concentration and other degrees.

In its first year, the CEO Initiative recruited two onsite cohorts, bringing in 70 students. Depeder expects the program to grow because of its utility to students and corporations alike. “Employers are looking at things they can offer to their employees as benefits, so the fact that we are able to offer a flexible delivery model is attractive. Plus, it’s a good retention strategy for their employees,” Depeder says. “It’s much easier to figure out how to give people professional development and benefits to keep them than to recruit all over again.”

Marriott Scholars Elanna Smith and Sofija Veta participate in a teamwork exercise with Marriott Sous Chef Craig Moisand, as Visiting Associate Professor Nicholas Thomas watches.

This year, the School of Hospitality Leadership is expanding its undergraduate professional development opportunities with a unique partnership. A $200,000 gift from the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation led to the launch of the Marriott Hospitality Scholars Program, which provides 10 freshmen and 10 juniors each a $10,000 J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Hospitality Scholarship, paid over a two-year period.

The scholars program benefits students in different ways. For freshmen, the program’s activities are designed to spark an interest in choosing a hospitality major or minor. For juniors, the scholarship provides support for students completing a hospitality degree. In addition, each underclassman is paired with an older student in a mentee-mentor relationship. “The juniors are sitting on a wealth of information that the freshmen can tap into to help them progress through their academic careers at DePaul,” says Visiting Associate Professor Nicholas Thomas.

Nothing similar existed at DePaul, so Thomas and instructor Brian Barker created a format that mirrors a management-training program. Students complete workshops based on key areas of hospitality, such as effective communication, managing conflict, culture and diversity, before touring local Chicago Marriott properties and seeing how hotel leaders are applying the concepts.

The program “is designed to give an opportunity to get an education and to transition into hospitality to people who might not have been afforded that opportunity before,” Thomas explains. When weighing student applications, the selection committee considered whether potential scholars had faced hardship and whether they were first-generation college students.

Elanna Smith, a junior majoring in communication studies and minoring in hospitality leadership, enjoys being a Marriott Scholar for the added benefits the scholarship provides.

“Besides financial support, I was fully equipped with the proper materials for a professional career. Plus, I have 19 other scholars who share the same interests,” says Smith, who secured a summer internship through the program to work for a Marriott brand. She says her interest in hospitality grew from watching her mother run a cleaning company. “Sometimes I would go to work with her, and it was a great feeling to see someone satisfied and happy with our service,” Smith says.

Despite strong ties with the Marriott brand, the program does not require that students go to work for the company after graduation. Rather, the program is designed to give students a clearer idea of hospitality management as a whole, which can be difficult to understand without firsthand experience.

“That’s why when we go to the properties, I really want students to interact with leaders who are actually working to get a real understanding of what their careers are going to be like when they go into hospitality,” Thomas says. “We sometimes have a difficult time doing that in the classroom, so anything we can do now while the students are in school to give them a realistic impression makes the transition post-graduation that much easier.”

One unique aspect of the partnership is how it expands the ways that industry representatives normally interact with students. “What I’ve been really happy with is Marriott’s passion to participate in this. It’s really great to see,” Thomas says. “So often, the relationship that we see with industry is really guest speaking and maybe coming in for an event. The interaction and the networking that these students have with the industry is remarkable. That’s priceless for the students, and I think this is really going to ignite their desire to go into hospitality. I’ve already gotten emails from students saying how much this means to them. I think they appreciate that Marriott and DePaul have taken an interest in their success.”

Continue reading with Top Tax Firm Partners with DePaul.

By Jennifer Leopoldt

Presenting business solutions to industry leaders as class projects. Connecting with executives for real-life lessons in the field. Learning without leaving the office. The Driehaus College of Business’s deep ties to the business community allow DePaul students to benefit in all of these ways and more, whether through undergraduate opportunities or graduate level linkages. Connections with corporations and firms help students develop marketable skills and prepare them for in-demand careers. For alumni, these connections help build career-advancing networks, as well as DePaul affinity and pride. Read more about some of the initiatives that connect DePaul to industry and showcase how a real-world, career-focused business education benefits everyone involved.

• Sales Leadership Program Pairs Academia and Business
• Marriott Shows Hospitality to DePaul Students
• Top Tax Firm McGladrey Partners with DePaul
• CEO Initiative Brings the Classroom to the Workplace

In 2004, 3M was the first corporation to approach DePaul about developing a sales leadership education program. “Today, we have 64 business partners—companies that provide funding and internships, guide curriculum design, lecture in classes, coach students, provide technologies and data for projects, and offer outstanding career opportunities,” says Dan Strunk, executive in residence and managing director of the Center for Sales Leadership. “This collaborative effort between business and academia is preparing the next generation of talent. Everyone wins—the students, the businesses and the university.”

The center partners with Fortune 500 companies, including PepsiCo, Chase, MillerCoors and Wrigley, to shape its curriculum and stay relevant in an ever-changing job market. Students in the Sales Leadership Program can earn a minor or concentration by choosing between two tracks: sales in any industry or category management in the consumer products industry, which looks at grouping products to optimize relevance and sales.

Alexis Gordon (BUS ’14), Tyler Hensala (BUS ’13), Claire Hanold (BUS ’13) and Simone Caron-Vera (BUS ’15) connected to careers at PepsiCo through DePaul’s corporate partnerships.

The program’s case-study structure lets students merge theory with practice and provides immediate interaction with company representatives. Leah Sbigoli (BUS ’11) remembers working with Walgreens and Roundy’s in a space management class to create a business plan for optimizing energy drink sales. “In the end, we got to present to the actual category managers at the company and show them our recommendations. I felt like I was seeing the immediate benefits of my education,” says Sbigoli, who now is a space management analyst for partner company Walgreens.

Ren Stoecklin (BUS ’13) agrees. “You knew that you were being given real-life data and that at the end of the quarter, you’d be presenting to industry experts. It really forced you to not just consider it a school assignment, but to consider it a job interview every time you were presenting a final,” says Stoecklin, who worked as a category analyst in partner company Red Bull’s graduate program, an 18-month rotational program for leadership training.

Another program graduate, Claire Hanold (BUS ’13), was impressed by how welcoming the corporate partners were. “They never once treated us like we were college students; they treated us like their business partners and wanted to help each of us individually in any way they could,” says Hanold, who is now a category analyst for partner company PepsiCo’s Foodservice Division. “As an alumna looking back, I owe my success to this program. The professors provided me with the tools and resources to be successful and helped me make connections with our incredible business partners along the way.”

The center’s corporate partnerships also help students see how schoolwork can prepare them for life—and employment—after graduation.

“A lot of time in the classroom concepts and theories can get lost on students if they can’t find a way to apply them to real-life situations,” Sbigoli notes. “By DePaul having connections to companies through the Sales Leadership Program, students can apply [lessons] taught in the classroom directly to their work with these companies. This helps students form connections early on with these companies and develops their skills over time. Students graduate from the program already knowing what to expect from the position they want, and in return companies have a reputable candidate pool to choose from.”

Continue reading with Marriott Shows Hospitality to DePaul Students.