Author Archives: Robin Florzak

Lori Holland Emerging Leaders (front row, L to R), students Desna Shah, Julia Zuzinski and Grace Haucke, celebrate the new Lori Holland Initiative for Women with (back row, L to R) donor Robert A. Holland and Lori Holland Memorial Scholarship winners Faria Mobashar, Diego Villasenor, Molly Ball and Nicole Juszczy.

The newly established Lori Holland Initiative for Women awarded its first scholarships this spring, part of its mission to elevate opportunities for DePaul women and their allies to advance in the fields of finance and investment management.

The multi-pronged initiative is funded by a generous gift honoring the late DePaul alumna Lorraine “Lori” Holland (BUS ’84) made by her husband, Robert A. Holland. Lori Holland was a first-generation business college graduate who rose to become managing director of investment management firm Neuberger Berman and serve as chair of DePaul’s Board of Trustees.

Students Nicole Juszczy, Molly Ball, Diego Villasenor and Faria Mobashar were awarded Lori Holland Memorial Scholarships and Grace Haucke, Julia Zuzinski, and Desna Shah received Lori Holland Scholarships for Emerging Leaders. Haucke, Zuzinski and Desna serve as president, treasurer and corporate relations chair, respectively, for Females in Finance (FIF), a student organization at the Driehaus College of Business.

“This initiative provides us with a platform to network, learn from industry leaders, and support each other in our journey towards becoming finance professionals,” Haucke says. “It reminds us that gender should never be a barrier to success, and that we have the power to break through glass ceilings and achieve our goals. Together, we are reshaping the landscape of finance and creating a more inclusive and diverse industry for future generations.”

The awardees were introduced at a summit of students and business leaders in finance hosted by the Holland initiative and FIF at the Union League Club on May 17.

In addition to scholarships, the initiative provides DePaul women students and alumni in finance access to career resources, workshops, group mentorships and other support services. In January 2024, DePaul will begin taking applications for another phase of the initiative, the Holland Scholars Program, which will offer a cohort of women undergraduates career education, experiential learning, mentorships and networking opportunities in investment management. The Lori Holland Initiative for Women is managed by the DePaul Career Center in collaboration with the Department of Finance & Real Estate at the Driehaus College of Business.

The Driehaus College of Business opened a new resource center in January that is infusing emerging technologies into student classwork and faculty research.

BETA Hub — short for Business Education in Technology and Analytics Hub — offers a collection of teaching and research resources that includes virtual reality headsets, a blog creators’ studio, a Neurobusiness Lab for conducting research based on eye-tracking and other neuroscience indicators, and a Big Data Analytics Computer Lab with tools for data and text analyses.

Housed on the 7th floor of the DePaul Center, the initiative is the brainchild of Associate Professor James Mourey, Associate Dean for Faculty Success Sue Fogel and the Driehaus Tomorrow Committee, a group of faculty and staff tasked with developing ideas that prepare DePaul’s business college for the future. This spring BETA Hub received nearly $100,000 in funding from DePaul’s Academic Growth and Innovation Fund to support its innovative teaching and learning activities.

“The BETA Hub is where technology meets business — a place for hands-on learning and the testing of transformational business solutions,” explains Mourey, who serves as the faculty director of BETA Hub. “Tech-savvy business graduates are in high demand. It is essential that we give our students the hands-on experiences necessary to make them the most attractive job candidates in the market.”

The initiative supports creativity in teaching and learning across the college, Mourey adds. “For example, instead of having students write a paper, faculty can ask students to create an original podcast to record over the 10-week quarter at the BETA Hub.”

BETA Hub also provides technology resources for faculty to advance their research. “To continue attracting the very best faculty, we need to provide innovative resources for faculty to pursue their research and obtain the publications necessary to be successful in their field. BETA Hub does that,” Mourey says, adding that the hub’s new monthly faculty research presentations also encourage interdisciplinary inquiry.

Mourey recently hosted a marketing strategy course in BETA Hub, where his students embraced using technology to study and develop strategies. “They were super eager to return to BETA Hub the next class session so they could work on their final group project in a fun, cool space full of technology resources,” he says.

“That’s what we want the BETA Hub to be: a space where students enjoy spending time, collaborating and learning, and it just so happens we can conduct research there, too.”