Inside Business Sept-Oct 2005

CBA Students Recognized for Excellence

The College of Business Administration has had an exciting start to the school year and its exceptional students have continued to leave their scholastic and leadership marks not only around the CBA, but all around SDSU.

Nine students have been cited for academic and service activities. Six of these students are active members of the CBA Honors Program which is designed to help develop business professionals who are aware of the current issues and problems affecting the local, national, and global business environments, and who are conscious of their social and ethical responsibility to the community and society. The following four CBA honors students represented SDSU at the CIBER competition at Ohio State University in October: Julie Simas, Accounting; Jamie McGhee, Accounting; Justin Walsh, Management; and Lance Schaeffer, Management. Honors program member, Jay Montenegro, Financial Services, participated in an Ethics Case Competition at University of Arizona in October with Brian Ascencio, Accounting.

Proving CBA students do not just limit themselves to academic arena, three students were recognized for their academic and service activities and were selected to participate in 2005 homecoming events. Augustus Gatto, Finance & CBA Honors; Michele Hocking, Integrated Marketing Communications; and Katy Risman, Hospitality and Tourism Management; were members of this year’s Homecoming Court.

Gatto also was San Diego State’s Wall Street Journal 2005 Student Achievement Award Winner and was mentioned in the paper alongside other national winners on September 21.

Student and Professor Collaborate to Publish Article on Corporate Governance

A new article entitled “Corporate Governance in South Africa: A Bellwether for the Continent?” by SDSU MBA Melinda Vaughn and management faculty member Lori Verstegen Ryan was accepted for publication in Corporate Governance: An International Review.

The article began as a term paper written by Vaughn for Professor Ryan’s Management 743 Corporate Governance Seminar. Ryan read the paper and was tremendously impressed, prompting her to contact Vaughn to ask if she would like to collaborate to get it published.

“It was one of the most incisive, carefully researched, and elegantly presented arguments that I’ve received from any of my MBA students. With some work I believed it could be a publishable piece,” Ryan said.

In the spring of 2004, Ryan and Vaughn began work on the article. It was sent for review in June 2004 and, after scholarly reviews and additional revisions, it was resubmitted in June 2005. Almost six months later, they received news of their article’s acceptance in Corporate Governance: An International Review.

“I was shocked and honored that Dr. Ryan thought so highly of my work that she would want to collaborate on getting it published,” Vaughn said. “I cannot say enough good things about this experience. What a great way to cap-off my educational experience at SDSU.”