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Poole College Recognizes Spring 2011 Graduates

Dr. Ira R. Weiss, dean of the college, along with Dr. Shannon Davis, associate dean for undergraduate programs, and Dr. Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs in the college’s Jenkins Graduate School of Management, acknowledge the college’s valedictorians and other student honored for their academic and leadership accomplishments.

Weiss noted that the spring graduates, along with those graduating in December 2010, together are the college’s first year of students to graduate under the Poole College of Management name. Weiss noted that during the university’s commencement ceremony earlier that morning, NC State Chancellor Randall Woodson had referred to the college as the ‘cool Poole school.” The college had been named the Lonnie C. Poole Jr. College of Management in December in recognition of a $37 million endowed gift from Lonnie Poole, founder of Waste Industries, Inc.

During the college’s commencement ceremony, graduates were recognized individually on stage, as the name of each was called by members of their academic department’s faculty and staff. The college ceremony also included a chance for students to hear reflections from one of their peers, as well as remarks from an alumnus of the college.

Recognized at the ceremony were two graduates of the Graduate Economics doctoral program, 251 who received master’s degrees from the four programs in the college’s Jenkins Graduate School, and 529 who receive bachelor’s degrees through the college’s Office of Undergraduate Programs, including degrees in accounting, business administration, and economics. The Jenkins Graduate School includes the Master of Accounting, Master of Business Administration, Master of Global Innovation Management programs, and Graduate Economics programs which include doctoral and master’s degrees offered jointly with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences,

“As dean, this is always an especially meaningful time for me, and for our faculty and staff who have worked with you throughout your academic careers,” Weiss said. “There’s always a special thrill in welcoming you to the stage and extending a congratulatory handshake as you transition from students to alumni.”

Student speaker Jessica Giggey echoed that sentiment in her remarks. “We are all excited to be here today in the RBC Center, to celebrate our achievements with one another … and sitting here we have time to reflect on the journey that we have completed. We have all had different experiences along the way but our journey through NC State is what we have shared – it’s what binds us together.”

She also commented on the journey ahead, citing a remark by author Alex Noble: “Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey.”

Giggey, a native of Raleigh, N.C., received her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing. She is continuing her journey as an alumna of the college in the Washington, D.C., area where she has accepted a position as a sales representative with NetApp, a Fortune 100 data management firm. (Read her complete remarks.)

Picking up on the Giggey’s reference to the ‘ties that bind,’ Jeff Brock, a 1993 alumnus of the college, said in his presentation of the college’s Board of Advisors address, that graduation was also a time to create “new habits that bind,” including the habit of being active alumni. Brock has modeled that thought through his own involvement in the life of the college, including serving on the college’s advisory board and judging entries in its annual Leadership and Innovation Showcase.

In addition to serving on the college’s board, he is an avid supporter of Wolfpack athletics and a former president of both the Raleigh and Charlotte NC State Alumni Clubs. Read Giggey’s and Brock’s remarks.

Board of Advisors Outstanding Student Award

Brock also presented the college’s Board of Advisors Outstanding Student Award to Marycobb Brabham Randall.

The college’s Board of Advisors selects one student from those nominated by the college’s faculty for this award. Criteria include demonstrated leadership, campus and community service, and participation in personal and professional growth experiences while at NC State. Randall was selected from a slate of 22 nominees.

Originally from Greenville, N.C., Randall graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a finance concentration and a minor in accounting. She is both a Park Scholar and a University Scholar, was inducted into The Order of Thirty and Three and Beta Alpha Psi, an honorary organization for financial information students and professional. She was vice president of the honorary organization’s campus chapter. Randall also had been elected president of the University Student Centers Board of Directors and selected as a Chancellor’s Aide. She was one of two Poole College students to receive the university’s 2011 Mathews Medal recipients, recognizing her commitment to the university and promise as an alumni leader. (Read a story about Marycobb Randall.)

Randall had studied abroad in Mexico and mentored French students in the SKEMA program’s campus located on NC State University’s Centennial Campus. She also completed an internship with the Financial Connections Group. Randall will completed a summer internship as an audit and enterprise risk services intern at Deloitte and will enter the Master of Accounting Program in Poole College’s Jenkins Graduate School in fall 2011. Her career goal is to be a certified public accountant.

Poole College’s 2011 Board of Advisors Outstanding Student Award Nominees

  • Loid Richard Atkinson, IV
  • Madison B. Burke
  • Robert George Claybon
  • Bretton Saunders Danforth
  • Alexandra Leigh Doubrava
  • Mary Alice Duffy
  • Lauren E. Factor
  • David J. Gruetzke
  • Fredrik Daniel Christoffer Helminen
  • Jacqueline Beth Hobbs
  • Edwin Luke Jones
  • Maksym I. Maksymenko
  • Christian Manthey
  • Alejandra Maria Nauman
  • Marycobb Brabham Randall
  • Teryn Ann Shaw
  • Rebecca Louise Smith
  • Nicole Marie Teibel
  • Tara Allyson Sylvia Tripp
  • Rachel Louise Wheeler
  • Carole Anne Yow
  • Ming Yuan Zhong

2011 Highest Ranking Seniors

The college’s highest ranking seniors were also recognized at the commencement ceremony. These students achieved the highest grade point average in their programs of study for all courses taken at NC State. This year, all of the highest ranking seniors are also University Valedictorians.

  • James Wesley Cooper, business administration
  • Miloni Anil Dhulia, accounting
  • Kristen Gulledge, economics
  • Bruce Wayne Pressley, accounting
  • Ashley Christine Rice, business administration
  • Virginia Anne Sharp, economics
  • Rebecca Louise Smith, accounting
  • Rachel Louise Wheeler, business administration
  • Ming Yuan Zhong, economics

Students were acknowledged by department heads of each academic department and academic program directors and staff. Presenting the graduate economics program degree recipients were Dr. Doug Pearce, head of the Department of Economics, with Dr. Tamah Morant, director of Graduate Programs in Economics, reading the students’ names. Dr. Frank Buckless, head of the Department of Accounting, presented the Master of Accounting graduates, with Dr. Kathy Krawczyk, director of the Master of Accounting (MAC) Program, reading the names of the MAC graduates. Dr. Steve Allen presented the MBA program graduates, with John Hutchings, assistant director of the MBA program, reading the names of the MBA graduates. Dr. John McCreery, director of the MGIM Program, presented the MGIM graduates, with Stephanie Borrego, assistant director, reading the names.

Presenting and reading the names of graduates from the college’s Office of Undergraduate Programs were Dr. Frank Buckless, accounting department head, and Dr. Roby Sawyers, professor of accounting, for the accounting degree graduates; Dr. Art Padilla, head of the Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE), for the bachelor’s in business administration degree program. This program is offered jointly by the MIE department and the business management department, led by Dr. David Baumer. Reading the business administration graduates’ names were Dr. Srini Krishnamurthy, professor of finance in the business management department, and Dr. Roger Mayer, professor in the MIE department. Dr. Doug Pearce presented the economics bachelor’s degree recipients, with names read by Dr. Bobby Puryear, director of the undergraduate economics program.

Erin Whitford, a sophomore in accounting, served as head marshal for the ceremony, working with a team of 26 other undergraduate student marshals to keep the program running smoothly. Staff of the college’s various departments also assisted with the event.

Pinning with the new Poole College lapel pin

The college’s ceremony concluded with the college’s pinning ceremony, which had become a tradition with the spring 2007 graduating class when the college’s dean, Ira Weiss, ‘pinned’ the college’s first lapel pin on that semester’s senior class speaker Amanda Busick and invited all the new graduates to pin their fellow alumni. .

This time, Weiss, was presenting the college’s new Poole College lapel pin. As he pinned Giggey, he told the college’s newest alumni, “This pin represents your accomplishments as a student and your connection to all of our college’s graduates who have preceded you, as well as those who will follow,”

In his final remarks, Weiss encouraged the graduates “to wear your Poole College of Management pin often and proudly. As you encounter other Poole alums who do not have a pin, please do as we did today – take off your pin and ‘pin’ them. Then let me know and we will send you another. Through this pinning process, we hope to unite all Poole College of Management alums, and create the strongest alumni network within the entire University.”

He added, “As new alumni of NC State and the Poole College of Management, you now have the opportunity to help shape the lives of future students who come to the college with the same hopes and dreams that you brought here. As you move ahead in your careers, I hope you will seek out opportunities to return to campus – to remain engaged with the college by attending our public events and by sharing your professional experiences with students in our classrooms and at student organization meetings.

“Through your companies, you can give future students the kinds of experiences that helped you apply what you were learning in the classroom to real-world problems. Find ways within your companies to provide student projects and internships and to recruit our future graduates. We also encourage you to participate in our alumni events, where you will be able to renew friendships and form new ones within the larger body of Poole College of Management alumni.

And yes, we encourage you to participate financially, as active donors to your alma mater. The financial support of alumni and friends makes possible the programs and opportunities that strengthen the academic experience for future students – and at the same time, continues to increase the value of your degree from NC State’s Poole College of Management. … We look forward to building on the relationship that began when you entered NC State.”