Director's News Brief - Spring 2020

A portrait of Greg Filbeck, director of the Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend

I'm pleased to share the latest edition of the Black School of Business Director's Briefing—a way for us to keep you up to date on exciting happenings within our school.

The School of Business promotes engagement, fosters collaboration, and makes a real impact on the lives of students, alumni, stakeholders, and industry partners.

I'd like to share with you a number of the exciting highlights from our school, a testament to our commitment to excellence in education.

Sincerely,

Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA, CIPM, PRM
Director, Black School of Business
Samuel P. Black III Professor of Finance and Risk Management
[email protected]

Black School of Business Adds 11 Bloomberg Terminals

The Black School of Business expanded the number of Bloomberg Terminals from one to twelve. Ten of the computers are in 153 Burke, a financial services lab. This space allows for classroom exercises and engaged instruction. Finance major Ben Lowery ’20 is offering multiple sections of five different courses open to all faculty and staff to provide tutorials on how to use the Bloomberg Terminals. Read more about the expansion of Bloomberg services here.

Intrieri Family Student-Managed Fund Approaches $900,000

A fund drive launched in late fall targets a goal of $1 million for the Intrieri Family Student-Managed Fund. Once this level is achieved, a scholarship program for students involved with the fund will be launched. The value of fund as of February 23 stood at $889,171. Black School of Business students learn through experiences supported by stakeholders who take an active interest in the success of tomorrow's business leaders. Your gift to Penn State Behrend helps enhance important initiatives for our business students, including:

growing the Intrieri Family Student Managed Fund to $1 million, which then will fund student scholarships (donate here).
providing assistance for students pursuing their professional certifications and designations or attending the annual spring trip (donate here).

Black School of Business Students Redesign Erie’s Website

Kathleen Noce, teaching professor of management information systems at Penn State Behrend and director of Partnership Erie, has led a website redesign for the city of Erie as part of the Black School’s Innovation Through Collaboration initiative, which provides technology services to nonprofits and other community organizations. Find out about the impact of this initiative here.

MIS Executive in Residence Plans Ambitious Program

Steve Bugajski, who serves as chief information officer for U. S. Steel, is currently serving as Executive in Residence for the MIS program. At U. S. Steel, Bugajski leads the company’s full global IT operation, including delivery of the corporation’s digital strategy and cybersecurity. Through efforts by Bugajski and other U. S. Steel executives, several initiatives have been undertaken at Behrend, including networking events between students and U. S. Steel executives, the launch of a mentoring program, the integration of robotic process automation into the curriculum, providing an introduction to an interactive cybersecurity escape room, a presentation on career options within the industry, a presentation on Oracle e-Business Suite at U. S. Steel, and a field trip to the corporate offices of U.S. Steel for students. Learn about how the MIS Executive in Residence Program is driving impact.

Black School of Business Receives a Financial Literacy Grant from CFA Institute

The CFA Society Pittsburgh has granted the Black School of Business $10,000 to launch a financial literacy program, which includes the hiring of two student interns. Interns will be responsible for coordinating financial literacy outreach programming in area high schools as well as overseeing pre- and post-survey results for more than 300 high schools in nine states in conjunction with offerings by the CFA Society Pittsburgh.

Business Advisory Board Professional Development Committee Launches Video Series

The Black School of Business Advisory Board Professional Development Committee is launching a professional development video series for students. The videos, recorded by members of the committee, will feature topics ranging from tips for interviewing to ways to be more effective during job searches. Hear Executive in Residence Ann Scott on professionalism. Scott is the community outreach manager for Erie Insurance.

Black School of Business CFA Level 1 Candidates Show 80 Percent Pass Rate Versus 42 Percent Internationally

More than 73,000 candidates sat for the December CFA level 1 exam worldwide. Results indicate that the pass rate was 42 percent. The December pass rate for Behrend students was 80 percent. The Finance program at Penn State Behrend is a part of the University Affiliation program, which awards up to 17 scholarships each year.

Accounting and Finance Day Held; Corporate Days Continue

The fall semester featured two full days of panel discussions and networking opportunities—one for Accounting majors on September 5 and one for Finance majors on October 10. Almost a dozen companies came to campus to participate in Corporate Days featuring networking opportunities and in-class presentations by companies hiring our graduates. See details about Accounting Day.

The Finance Day event brought CEO William (Bill) Kelly from the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association to campus to participate in the launch of the School’s Academic Partnership Program with CAIA, which allows for eight scholarships annually for students taking the CAIA exams. Behrend becomes one of fewer than 100 universities worldwide holding that distinction.