COBE honors, celebrates top students
Radford University's College of Business and Economics celebrated the extraordinary achievements of its students Tuesday, April 29, with back-to-back ceremonies in the COBE Building.
The jubilant evening began with the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society induction ceremony in COBE 320 and was followed by the annual Spring Honors Program in the COBE Multipurpose Room.
The International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma recognizes academic excellence at the world's top business schools – those accredited by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Since its founding in 1913, the society has established more than 500 collegiate chapters around the world.
"We honor the best of the best this evening," said COBE Interim Dean Dennis Grady. "We are very proud of you for a job well done. Thank you for all that you have done for us as professors and administrators here at the university."
Marketing Professor Wil Stanton, the BGS Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year for 2013, addressed the gathering, telling the students, "As faculty, we love seeing students like you in our classes because when we see you – we know your abilities – we can make our courses extremely challenging. We can set the bar high, and we like that a whole lot. We know that whatever we have you do, you'll be able to do it."
COBE student award winners
Membership in the BGS is limited to COBE juniors and seniors who rank in the top ten percent of their class or MBA students in the top 20 percent.
This year's BGS graduate student inductee was Igor Ogrizek.
Senior inductees were Emma Deininger, James Eggers, Heidi Flowers, Emily Grant, Mary Santoroski, Rachel Shelton and Savanna Underwood.
Junior inductees were Brandon Beck, Joshua Bialeschki, Zachary Brown, Kayla Burd, Madalyn Dunn, Zachary Eckert, Emily Fletcher, Samuel Hadaway, Stephen Hudgens, Genevieve Hugeback, John Koehler, George McDonald, Isabelle Nelson, Sarah Ponthieux and Tanner Williams.
Michael Chatham, associate professor of accounting, was the faculty inductee.
BGS also installed new officers for the 2014-15 academic year.
Following the BGS induction, the festivities moved down the third-floor hall to the Multipurpose Room for a ceremony to recognize student organizations and the achievement of individual students.
Abhay Kaushik, associate professor of finance and COBE's 2013 Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year, delivered the opening address. Kaushik spoke of his educational journey as a first-generation college student coming to the United States from India and remarked on the extraordinary dedication of RU students. "When I see students finishing up their programs, getting jobs and moving on with their lives, that gives me tremendous satisfaction," Kaushik said.
Marketing major Michelle Speede was named COBE's Outstanding Student. Marketing Professor Angela Stanton was recognized as the BGS Faculty Member of the Year.
Additional COBE outstanding student award winners included:
- Joe Mayer, Outstanding Economics Student Award
- Wendy Burcham, Delta Sigma Pi Scholarship Key
- Paige Reese, Outstanding Management Student Award
- Huyen Trang Nguyen, Outstanding Accounting Student Award
- Matthew Boyd, Outstanding Finance Student Award
- Hannah Steineke, Outstanding Marketing Student Award
- Adelmo Lugone, Outstanding Professional MBA Student Award
- Karoline Stien, Outstanding MBA Student Award
- Brittany Rene Carling, COBE Deans Award
- Amber Ehrett, COBE Student Service Award
- Huyen Trang Nguyen, COBE Citizen/Scholar Award
During the ceremony, COBE recognized members of Phi Kappa Phi, BGS, Beta Alpha Psi, Omicron Delta Epsilon, Sigma Iota Epsilon and Alpha Mu Alpha.