The School of Business announced the 2011 recipients of its teaching and service awards at the beginning of spring break. Four honors were given out by the business school.
Director of MBA Program and International Projects Aaron Hines received the award for staff service. Finance professor Tulin Sener received the honor for research. Accounting professor Sally Schultz received the distinguished service award and Kevin Caskey, the associate professor of Operations Management and Quantitative Methods, received the distinguished teaching award.
Hines is a first-time recipient of a School of Business award. He said he was honored because of his efforts in recruiting MBA students. He did this “via college visits, radio and video advertising, Skype sessions, in-house information sessions and classroom visits.” He also provided quality service in advising MBA students and undergraduate International students.
“I attribute my success to having very good supervision, a personal commitment to improving as a professional and strong roots in my faith as a Christian,” said Hines.
Hine’s mentor, Dean of the School of Business Hadi Salavitabar, encouraged him to embrace his role as a leader with confidence and to continually aim for success as an administrator. Hines said that Salvitabar’s leadership and guidance have been similar to what a typical mentor would provide for their protegé.
Schultz, also a first-time recipient of this award, has been part of the faculty for more than 25 years. During this period, Schultz has been involved in faculty governance, curriculum development and the business school accreditation process. Schultz said she believes this is why she is receiving the honor. Schultz specializes in accounting theory, financial reporting and accounting history. She believes in doing whatever she can to best facilitate the School of Business’s goals and mission. This is what she attributes her success to.
Sener has achieved many research and teaching awards as well as grants at national and international levels. She has had many School of Business awards for teaching and research as well as a Chancellor’s Research and Scholarship Recognition Award for intellectual contributions.
“I believe my real strength is in intellectual contributions,” said Sener.
Sener has published works regarding global equity investing and asset allocation, currency hedging, emerging markets, international capital markets and banking.
Caskey is also a first-time recipient of a School of Business Award.
“I really enjoy the material I teach and have years of doing it within the industry, so I can give real life example situations,” said Caskey.
He said his mentor was an economics professor during his second-year as an undergraduate student at Northeastern University. He loved how enthusiastic his professor was about the subject. His professor gave great real life examples from his experiences as an economist for the federal government. His former professor’s passion for teaching is something Caskey has embraced today.
He has been instrumental in the development of the undergraduate and graduate level Project Management course for the School of Business. He said he was inspired by his younger brother to create the undergraduate level course, entrepreneurship. Caskey realized how little his younger brother, a restaurant owner, was taught about starting up a new business, most of his classes focused on junior-level management. This became Caskey’s motivation to create the course. Through his efforts of improving existing courses and developing new ones, Caskey believes these are the reasons why he is this year’s recipient of the distinguished teaching award.
All the awards will be presented on Friday, May 6, at the School of Business Award & Graduation Ceremony from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Lecture Center.