FALL TODAY 2002 - Kentucky Wesleyan College

for Business Studies
provides golden opportunity for students
by Ann Leach ’78
As the elevator door opens
on the fourth floor of the
Barnard-Jones Administration
Building you have to wonder
where you have ended up.
Before you is a layout similar
to that of a Fortune 500 company
and not an academic classroom.
Welcome to the Center
for Business Studies, a dream
come true for Dr. Jim Welch,
chair of the department of business.
“We are pleased to be able
to offer this program to our students,”
he claims. “It will provide
needed training for those
seeking a career in business.”
With a vision that marries
the college with Owensboro
business leaders, the Center utilizes
a business advisory committee
of fourteen area company
CEOs.
These executives may serve
as visiting professors for a
semester or provide advisement
in class projects through presentations
and case studies.
“We see that we can develop
educational series for students,
like a human resources services
series, or specific management
courses for students. These
exchanges between students
and community leaders will
also help us in evaluating and
determining the direction of
Center programs,” declares
Welch. In addition, students
may serve internships at these
member business locations.
The Center for Business
Studies is funded in part
through a $2.4 million matching
gift made by an anonymous
donor to the Changing Lives
capital campaign. “We were
approached by an anonymous
donor to start an entrepreneur
program,” explained Welch.
“The Center is a positive
response to that request.” To
help sustain the program,
donors can contribute specific
amounts and then designate
rooms in the center for naming
opportunities. Scholarship
funds are also needed.
Over 6,000 square feet of
space was remodeled in order
to accommodate the Center for
Business Studies. From the
time the funding was secured
and the first hammer fell, completion
took only six months.
The physical space includes
two computer labs, classrooms,
a seminar/conference room and
faculty office space. It is
designed to help students feel
they are physically in a business
environment.
“We met our goal of being
ready for business this fall!”
comments Welch. This was the
first step in a five-year plan
that includes equipping the
Center with the necessary fixtures
and furnishings to run a
first-rate business department,
endowing a chair (the first
endowed chair in the history
of KWC), funding full and
part-time faculty positions,
developing media materials
that will communicate the
Center’s mission and message
to potential students and to
business and community leaders
and keeping computer
“An education that works”
12 Kentucky Wesleyan Today, Winter 2002