Alumni Newsletter April 2019

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April 1, 2019

“Your education is an investment unlike a car, house, or stock…you cannot sell it. 
So, you are explicitly linked to this institution and therefore, responsible for that brand.” -GMAC 2017

Donate Today to Make a Difference!

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Jananee Sekar

Photo:  Johnny Acierto

Jananee Sekar, a second year Accelerated MBA student with a 4.0 GPA, was the 2018-2019 recipient of the Wan-Lin Kiang Endowed Scholarship. In a thank you letter to Ms. Kiang Jananee expressed her gratitude, “The scholarship that you have most thoughtfully bestowed upon me will be useful assistance in the coming academic semester, and will make it easier to fund my education. There are many associated fees with a Masters program and they add up, especially on a student’s budget, so every bit of help actually makes a world of difference. Your scholarship is a precious vote of confidence, which I will carry with me as I continue working towards my degree.”

Donate Today to Make a Difference!

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Give Make a Gift Now

To give, select College of Business, then Graduate Programs. We appreciate your donations, big or small, every dollar counts.

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Devorah Allen-Solorio

 

Devorah is a 2012 graduate of the first Saturday MBA cohort.  While completing her MBA she was working as the Senior Manager of Quality and Training at an international transportation company. Since graduation, she has earned the designation of Certified Professional of Learning and Performance (CPLP) through the Association of Talent Development. She also is a Six Sigma Green Belt and Change Management Professional and holds certificates in Workplace Coaching and Workplace Investigations.

Upon receiving her MBA and CPLP she became the Director of Learning & Development at a South Bay Credit Union and then two years later became a Consultant, HR and L&D for an agriculture support agency. During this time, she has had several articles published on the themes of business, leadership and culture, which can be found at td.org and trainingindustry.com

Devorah has now opened her own consulting business, Allen-Solorio Consultancy, LLC operating out of the South Bay and Barstow areas, covering all of California and Arizona. Allen specializes in live instructor-led training on The Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct, which satisfies the management and employee training mandated by CA AB1825 and 2053 and (as of 2019) SB1343 for employers with 5 or more employees in California.

Her background includes working, training and consulting in hotels, restaurants, telecom, transportation and logistics, financial institutions and agriculture. She has consulted and trained thousands of hours on topics ranging from management, new supervisor skills, coaching, leadership, quality and emotional intelligence to sexual harassment prevention, critical thinking and managing customer expectations. Please contact her today via the website to discuss your training and/or consulting needs!

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Allen Solorio Consultancy, LLC

 

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Tell Us your Story.  Share & Connect

Would you like the Graduate Business Programs office to share your story in an upcoming Alumni Newsletter? Click the link below to share your recent promotion, new job or trip around the country. Any announcement big or small, we would be happy to share it on our announcements section.

/cob-graduate-programs/form/tell-us-your-story

 

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Grad Mentors

Photo:  Johnny Acierto

A “coach”, “sounding board”, “resource”, and “cheat sheet” are some of the words used to describe a mentor during the Graduate Career Mentor Program Mentor/Mentee Meet Up that took place at CSULB on March 14th.  The Graduate Career Mentor Program is taking place from March 2019 through December 2019 where the program serves to provide a high-impact opportunity for current CSULB COB graduate students to engage in career development and personal growth through experiential learning obtained from a professional mentoring relationship.

Advertising, finance, human resources, marketing, and operations are just some of the areas that mentors have experience in and if you are interested in mentoring a graduate business student starting in Spring 2020 click here: http://bit.ly/gradcareermentorSP20

Hear from a student about how the Graduate Career Mentor Program is impacting their professional development.  “As a first year MBA student, I still have a hard time trying to find the right career path I want to take and I knew that I needed some type of guidance to help me on this journey.  I signed up for the Graduate Career Mentor Program and the mentors are very diverse and well experienced individuals.  My first meeting with my mentor I was able to share my experience and learn more about who my mentor is. We were able to talk with no barriers and at the end of the meeting, I gained insights on how I can improve my interviewing skills, the process of finding the right career path, as well as how to have self-confidence.”

To learn more and to sign up to be a mentor in the Spring 2020 Graduate Career Mentor Program click here: /cob-graduate-programs/career-services/graduate-career-mentor-program

 

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Dr. Hieu Nguyen

Photo:  Johnny Acierto

Dr. Hieu Nguyen hosted the first MBA Virtual Student Panel on February 27. Dr. Nguyen is an Associate Professor of Marketing at CSULB and teaches in the Accelerated MBA, Saturday MBA and Evening MBA programs. The topics discussed included: how to manage the demands of a graduate program, favorite classes and professors, as well as the value of being involved with the Graduate Business Student Association. This webinar was a great opportunity for prospective students to connect with current students and ask questions live to hear students’ advice and perspective. The Graduate Programs Office would like to thank Jennifer White, Evening MBA, Jon Rivera, Saturday MBA, Brenda Eruo, Accelerated MBA, and Dr. Nguyen for participating. This is the first of many virtual events the Graduate Programs office plans to offer for students and alumni.

How to Build Your Network Webinar

Date: 
Wednesday, April 10th
Time:
5:30pm-6:30pm
Register: 
CLOSED
Featured Alumnus: 
Norm Herron - Owner/Founder, Pacific Technologies

 

Part 3 of Webinar series:

Date: Climbing the Ladder:
Leveraging your Graduate Degree for Career Advancement
Date: Tuesday, April 23rd
Time: 5:30pm-6:30pm
CLOSED
Featured Alumnus: JR Jimenez - Director of Business Development,
Entrepreneur Magazine

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Dr. Okumoto

Photo:  Johnny Acierto

Professor Richard Okumoto accepted an offer to become COB’s first Online MBA program Director. Professor Okumoto has ten years of teaching in MBA programs at SJSU and CSULB. He also has three years teaching experience in the post-doc programs at Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) in the Claremont Consortium. His higher education distance learning teaching experience involves five years teaching online at SJSU in a large format (360-120 students) synchronous/asynchronous environment, and three years teaching online at KGI Online Education. Professor Okumoto has been a member of the Online Learning Consortium (part of the Sloan Consortium) since 2014.

Also since 2014, Professor Okumoto has been pursuing a PhD at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He is currently working on his dissertation, "Digital Stories Creating Social Presence: A Qualitative Case Study of an Undergraduate Distance Learning Environment."  His research topics include: a) Community of Inquiry Model: Social, Cognitive, and Teaching Presence, b) Distance Learning technologies and Inquiry-based learning, and c) Constructivism, Constructionism, and Connectionism.

Learn more about the Online MBA or other Graduate Business programs at a Virtual Information Sessions.