PLAUDITS
JEFFREY HORNSBY JOINS BOARD OF GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP GROUP
Jeffrey Hornsby, director of K-State's Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship, has been named to the board of directors of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, a group representing nearly 300 university-based entrepreneurship centers and programs.
The consortium helps participating members collaborate and communicate on the specific issues and challenges confronting university-based entrepreneurship centers, ranging from well established and nationally ranked centers to new and emerging centers.
K-State's Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship was launched in 2008 under Hornsby's direction, and with significant support from the office of the provost, college deans and the center's executive and internal advisory boards.
Hornsby, who is also the College of Business Administration's Jack Vanier Chair of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said serving on the board will help accelerate the further development of K-State's entrepreneurial center and lead to a high quality entrepreneurship curriculum.
Since it was founded, the Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship has initiated a speakers series, started a chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization for students, conducted its first entrepreneurship competition -- the Next Big Thing -- and had its first Celebration of Entrepreneurship awards banquet. This fall, a new bachelor's degree in entrepreneurship was launched and additional courses on topics directly related to the practice of entrepreneurship have been added to the College of Business Administration's curriculum. The center also will offer a new minor in entrepreneurship starting in fall 2010.
The center's future plans include bringing faculty and students from across disciplines together to foster entrepreneurship on campus and in communities across Kansas.
PAPER BY K-STATE MANAGEMENT PROFESSOR WINS INTERNATIONAL HONORS
An article co-written by Chwen Sheu, a K-State professor of management, recently received the Indiana University CIBER Best International Collaboration Paper Award.
"The Effects of Environmental Regulations on Global Supply Chain Management: Transaction Cost Analysis" was recognized with the top honor at the third International Conference on Operations and Supply Chain Management. Since 2007, the conference has brought together supply chain management researchers from around the world to discuss and share research findings related to supply chain management issues in China and other Asian countries. The conference is organized by HK Chinese and Indiana universities.
Sheu said there were around 300 attendees from across the world at this year's conference and more than 130 papers were presented. His paper, co-authored with Chenlung Yang of Chunghua University in Taiwan, was one of only two selected to receive the conference's top best paper award.
"My paper examines how manufacturing firms from the U.S., Taiwan, and China foster partnerships in order to comply with recent environmental regulations from the European Union," Sheu said. "Several guidelines are provided to enable managers to develop the needed strategies and infrastructure for developing the partnership."
Sheu, who also holds the Paul Edgerley Chair in Business Administration at K-State, teaches supply chain management, manufacturing strategy, theory of constraints, operations research and project management. He researches the green supply chain in high-tech industry, global manufacturing practices and processes, manufacturing flexibility and environment, the retailer-supplier relationship and the effect of supply chain investment.
EXCELENCIA IN EDUCATION AWARDS $50,000 TO HELP WITH LATINO SUCCESS AND RECOGNIZES K-STATE'S DEVELOPING SCHOLARS PROGRAM
K-State will use a special $50,000 grant to expand university efforts for the retention and academic success of Latino students.
JohnElla Holmes, coordinator of multicultural recruitment and retention for the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dawne Martin, assistant to the dean for diversity at the College of Business Administration, are the recipients of a 2009 Semillas grant, funded by the Walmart Foundation.
K-State is one of only 20 institutions to receive the grant, which is part of the nonprofit organization Excelencia in Education's "Growing What Works" national initiative to refine and replicate model education programs to advance Latino student achievement at two-year and four-year colleges. Semillas is the Spanish word for seeds.
Holmes and Martin will use the grant for Semillas de Excelencia Learning Communities, a program that expands and extends a current K-State program for recruitment and retention of Latino students to now include Latino freshmen experiences and learning communities.
The goals of Semillas de Excelencia include improving the retention rate of first-year Hispanic students by 15 percent; reducing the number of Hispanic students on academic warning by 20 percent; increasing the involvement of Latino student participation in the Semillas de Excelencia program by 75 percent; and improving the graduation rates of fourth- through seventh-year students by 10 percent each year, according to Holmes and Martin.
In addition, Excelencia in Education awarded K-State's Developing Scholars Program an honorable mention for its efforts to match underrepresented students with research projects with faculty mentors.