On Sunday, February 22 the Elizabethtown College first year-business students were inducted into the department. The ceremony took place in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center at 3 p.m.
Dr. Sylvester Williams, chair of the department of business, introduced the event, officially welcoming the first-years into their major. His brief opening statement was followed by a reading of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” by junior business administration major Kelsey Sloan. An invocation was led by Reverend Amy Shorner-Johnson, assistant chaplain.
Assistant Dean of General Education and Assessment Dr. Brian Newsome discussed the advantages of a liberal arts education for business students. He identified the importance of the opportunity to ground one’s education with Etown’s core curriculum.
Five student speakers offered advice to their younger peers. They recommended studying abroad, creating lasting relationships, keeping an open mind and taking risks. Katie Brumbach, senior international business major, advised asking for help and to utilizing the resources that exist within the department. This was a sentiment shared by a majority of her fellow speakers.
Brumbach was especially passionate about studying abroad if given the chance. “I have stood on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I have ridden a bicycle through London and seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace,” Brumbach said. “I have also strolled through Paris at night and spent a lazy weekend in Rome.” She believes that these are priceless experiences that cannot be received in the classroom environment.
Senior international business major Kyle Molchany also encouraged the inductees to get involved outside of the James B. Hoover Center for Business. He recommended joining groups and clubs to become more well-rounded individuals. He used himself as an example of this.”I am by no means a perfect student, and I believe my professors would agree with that statement,” he said. “However, I believe that I am still a successful student.”
Senior international business major Da “Jim” Song advised the inductees to explore the business department during their four years on campus. He shared his experience of entering the department wanting to concentrate in finance, but then figuring out that his interest and talents were better suited for marketing. He and the other senior speakers agreed that the college experience should be enjoyed because it is invaluable.
Mr. Joseph Molony, adjunct faculty member, shared his observations of business students. After 14 years as an educator, he has seen students struggle significantly with stress and time management. “Many students spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the things that bring them stress rather than actually taking action to resolve them,” Molony said. He continued to outline how taking care of the four major areas of life (the mind, the body, social life and spirituality) can greatly reduce stress in one’s life. He hopes that the current first-years can maintain healthy amounts of stress and put only an appropriate amount of stress on themselves.
Dr. Dmitrity Krichevskiy, assistant professor of economics, and Dr. Emma Neuhauser, associate professor of finance, also spoke during the induction ceremony, reiterating the major ideas some of the previous speakers addressed.
A major focus of the ceremony was the idea of service leadership. Mr. Michael Mitchell, the Executive Director of the S. Dale High Center, told the students that, as future business leaders, success will come from serving their employees through training. This idea was echoed by Mr. Carl Freeman, director of Mars Chocolate North America. The Mayor of Elizabethtown, Mr. Chuck Mummert, was also in attendance.
“[Holding the ceremony] was a nice thing to do for the first years as a welcoming into the department,” first-year international business major Laura Jobe said. “Now we are fully integrated into the department.”
Williams concluded the ceremony by inducting the Class of 2018 with the reading of the business department’s “Standards of Excellence” and distributing a scroll and pin to each first-year inductee.
