Bissett Insider

2016 United Way corporate challenge a huge success!

Congratulations to all of the faculty, staff and students that made this year’s United Way Corporate Challenges a big success!
The “Pull the Plane”  fundraiser was a group effort with plane pullers, Denise Chenger, Victoria Calvert, Christian Cook, FSO and Aviation students who pulled the plane 50 feet in 22 seconds! This fundraiser brought in $1350.00.
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Bissett Faculty: Denise Chenger and Christian Cook

The “Shave the Beard” event was held Oct 25th, raising $1400 for the United Way and $1000 for  the Terry Fox campaign. Over seventy students, faculty and administrators attended. The Financial Students Organization raised the majority of the funds through several activities including a raffle. The Book Store, Dana Foods, and Continuing Education kindly donated items for the raffle.

Many thanks to Victoria Calvert who organized the event, and to Jim Fischer for volunteering to shave his beard, Katharine McGowan who baked over 150 cookies and to Chair, Jim Silovs for dedicating $200 from his area to cover the cost of pizza to feed the crowd.

Thanks also goes to Dean,  Elizabeth Evans,  for donating $500 from her office to finance  the United Way banana fundraising activities organized by Kendra Hart and her four marketing classes on October 27th. Through banana sales and the use of social media, they raised an amazing $4000.00!

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Jim Shaving his beard.
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The “After” Picture
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Katharine McGowan and her freshly baked cookies

Bissett instructor, Collette Lemieux has papers published.

Bissett School of Business would like to congratulate Instructor, Collette Lemieux on her recent publications and achievements:
Collette recently co-published a paper based  on the results of a study looking at how digital game design can help high school students learn mathematics. It was published in the International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education (Vol. 23, Issue 1) (Co-authors are Qing Li, Elise Vandermeiden and Shai Nathoo). 
The second publication was a reflection on a mathematics and social justice workshop Collette attended at the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group Conference in Kingston. This article was published in the journal:  For the Learning of Mathematics (Vol. 36, Issue 3). 
Also congratulations to Collette for passing her candidacy exam for her PhD. The title of Collette’s research project is “The use of story-based tasks in post-secondary students’ learning of statistics”. 

Assistant Professor, Rachael Pettigrew, Guest Speaker for GeoWomen

Rachael most recently spoke to the Geo Women group on November 14, 2016 at the University of Calgary. Rachael’s presentation, Weighing your options: The Potential Impacts of Different Work Arrangements for Women, is a timely discussion of how different work arrangements impact the career and work-life balance, with a focus in male-dominated professions.

Rachael’s research work focuses on gender issues in the workplace, policies that support work/life balance and organizational culture.

 

Mount Royal University Assistant Professors, Leah Hamilton and Mohammed El Hazzouri, receive Research Grant

Bissett School of Business congratulates Leah and Mohammed on receiving a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Leah and Mohammed will be the lead investigators for  the Calgary portion of the study.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada –Targeted Rapid Response Research on Syrian Refugees

“Optimizing the Provision of Information to Facilitate the Settlement and Integration of Refugees in Canada: Case Studies of Syrian Refugees in London, Ontario and Calgary, Alberta”

Investigators: Esses, Hamilton, Pyati, & El Hazzouri

 Amount: $23,560 over one year

Writing a book and rattling chains…..all in a day’s work for David Finch and Ray DePaul

Bissett School of Business would like to congratulate Mount Royal University Associate Professor, David Finch and Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Director, Ray DePaul,  on the successful publication of their new book:  Designing You: Life Beyond Your Grades.

In Designing You, David and Ray challenge you become your own product manager. To do this, they take you through a multi-step process to define your Whole Product – the Whole YOU. In doing this, Finch and DePaul, Whole YOU goes far beyond just questions about career goals but also explores larger life goals and how they relate to each other. In the first month over 500 students and faculty downloaded the eBook. The print edition will be released on November 15th and will be available online and from the university bookstore.

To support the launch of the book, Finch and DePaul penned an article in the Huffington Post entitled “Don’t Let Yourself (or your kid) Become the Next BlackBerry“. In this article they use a smartphone analogy to help students understand the importance of being adaptable and relevant as markets change. This article received some notoriety and an angry response from BlackBerry COO himself, Marty Beard who argued that students should aspire to be like BlackBerry. Finch and DePaul responded by identifying the (some) elements of the BlackBerry that can offer guidance to students today. As an interesting (and ironic) end to this story, shortly after this response, BlackBerry announced they will be discontinuing design and production of handsets.

Finch and DePaul don’t view Designing YOU as a book, rather it as a mindset supported by a range of tools that enables students to connect their postsecondary experience to larger life goals. For example, this semester Finch and DePaul are piloting a Designing YOU course and are working with MRU Continuing Education and other MRU departments to develop an online course to support our students design their lives.

For more information on Designing YOU you can go to the website www.designingyou.org

For a $10 discount for MRU faculty off the eBook/ Print bundle you can use promo code “whole you”.

Melanie Peacock wins Professional Achievement Award

CONGRATULATIONS are in order for our very own Dr. Melanie Peacock on being awarded the of Western University alumni award for Professional Achievement.
We all know that Melanie to be a very valuable member of our team, an accomplished teacher, author, speaker and is held in high regard by the HR profession. She has received several teaching and professional accolades and now she is being recognized by her alma mater for another well-deserved award.
You can read more about the award at http://www.mtroyal.ca/ourcommunity/

MaRS Studio Y commissions discussion paper by authors James Stauch and Devon Cornelisse

The Bissett School of Business congratulates James Stauch and Devon Cornelisse from the Institute of Community Prosperity for being commissioned to author a discussion and literature review paper.  The attached discussion paper/lit review was commissioned by MaRS Studio Y  in preparation for the National Youth Leadership and Innovation Summit to be held in Toronto in April, 2016. We are also very exited that two MRU/Bissett students were accepted to this inaugural event.
The report serves to deepen understanding of the ecology of youth leadership and innovation across Canada, and also to provide a launching point for an understanding of, and discussion about, the broader impact and potential of leadership development for Canada`s competitiveness and social well-being. To read the paper and find out about the National Youth Leadership and Innovation Summit, please follow the links:

Leah Hamilton, Assistant Professor at Bissett, receives national attention for Mentorship Research

In an April 12th article by the Globe and Mail, the mentorship between university student Scott Henry, participant in the CEO x 1 Day and his mentor CEO, David Labistour from Mountain Equipment Co-op, was profiled and used as an example of the beneficial mentorship relationship.

Leah Hamilton, provided comment about Mount Royal’s Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program and the findings regarding  her research on mentorship:

“….the mentees had more confidence to seek out jobs, build relationships and felt more supported, compared to those who weren’t in mentorship programs.

The mentors also benefited from “intergenerational learning,” and a better understanding of the millennial generation, Ms. Hamilton says.

“The mentors said ‘wow, this really gave me an opportunity to learn from this younger generation. Now I get them more and understand what they’re looking for in the work force and the challenges they face.’”

She says some of the companies involved in the school’s Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program, which funded the research, are now rethinking their recruitment strategies and ways to increase employee retention.”

To read the Globe and Mail article in its entirety, please follow the link:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/business-education/motivated-student-turns-to-mec-for-diversified-experience/article29610867/