Bill Greehey School of Business students are again competing and winning.

The Greehey Scholars Program has won first place in the Southwestern Business Deans Association Bobby G. Bizzell Innovative Achievement Awards Competition. This competitive award is sponsored by Bloomberg Businessweek. This annual competition is designed to recognize business programs that have demonstrated innovative excellence. The winning program will receive a $1,500 cash prize and the Awards will be presented at the SWBDA Annual Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 17-19, 2012.

Congratulations to Dr. Stephanie Ward and the Scholars on this wonderful achievement, and thank you all for your support in making this happen.

St. Mary's University Students Do It Again

This past week, twelve of St. Mary s University students participated and competed in the International Business Plan Program sponsored by the Free Trade Alliance. The competition consisted of 22 universities from around the world. A St. Mary s team of five of our students won First Place in the undergraduate division. They each took home a $1,000 gift prize. This team consisted of : Andrej Klipa, Celina Garcia, Eric Escamilla, Luis Montealegre and Alexia Dabdoub. The second place team included two of St. Mary s students and they each received a cash prize of $500 each. Their names are : Paolo Retes and Mariangela Zavala.

The 36th Annual Business Week

The 2011 Business Week included two new events this year: Meet the Firms and an Expert Panel. Twelve firms held recruitment and informational sessions for our students and an expert panel of four industry leaders discussed a host of issues from values-based leadership to landing the perfect job. Of course, the ever-popular Professors-for-a-Day event brought in 30 business leaders who traded places with professors to discuss everything from current challenges to global growth opportunities.

The ever-popular Professors-for-a-Day event brought in 30 business leaders who traded places with professors to discuss everything from current challenges to global growth opportunities. Thank you to the alums and community members who offered their time and talents:

Spike Borawski (M.B.A. 00), New York Life
Robert Braubach, Honorary Consul of Belgium
Michael Dunne, Turnpoint Advisors LLC
John Dryden Nanna (B.B.A. 03), Federal IT Consulting (FEDITC) LLC
Steve Dziuk (B.B.A. 90), Dziuk and Associates
Augarite El-Nakat (B.B.A. 04, M.B.A. 07), Jefferson Bank
Doug Evanson, San Antonio Water System (SAWS)
Annette Goodson, ATKG LLP
Thomas Grothues (B.B.A. 91, M.B.A. 97), USAA
Erika Gutierrez (B.B.A. 98, M.Acc. 00, M.B.A. 01), Ear, Nose & Throat Clinics of San Antonio PA
Jim Hawes, Inter-Asia Venture Management Ltd.
Paul Hensley, HOLT CAT
Bill Kelly (B.B.A. 67, M.A. 73)
Adrian Lozano (B.B.A. 03, M.B.A. 06), State Farm
Michael Lemoine, Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Peter V. Marks, Ph.D., Navy Medicine Information Systems Support Activity
Valeria McClelland, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance
Larry McMillion, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,Office of Inspector General
Mark Merwarth, USAA
Jim Morris, Globalscape
Leo Muñoz, Padgett, Stratemann & Co. LLP
Harvey Najim, Sirius Communications
Sandra Nannini (M.A. 07), Wells Fargo
Dr. Michael Patton, Texas Medical Accelerator
Gaye Preston, San Antonio Lighthouse
Lou Scantland, DOCUmation
Fernando Suarez, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
James Tsakopulos III (B.B.A. 95), Financial Guide
Joanna Varenhorst (B.B.A. 98), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General
Col. Jaime Vazquez, USAF (Ret.), Lackland Gateway Heritage Foundation Inc.

Business Week provides St. Mary s students the opportunity to interact with business leaders and alumni who share their own professional experiences and expertise in accounting, applied management, corporate financial management, entrepreneurial studies, financial services and risk management, general business, information systems management, international business and marketing.

Thanks very much to our generous sponsors who supported Business Week:

Rick Aleman (B.B.A. 73), Selrico Services Inc.
Bjorn Dybdahl (B.A. 70), Bjorn s
C.H. Guenther & Son Inc.
HOLT CAT
NuStar Energy LP
Padgett, Stratemann & Co. LLP
USAA Foundation
Wells Fargo

VITA Helps Area Residents with Tax Returns

With over a hundred volunteers, St. Mary s University s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program was able to help San Antonians file their federal taxes and get $1.6 million of needed money back into their pockets during these tough economic times.

The 77 percent increase over last year s returns of $765,000 is remarkable considering there were fewer tax preparer volunteers. This year, 110 volunteers worked more than 3,000 hours, including training, and filed 758 returns at St. Mary s VITA site. Last year, 97 volunteers worked 3,300 hours and prepared 743 returns. This is the ninth consecutive tax season that St. Mary s has operated a VITA site.

The mix of volunteers included students, faculty and staff from St. Mary s University s Bill Greehey School of Business, the School of Law, the graduate and undergraduate programs. St. Mary s alumni, community business leaders and volunteers from Wells Fargo/Wachovia also gave of their time.

VITA provides free tax filing services to qualifying families that make less than $55,000 a year. St. Mary s VITA site is open to the entire community, but specifically targets residents on the Westside within the University s Neighborhood Revitalization area.

By utilizing the resources available through the University s Bill Greehey School of Business, School of Law and our Neighborhood Revitalization Project partners, said Tom Madison, Ph.D., VITA Director and Associate Professor and Chair of Accounting, we are able to reach out into the community and help those who are truly in need. Helping our St. Mary s neighbors receive all the income tax credits to which they are entitled is truly rewarding for me and all of our volunteers. 

St. Mary s VITA program is one of the many examples of community service projects that the University community takes on every year and one of the reasons why St. Mary s was recognized again this year by inclusion on the President of the United States Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. St. Mary s has been named to the Honor Roll every year since its inception in 2006 for consistent dedication to its community service and civic engagement mission. In the 2008-2009 academic year, St. Mary s students engaged in more than 144,000 hours of community service. St. Mary s, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence.

Student Takes Top Honors in Pitching Unique Business Idea

St. Mary s University senior English major, Alexandra McCoy took home first prize recently in the 2011 E-Scholar Consortium Student Conference held in Denver, Colorado. McCoy's idea conosisted of a woman's dress shoe with detachable heels.

The unique competition has students selling their unique business ideas in 90 seconds or less the approximate time of an elevator ride. The competition is judged by entrepreneurs, small business advisers and investors.

McCoy received $2,500 along with her first place title. She hopes to put this money towards turning her shoe idea into a real product. McCoy was one of 60 students competing in this event.

Only students from universities that have Entrepreneur Scholars, or E-scholars, programs participate in the competition held each spring. The consortium member organizations along with St. Mary s University include the University of Portland, College of St. Benedict and St. John's University. This is the sixth year for the competition and the fourth year that a St. Mary s student has taken first place; a St. Mary s E-scholar also won in 2010, 2007 and 2008.

St. Mary s E-scholars Program is a yearlong certificate program that includes academic and extra-curricular activities for students from all disciplines and majors. The program is housed in the Meadows Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, located in the Bill Greehey School of Business at St. Mary s University. Entrepreneur Scholars attend classes designed specifically for them, go on domestic and international business trips, receive one-on-one advice and assistance from business mentors while developing and implementing their entrepreneurial ideas, and have the opportunity to network with successful entrepreneurs and executives from the business community.

Princeton Review Ranks St. Mary's Bill Greehey School of Business Among Top 10 for Best Opportunity for Women

The Princeton Review has again ranked St. Mary's University's Bill Greehey School of Business and its M.B.A. program in the top 10 nationally for "Greatest Opportunity for Women" in the latest edition of its publication, The Best 301 Business Schools: 2010 Edition, which hit bookstores this week.

This is the third year in a row that the Bill Greehey School of Business has been recognized. This year the school has moved up two slots to number six; and, it is also the only school in the Southwest in this category.

The ranking is based on the percent of female students, the percent of faculty who are women, and results of the student assessments of a variety of factors including resources for female students and how supportive the culture is of female students.

"This honor is especially important to us as it comes when St. Mary's M.B.A. program is celebrating its 50th anniversary," said Bill Greehey School of Business Dean Tanuja Singh, D.B.A. "We strive to offer a rich academic environment where individualized experiences are designed to instill ethical leadership, technical excellence, global awareness and professional orientation in our graduates."

St. Mary's Bill Greehey School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Its unique, stand-out programs include a five-year combined Bachelor and Master of Business Administration program, a one-year accelerated M.B.A. program, a graduate and undergraduate study abroad program in Innsbruck, the Center for Global Business Studies, the Algur H. Meadows Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the joint the J.D./M.B.A. degree program.

St. Mary's School of Law was also featured in The Princeton Review's other guide, The Best 172 Law Schools: 2010 Edition.

The Princeton Review does not rank the business or the law schools in the books on a single hierarchical list, or name one school as best overall.Instead, the book has 11 ranking lists of the top 10 business and law schools in various categories. Ten lists are based on The Princeton Review's surveys of students attending the schools profiled in the book. The surveys were conducted during the 2008-2009, 2007-2008, and 2006-2007 academic years. For more information or to see the complete lists, click here.

St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. St. Mary's University is ranked fourth in the West Region for quality and value in the "Great Schools, Great Prices" category of the U.S. News & World Report's 2010 edition of "America's Best Colleges."

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