Poole College of Managment
Post by Andrew Jordan
From the view of a visitor, Nelson Hall is a prominent square building on the corner of Hillsborough and Dan Allen. It houses all of the Poole College of Management’s three majors; Business Administration, Accounting, and Economics. It has a 400 person auditorium, over ten executive smart classrooms, a professionally modeled board room, and a commons area with a coffee shop and a stock trading board. If that visitor would stay for an afternoon or so they would find much more than this skeleton of academia. They would find a small school within a large university, a group of like-minded motivated students, POOLEing their resources and working together to advance professional and networking skills.
Being a PCOM Student Ambassador I have had the great pleasure of meeting many of the wonderful administrators that the Undergraduate Office houses. In an address to the new ambassadors our Undergraduate Dean, Shannon Davis, bestowed a mission upon us. She told us that in the ever growing global economy we as students had to evolve to stay competitive in the job market, that will come so fast in just a few short years. She gave us three objectives, not only to accomplish ourselves but to work with new and current students to obtain as well. We call them the “Three I’s”. They stand for Involvement, International, and Internship experience. Our goal as students is to join clubs or programs both in and outside the college, to meet new peers and mentors as well as to broaden our minds and develop personal and professional skills. Some of my friends are involved in the finance club, some in NCSU DECA, and further more I have good friends in club sports. One way to explore which of these to get involved in is to attend the PCOM club fair which hosts all college sponsored organizations in one place to give students a better perspective of what they would like to join.
After getting involved in Ambassadors I was able to meet many of the professionals that work in our Undergraduate Office, including our Director of International Studies, Robert Sandruck. Through working with Mr. Sandruck I was able to secure acceptance to NCSU’s summer study abroad program in Prague, Czech Republic. Even though I was to be taking Environmental Science classes for my minor, Sandruck was more than willing and capable to help me get everything set up. Furthermore one of my peers Katie Glanton got a chance to participate in the International Partnership of Business Schools and study at a University in Madrid. The great thing about PCOM being a member of this partnership is that not only did her overseas credits transfer, they counted for her degree.
If you couldn’t tell by now I like to brag about my friends, our Ambassador Gina Sanson is not alone and actually in the majority of Poole upperclassmen which held internships this past summer. Our students are more than qualified to go out and procure these on their own but our career development team headed up by Brian Newton can offer resources and connections that no single student could dream of, really launching Poole Students out in to top positions across the country. Gina got a chance to work at Caterpillar Inc. this summer as a supply chain coordinator. This was great work experience and an enriching way to apply all that she had been learning in the classroom these past few years. For her the best part about it was her coworkers and the work environment. After graduation this spring she hopes to take on a full time position with them.
I hope that through these few short stories I have illustrated the real magic that happens behind the doors of Nelson Hall. I know that I am not alone in saying that I truly can never repay the Poole College of Management for all they have given me and I only hope to keep working to make it better for future students to come.
