Two West Virginia University alumni from the College of Business and Economics were recognized by the United States Small Business Administration, West Virginia District Office, for their small business work within the state.
Arria Hines and Nesha Sanghavi were honored at a luncheon on May 4 at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center in Fairmont, West Virginia.
While no two groups of students we say goodbye to each May are ever the same, one thing remains each year around commencement time: the feeling of hope, inspiration and pride that is felt by everyone involved, including our graduates, their parents and friends, and our faculty and staff here at the College of Business and Economics.
B&E’s commencement ceremony was held on May 14 at the West Virginia University Coliseum, where an estimated 500 students walked the stage to be handed their diplomas.
Here at West Virginia University, we mold our students to be successful in the workforce, and love to see their careers skyrocket. Something we love even more is when we can bring these successful alumni back to campus, providing a milestone for them in their already-successful careers. A great example of that cycle is found in human resource management expert Cris DeBord, WVU’s newest vice president of talent and culture.
Naomi Boyd, chair of the finance department and associate professor, has been with the College of Business and Economics for eight years. Below is a Q&A about her life story: how she came into her career, what she loves about teaching and the future plans she has in store for B&E and its students.
What did you do before coming to B&E?
As a young adult, I had trained for a career in ballet and majored in dance at the University of Texas at Austin, before my career took a different turn. When graduate school for my husband took us away from Austin, I got a job working for the Economic Development Company for the City of Lubbock, Market Lubbock, where I worked in business attraction and recruitment. One of the companies we brought to Lubbock, an Australian-based firm called SupaChill, hired me to develop a partnership with Texas Tech University. I started back part-time getting my MBA, and ended up, after a semester, deciding to pursue my graduate studies full-time. When my husband and I moved to Washington D.C., I taught at George Washington University during my doctoral program, while working as a student scholar for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.