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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There are common threads that run through three West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics faculty members who have been named endowed chairs: a passion for research and using the knowledge generated from their research in the classroom. All three have also created unique, experiential learning opportunities for their students that take them outside the classroom and into the real world.  

That sense of purpose and zeal in two different, but related, areas of study have prompted a high level of engagement by their students and a continued demonstration of resourcefulness in taking on the challenges of the business world. As a result, Chambers College leadership worked with Sears Holding Company to reconfigure the company’s support to the college, converting an existing endowed chair into three endowed chairs.

Cameron Keefe is only a second semester freshman, but she finds herself in elite company these days. She is one of only 15 finalist teams in the West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition and could be the recipient of one of three $10,000 grand prizes to start her own business in West Virginia.

An enthusiastic and personable mechanical engineering senior who enjoys solving problems has created an idea with a sophomore industrial engineering major. The team, from the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, has made it to the finals of the West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition, a competition designed to encourage college students statewide to turn their ideas into real businesses.  

After taking a deep breath when the West Virginia University Board of Governors approved funding last fall for the Startup Engine business accelerator at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, significant pieces of the facility are coming together.

Despite regional and nationwide trends of declining numbers of students graduating from high school, enrollment at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University has increased.

Actually, undergraduate enrollment has increased every year since the business school went to a four-year format in 2011, allowing business students to be directly admitted as freshmen instead of after they have met specific criteria prior to their junior years. That format also benefitted students through earlier access to advisors and increased internship opportunities.

This double-majoring sophomore in Management Information Systems and Hospitality and Tourism Management has found that his key to success is beginning early.

It is Frank Kerekes’ first year at WVU, but he has already achieved his studies in the Honors College, working at a financial institution as a branch office administrator and involvement with various clubs.

How do you represent WVU in the fullest way possible? You become the Mountaineer mascot, as this graduate student in accounting has.

It is difficult to find an underclassman that is more socially and academically engaged than Maria Lombardi. A sophomore double-major in entrepreneurship and innovation and finance, Maria is busy enough with her school work. Yet, she still finds time to be part of business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, a sorority member of Alpha Xi Delta, an SGA college representative, and more—and she holds positions in most of them.

Robert Maust, an accounting professor for 50 years at the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University, died on Monday in Richmond, Virginia, after battling a brain tumor for more than five years. He was 81.

What if college business students could go to one place where they could get supplemental tutoring for intensive classes, help in writing and speaking skills that will bolster achievement, and assistance in getting ready for the job they want? At West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics, it’s already happening.

When business school students at WVU came back from their holiday break to the spring semester, they found a newly revamped facility called the Academic engagement and Success Center (the AeSC acronym is pronounced “ask”), a center that features the kinds of assistance they need to not only excel academically, but will also propel them into their careers. The most unique aspect of the center is that it operates primarily with students helping students.