Remembering my Colleagues: #UNLV-STRONG

The tragic events at UNLV on Wednesday hit very close to home.  I was dean of the College of Business at UNLV for five years before coming to UCF.  My son, Tyler, graduated a Rebel and works on campus.  We have also sent some UCF PhD students to work in Nevada. One of them was Patricia Navarro-Velez who earned her PhD from our Dixon School of Accounting and was an assistant professor at UNLV. She was one of the victims of this senseless violence. My colleagues in the Dixon School remember her as a wonderful person who touched the lives of many.  She leaves behind a husband and four children. Another victim was my colleague Jerry Chang, a great guy, gentle soul and long-time UNLV faculty member.  The police have yet to release the third name, but I suspect it is another colleague of mine.

I spent most of Wednesday night connecting with old colleagues and remembering my years at UNLV.  UCF and UNLV are very similar institutions. They were born about the same time, have similar student populations and have a strong commitment to access and upward social mobility for students. Much of what I have learned about being a good dean, I learned at UNLV. There are a lot of really great people there.

It has been a rough couple of weeks. Last week we celebrated the life of Wally Milon, a professor in our economics department who passed away just before Thanksgiving. These two events have given me a lot of time to think about the legacies of my colleagues and someday my own. As faculty, we live pretty privileged lives—we get to pursue our passions in the name of discovery and making the world a better place. In the process, we earn a bit of immortality through the ideas we introduce to people through our writings and the students’ lives we enrich through our teaching.

The best way we can honor our colleagues who have passed is to take a moment to remember something they taught us. Wally taught me the power of asking the right question at the right time. Jerry taught me that patience (usually) pays off—I am still working on this. My late UNLV colleague Nassar taught me the difference between being a nice guy and being a good guy. He was the first colleague I thought of last night when UNLV hit the news.

If you want to show solidarity with and support for UNLV, remember what a faculty member taught you and smile—it’s what they lived for.

And The Winner Is!

There were 252 valid (non-multiple) votes in our Fall 2023 Failure Competition. Conall Crossan received 153 votes. Jonathan Beck received 89 votes and Berkely Lukas received 10 votes.

Congrats to all three of our contestants for participating in the finals. Remember your prize money will be distributed through financial aid.

Vote for the winner of the Fall 2023 Failure Competition

The poll closes today at 5 pm. Voting multiple times won’t help. We have a way of screening that out. You know who you are……

Failure Finalist 3: Berkeley Lukas Selling Yourself First

You can watch Berkeley’s story by clicking here: Berkeley Lukas 2023 Failure Competition Submission 1.mp4

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow for the winner!

Failure Finalist 2: Conall Crossan: No sweat no gain.

You can see Connall’s video by clicking on this link: https://youtu.be/UKB2kLZ6wck

And don’t forget to vote for the winner on Friday!

FInalist 1: Jonathan Beck: Unwritten Pages.

You can watch Jonathan’s video by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgoc5sQnJFI

Don’t forget to vote on Friday for the winner!

Failure Competition Finals 2023

We haven’t run the failure competition since just before the pandemic. Just to remind everyone of how this goes.

We have received videos from our three finalists: Jonathan Beck, Connall Crossan, and Berkeley Lukas. We will feature one video each day starting tomorrow and ending on Thursday. We will then invite our readers to vote for the winner on Friday between 8 am and 5 pm. The winner will be announced shortly after 5.

Good Luck to all three of you.

Our Failure Competition is Back!

The pandemic disrupted all our lives and put a lot of things on hold.  One of them was our Failure Competition.  For several years, we asked students to talk about one of their biggest failures, how they overcame it and what other students could learn from their experience.  The pandemic forced us to focus on survival and talking about past failures seemed trivial by comparison.  With things returning to “normal” and a few years of post-pandemic experience under our belts, it’s time to bring the competition back.  Today, starts our 15^th edition.

The competition is designed to destigmatize failure. Everyone fails. It is part of life. Rather than pretend it won’t happen, you should count on it and know what you will do to recover from it. Getting comfortable with failure is a key step in becoming a better risk-taker and successful leader. That is why we celebrate failure and persistence in the college. Entering our competition is simple:

• Write an account of a career-related failure you have experienced in the past. Your failure story has to focus on a time you stepped out of your comfort zone to experience something new: the farther you stepped out of your zone, the better. Tell us why this was such a stretch for you, the failure that resulted and what you learned from the experience that would be of interest to others. It needs to be genuine; people can spot a fish story a mile way.
• While the Failure Competition began with students in our Capstone class, it is now open to any UCF student on campus: undergraduate, graduate or EMBA, business, education, engineering or whatever. The only requirement is that you currently be enrolled at UCF.
• Need inspiration or guidance to tell your story? Search my blog. We have posted many stories about failure over the years.

Here are the ground rules, complete with important deadlines:

To enter, you must post your essay in response to this blog. If you are a Capstone student this semester, include your section number and name of your instructor. If you are not in this class, tell me your class standing (e.g., freshman, senior, graduate student) and your field of study. You must complete this exercise by 5 p.m., on Monday, Oct. 30. Don’t worry if you don’t see your submission posted right away, I have to accept it first.

A panel of college staff will choose no more than three finalists for me to consider. I will select three finalists by Monday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m.

The finalists will be asked to submit short videos based on their essays. Those videos must be sent to me by 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 20.

I will feature one video each day on my blog, starting Nov. 27. Readers will get a chance to vote for their favorite story and determine the winner Friday, Dec. 1.

The winner will get a letter of recommendation from me along with a $500 prize. Second place will get $300, third place $200. These monies are awarded through our financial aid office.

Good Luck!

Let’s Show Them What Business Knights Can Do

A few weeks ago we did a podcast on how there is now an Excel Competition that’s televised on ESPN. You can debate whether it’s an Esport, but it’s been on the OCHO baby. I’m serious, you can listen to the podcast by clicking here.

If you think you got the Excel skills to compete and make it to the big leagues, you now have the same opportunity as our Knights athletes because we have joined the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge. You can learn about the challenge by clicking here.

Sara Willox in our Integrated Business Department is leading our effort. You can reach out to her for more details on our effort. Let’s show them what Business Knights can do. Who knows, you might end up making the big leagues and appear on the OCHO in a few years.

Are You Ready for The Invitational?

This is the one time in your life when employers are going to come in large numbers looking for you.  We bring them straight to campus.  Eighty of them will be here to meet you this Friday, Sept. 22, when we host The Invitational: An Event for Internships, Externships & Jobs at The Venue. We call it “The Invitational” because both students and employers have to be invited to attend.  Employers must have openings for interns or jobs, students must have shown they have done their homework and have prepared for the event.

If you are a student preparing for the event you might want to get advice from people who have been there.  Luckily, we have done that for you too.   Check out our podcast on the invitational by clicking here:  https://business.ucf.edu/is-the-invitational-your-thing/

Remember what I told you at Welcome to the Majors:  Many students pass up great opportunities like The Invitational because they have other priorities.  “Getting to the one” requires that you get out of your comfort zone, prepare a game plan, and show up.  If you do this, there is a great likelihood that you land an internship or the job that you seek.  So, prepare now.

I look forward to seeing you there.