Drake University’s accounting program was ranked #88 out of 623 schools nationwide. This puts the school’s program in the Top 15% of all accounting programs in the United States. Drake improved its position by four slots over the previous year’s ranking of 92. Read the full press release here.
—Kailee Springer, CBPA Undergraduate Office
Marketing students from Drake University and Creighton University met in Omaha recently for the fifth annual Murphy Cup, a marketing student case competition. Students worked in teams to develop strategies for marketing a new wholly-owned subsidiary of Union Pacific, a railroad franchise that operates in 23 U.S. states.
The Murphy Cup is the vision of Drake University alumnus Chris Murphy, a member of Creighton’s Board of Trustees and owner of the Ameriwest Corp holding company and First Westroads bank in Omaha, to hold an annual marketing strategy competition featuring top marketing major seniors from Creighton and Drake. Murphy made a substantial donation to make this event possible, covering all event expenses and accommodations.
Each year, twelve students are chosen by the marketing faculty to represent each school. This year’s students from Drake included Haley Morris, Hannah Hoefft, Emily Furlow, Maddy Gildersleeve, Taylor Monkman, Erin Hirter, Rebecca Crepeau, Ben Danile, Dustin Casey, Max Raecker, Louis LaFeve, and Cort McElmury. The competition was held from Nov. 16–18.
On this year’s winning team were Crepeau, who also was honored as the year’s Most Knowledgeable Contributor, and Max Raecker. Casey was named Most Creative Contributor. All students received keepsake items commemorating the event.
“The skills that students need to learn to prepare themselves for the real world can’t always be learned within the classroom,” Casey said. “But Drake and its College of Business and Public Administration do a great job of giving students opportunities to gain these skills through competitions and internships.”
For more information about the Murphy Cup, contact:
Andrew Norman, professor of marketing, at atnorman@drake.edu.
Kailee Springer, College of Business & Public Administration
Drake University received the 2018 American Diabetes Association Health Champion Award at the annual WELLCOM Excellence in Worksite Awards Luncheon on Oct. 30 in La Vista, NE.
Through its Wellness Lives HereTM initiative, the American Diabetes Association recognizes organizations that make health and wellness a priority for their employees. To become a Health Champion, organizations must meet healthy living criteria in three different areas: Nutrition and Weight Management, Physical Activity and Organizational Well-Being. The health and wellness initiatives of Drake met the criteria and the American Diabetes Association selected us for this prestigious recognition. Faculty and staff should take pride in this recognition and the reassurance that Drake is committed to making health and wellness a priority among our campus community.
Linda Feiden, Human Resources
On Saturday, Nov. 3, the Drake Innovators Club sponsored the annual Bark Tank Competition. This competition is for any Drake student with an innovation or business idea. There were seven participants and the top prizes went to:
Drake seniors Katrina Sletten and Ellen Converse have been named finalists for the national PR News People Awards. Sletten is a finalist for PR Student of the Year and Converse is nominated for Intern of the Year.
The winners will be named at the annual PR People Awards Luncheon on Dec. 4 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event celebrates the top professionals in public relations. This makes three years in a row an SJMC public relations student has been named a finalist in each category.
Sletten is finishing her work as a triple public relations, astronomy and physics major. She spent the summer in the Brooke Owens Fellowship program as an intern with the Museum of Flight in Seattle in the Digital Learning Department.
Converse, a PR and history major, had a summer internship in D.C. as education outreach coordinator at the Newseum. She has also had internships at AARP and the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Neb.
Kathleen Richardson, SJMC
Drake Magazine has received the top award in college journalism, winning a national Pacemaker honor at the recent Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association convention in Louisville, Ky.
Urban Plains, the multimedia website produced by Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication seniors, also won Associated Collegiate Press awards:
In the College Media Association competition, Drake won four Pinnacle awards:
Kathleen Richardson, SJMC
Carol Spaulding-Kruse, professor of English, was recognized as a finalist for Campus Compact’s 2018 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award. The award is bestowed annually to recognize one faculty member and up to four finalists nationally for exemplary leadership in advancing student civic learning, conducting community-based research, fostering reciprocal partnerships, building institutional commitments to engagement, and enhancing higher education’s contributions to the public good. Congratulations to Professor Spaulding-Kruse and two of the programs highlighted in her application, the Drake Community Press and Writing Internship program.
Renee Sedlacek, director of community-engaged learning
Dr. Laura Kieran and Dr. Sally Haack published PRELOAD: A Rubric to Evaluate Course Syllabi for Quality Indicators of Community Engagement and Service-Learning components. PRELOAD is one of the only comprehensive rubrics created to assess service-learning syllabi. Congratulations to Dr. Kieran and Dr. Haack on the contributions they are making to the field of service-learning and community engagement. View the rubric here.
Kieran, L. & Haack, S. (2018). PRELOAD: A rubric to evaluate course syllabi for quality indicators of community engagement and service-learning components. Journal of Community Engagement in Higher Education, 10(2), 39-47.
Renee Sedlacek, Director of Community-Engaged Learning
Chris Ditter, Associate Director of Student Financial Planning, was recently awarded the State Leadership Award for Iowa at the annual conference of the Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA) in Minneapolis, MN.
The State Leadership Award is presented annually to recognize the outstanding leadership of a member from each of the 9 states within MASFAA. The recipients must have made outstanding contributions to the financial aid profession at the state and regional levels over a sustained period of time, i.e., seven years or more. Leadership at the regional level is not the only criterion for this award, and the selection process will not be limited to current state elected leaders.
The individuals selected for this award must: exhibit high integrity and character; have shown creative leadership; have inspired and encouraged others to participate actively in professional development activities; have sustained active involvement in professional organizations, and have supported the goals and objectives of MASFAA.
Chris has been involved with the Iowa Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (IASFAA) for many years, having served as President for 2016-17, co-chairs the Electronic Services committee, and previously served as Treasurer and chaired the Exhibitor Relations committee. She also just finished serving on the MASFAA Board as the State Representative for Iowa this previous year.
Kristi Fuller, Student Financial Planning
Weeks after being named one of the Midwest’s best universities according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2019 Best Colleges rankings, Drake University is pleased to announce recognition on another distinctive list.
According to results reported by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, Drake, a fully accredited AACSB business school, ranked 14th out of nearly 800 institutions in the nation for its pass rate on the 2017 Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. The University’s accounting graduates, taking the CPA exam for the first time, recorded an average pass rate of nearly 80 percent, well above the national average of approximately 53 percent.
