Center for Professional Excellence
Career Services • Alumni Networking • Student Development
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Nathan B. Copeland, MBA
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The Center for Professional Excellence has been created with the goal of helping form connections that will lead to internships, mentorships and careers. We want to be a conduit of information between current students and alums enabling insight into career decisions and job searches.
QUICK LINKS
Ryli Snider, Reet Cronk, Jimmy Cone
Message from the Director
Links to Newsletters
COBA Volunteer Survey
COBA Alumni Survey
AUGUST SPOTLIGHTS
STUDENT: Ryli Snider
Ryli is an accounting major and math minor from Edmond, OK. As the youngest of four children, she has been able to always look up to her parents and siblings for the Christian influences she needs and was also encouraged to follow her passions to the best of her ability. Her parents have always allowed Ryli to be as independent as possible, and Ryli has faithfully taken their guidance into account in her adult life.
An active member of Zeta Pi Zeta, Ryli has been elected treasurer and to the Constitution Committee by her club sisters over the last couple of years. While traveling this past March with a small group associated with her club, she was able to co-lead a spring break mission trip to Detroit and was beyond blessed by the experiences the group encountered. A recent honor was being invited to go on the Account/Finance Distinguished Scholars trip to St. Louis during the spring of 2012, not long after being appointed VP of the Accounting Society by faculty recommendation. Ryli will serve as President of the Accounting Society for 2012/2013.
During her junior year at Harding, Ryli began using the services offered by the new Center for Professional Excellence and has participated in on-campus interviews. She was a successful candidate for a summer 2012 internship position with Aviall in Dallas and a spring 2013 internship with BKD in Little Rock, gaining valuable experience and expanding her network of contacts during her academic career.
1. Describe yourself in 3 words: Supportive, inquisitive, and optimistic.
2. What are your favorite hobbies? I love traveling through small towns, visiting their diners and historical sites, as well as touring metropolitan areas to see the astonishing buildings and energetic life. I also thoroughly enjoy visiting family while participating in outdoor activities or watching a good game of college football.
3. What is your favorite study spot on campus? My favorite study spot is any 2nd or 3rd floor area with a large window. I love being able to see outside when the weather or amount my homework does not permit me to actually be outdoors. During this last winter, I was able to look out from one of the 2nd floor corners of theMabee Building and watch everything become blanketed in snow while I studied in the warmth indoors.
4. What do you feel are some of HU's best kept secrets? The underground tunnels we are all dying to explore, the hollow bushes on the front lawn that are perfect for hide-and-seek, the truth about the Heritage globe.
5. What are you learning that you find both interesting and rewarding? In my Human Situation class, we have been discussing the definition of humanity and why technology (in particular innovative robots) could never actually have the characteristics that make us 'human'. With regards to our advancing world, it is quite important to determine the characteristics and meaning of humanity in order to see how all relationships and friendships will always be unique for people.
ALUMNI: Jimmy Cone
Jimmy Cone ('77) received a BS in Accounting and a BS in Economics from Harding University and went on to receive his MBA from Harvard in 1981. He is married to Andee Lawyer Cone ('76) and has two sons, Patrick ('04), and Alex ('07) and one grandson, Eliot Alex Cone. His areas of service include Shepherd of Pleasant Valley Church of Christ, Board of Trustees at Harding University, Board Member at Kairos Church Planting, Mentor at Silver City Church, Former Board Member for Central Arkansas Christian, and Former Board Member for the Greater Little Rock YMCA. His employment at James Cone Construction began in 1978 as Project Manager/Controller and he has served as president since 1984. From '77-'78, he was a staff accountant in the audit division of Arthur Andersen & Co.
1. What is one piece of advice you would give to our students? Take the opportunity to learn outside the classroom from the relationships that are available to you, from other students and professors. The sincere concern the Harding faculty have for students makes a difference that is hard to measure. Among other things, I think it raises a student's self image in a healthy way to be treated as a Christian peer by a professor.
2. Why did you choose Harding? I was so young when I chose Harding, I'm not sure I can say with any certainty. It may have been all those years as a camper at Wyldewood, time spent on the campus with my dad, or maybe older friends who were already there. I would like to think it was because I was mature enough to know, at the time, that it would be a place that I would meet those people who would help make something out of me and be lifelong friends. Because, that is what happened.
3. Who has been the largest influence on your life? (What a question. You've got to be kidding.) I often think about the impact three Godly women have had on my life by their examples. Mama Cone (my dad's mom) taught me reverence for God as early as I have memories. My mother taught me (or tried to teach me) to do what is right, no matter what. My wonderful wife, Andee, has helped me recognize the joy of a life in Jesus.
4. What was the most important thing that you learned/experienced at HU? The most important thing that happened at HU was meeting Andee. Maybe the best answer to the question as written would be the value of community. There was something special in those club functions, spades tournaments, road trips, etc.
5. What career or personal goals do you have that you are seeking to accomplish in the next 5 years? Somewhere, balance fits in the answer to this question. And I admire the trait of service that is attributed to the generation beginning their careers now. Putting these two into a mixture that includes Andee, my grandson Eliot, as well as my sons & daughters-in-law, has the making of an accomplishment I could live for. (By the way, in the back of an ambulance a couple of years ago with intense chest pain, some of my previous five year career goals didn't seem as important.)
FACULTY: Reet Cronk
Dr. Cronk came to Harding from an Australian University 13 years ago with her husband Keith and 3 children. She has the pleasure of spending semesters at Harding and a considerable portion of the summer in Australia.
She has a BSc in Medical Technology, an MSc in Molecular Genetics and a PhD in Information Systems. She has been teaching at the university level for 19 years, publishes regularly and reviews for several international conferences and journals. She currently directs the MIS program in COBA.
1. What book/books are you currently reading? I don't get to read many books during the semesters -- hundreds of articles, research papers, etc. However, I am rereading 'Alone Together' by Turkle for my honors class Human Situation 3.
2. What are your research interests? I have many research interests but I publish in the areas of IT Evaluation, Knowledge Management, Technology in Education, Web 2, Virtual Worlds, with my most recent area being the Gamification of Education.
3. What is your favorite course to teach? Hnrs 205, but within COBA I enjoy Systems Planning and Management, also Management Information Systems at the undergrad level and managing Technological Innovation at the graduate level.
4. Why did you choose to teach? I love learning and I want to share that love with others, hoping that they in turn will 'catch the vision' and become life long learners. I choose to teach at Harding because the students are amazing.
5. What do you like to do when you're not at work? Hang out with my family, exercise, and watch movies. In the summer - travel, go home to Australia, and catch up on reading.