Each course provides an opportunity to generate value for many university stakeholders. My classes have integrated real-world problems faced by businesses in the surrounding community including Hewlett Packard, Halliburton, Target, Entergy, Schlumberger, and the Houston Food Bank. Managers and executives from these companies have helped create case studies and participated in evaluating students’ solutions. As a result, the students gain exposure to real business issues, the college strengthens its reputation in the local business community, and local leaders get a sneak peak at the university’s best and brightest students working on their business issues.

I maintain that students are capable individuals who are not only acquiring new knowledge, but also developing their ability to learn.  From day one, I ensure students are responsible for their own education.  I encourage students to answer their own questions by either rephrasing them as a different question or by a Socratic line of related inquiries they are capable of answering, which build to the answer they seek.  Many times, students are surprised that the answers to their questions lie within themselves and they begin to realize that all they need to do is actively approach their own questions from varied perspectives with a sense of adventure.

A single subject taught in school seldom determines success in life.  True success is more often obtained by those who learn to constantly grow in an understanding of the world around them.  Often times, as in my own academic experience, it is the teacher who prompts us to think for ourselves that provides the personal tools we can use again and again to continuously improve beyond our current capabilities in any area of life.