Robotics Demonstration – 2015

High school students interested in learning more about a possible career in information technology can now register to attend the UCA/Acxiom IT Careers Camp set for June 26-29.

The camp is free, thanks to funding provided by Acxiom, and is open to all students entering grades 9-12 in the fall. Previous participants are welcome to apply.

The four-day, three-night camp will introduce students to college and career opportunities in information technology in an interactive, engaging environment. Campers will compete in teams to design the best webpage using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, learn programming with Raspberry Pi and participate in a robotics workshop. Students will also visit Acxiom and  Makerspace.

IT professionals will also be on-hand at the camp and serve as mentors to the students. All meals are provided and campers will be housed in New Hall for the duration of the camp. Applications are accepted through Feb. 22. To apply, click here.

Camp Selfie – 2018

The camp, hosted in partnership with the University of Central Arkansas College of Business and Acxiom, began in 2007 and has welcomed more than 300 students to campus to learn about information technology.

The UCA College of Business is the fastest-growing college at the University of Central Arkansas with more than 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 13 baccalaureate degrees, two master’s and one graduate certificate across four academic departments and houses the state’s only insurance and risk management program. The UCA College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Visit uca.edu/business for more.

Pat Moon left Arkansas in 1984 a recent finance graduate of the UCA College of Business for an MBA program in Texas.

He wondered how his baccalaureate degree and preparation would stack up against his competition from other schools, but ultimately, he was pleasantly surprised.

“I found the UCA faculty prepared me well to be successful in studies and the job market,” said Moon. “I appreciate how the College of Business prepared me to compete.”

Moon had been exposed to the world of investments as a child when his dad bought him 100 shares of CCX Network, what would one day become Acxiom. Still, he came to the College of Business planning to major in accounting. But when he reached the upper-level classes, he couldn’t ignore the pull to finance and investments.

Moon is now a chartered financial analyst with more than 30 years of experience in the industry, including as a portfolio manager and trust investment officer. He has been at Meridian Investment Advisors in Little Rock for more than 20 years as a managing principal. His clientele includes families, endowments, foundations and retirement plans.

In the past three decades, Moon has seen many changes to the financial and investment industry. Like most, technology has revolutionized the way things are done.

“Investing requires information and technology has allowed me to get information easier, faster and in more volume,” he said. “But it can be a two-edged sword. Information can overwhelm you if you don’t sort out what is important and what is not. Ultimately, you have to be able to make the decision.”

For students entering the field today, Moon said a solid foundation in accounting is key because every investment requires the evaluation of information to make sound decisions for clients.

“That information will include financials where knowledge of accounting is critical,” he said. “It’s also beneficial to reach out to professionals in the industry before you graduate to seek input. You’ll be able to learn what to expect, might find a mentor and will grow your network while in college.”

The switch from college to career can be challenging for some or most, but Moon said coming to work with a consistent drive to achieve will help.

“A job probably won’t demand more of you than the pressure of getting your degree, but it will most likely be more structured and require that constant effort to succeed,” he said. “It’s important to be organized, use technology and learn new technology, develop a network, learn to make sound decisions with the information you have, ask questions and maybe most importantly — listen.”

The UCA College of Business enjoys many corporate partnerships in the business community. These relationships serve as a pipeline to opportunity in a host of industries for our graduates. We are fortunate to have cultivated such a relationship with Edafio Technology Partners. Check out the video to see how three College of Business alumni — Paul Bradley, Ben Youngblood, and Yong Seung — have taken their education and found a rewarding career.

There’s a determination that drives everything Sally Fridström does and it is what leads her professors to believe she’ll succeed no matter what she pursues.

“There’s almost a stubbornness to her determination, but it is in a good way, and it serves her well,” said Parker Woodroof, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UCA College of Business. “She’s bright, she prides herself on her work ethic and she’s good at talking to anyone.”

That drive is just innate in Fridström, a senior finance major and member of the UCA women’s golf team. Whether on the course or in the classroom, she wants to succeed and be the best.

Last summer, Fridström had the opportunity to showcase her abilities at The Accelerator, a 28-day boot camp at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

The camp, offered through Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, puts college students and recent undergraduates in front of companies, ranging from startups to multi-national firms, to work through real-life business problems and provide consultation.

“I was fortunate to collaborate with two teams of about eight people, which provided more than 160 hours of consulting work for various companies, including Google Fiber,” said Fridström.

“They came with an issue or problem and we tried to solve it,” said Fridström. “We had four or five days to research, formulate a strategy and then present our idea that was judged by C-level executives.”

Participants also took part in MBA-level coursework in branding, design, economics, product development and more. Fridström said the wide variety of business classes she’s had through the College of Business’ foundation and core requirements, which exposes all business majors to many disciplines — including accounting, finance, logistics, information systems and more — helped her settle into her advanced coursework.

“It was good having that overall foundation with me because if I had been fast-tracked in finance, I wouldn’t have had knowledge of the marketing and management side,” said Fridström. “It helped me be an active member of the team during our work.”

Without the requirement to explore different realms of business early in college, Fridström might not have found her niche in finance and marketing. She began as a general business major, but the foundation and core requirements exposed her to fields she enjoyed immensely.

“It makes you well-rounded,” said Fridström. “Throughout those first few years, you’re establishing a foundation of interest with broad knowledge across a spectrum of topics. It helped me find out what I really like and what I didn’t like, which was great.”

Fridström decided to major in finance and discovered an interest in marketing through time in Woodroof’s courses, and ended up choosing it for her minor. Learning the art of persuasion, how to carry yourself and present your brand are all aspects of marketing she enjoys.

“It’s super interesting,” she said.

“Parker is the best professor, he made me more aware of marketing,” said Fridström. “He makes classes more interesting, which makes us all more engaged.”

Once she graduates in May, Fridström is concentrated on getting her master’s in accounting and ultimately becoming a certified public accountant. She was recently accepted to Vanderbilt University’s Master of Accountancy program in the Owen Graduate School.

“Accounting is the language of business,” said Fridström. “If I am able to master it and become a CPA, I’ll have endless opportunities and be able to leverage my background in finance and marketing as well.”

Long-term, Fridström would like to be a financial advisor for athletes. An athlete herself, Fridström sees a clientele she identifies with and can help navigate financial decisions.

“Whatever she decides, she’ll be equipped to do it,” said Woodroof.

The Business & Information Technology (BIT) Club is having its Spring Welcome Meeting and Kick-Off on Thursday, January 31st.  The event, which will be held in the College of Business Auditorium (Rooms 107/208) during X-period (1:40 – 2:30 p.m.), is open to all majors on campus.  Doneshia Moore, a UCA alum who is an IT Recruiter for Insight, will be the featured speaker.  Joining her will be Amber Welch and James Sullivan – all UCA graduates!  Insight is a Global Fortune 500 IT Sales Company and will be at our Career Fair.  We are delighted to welcome them all back to campus.  Refreshments will be served and door prizes will be awarded.  All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend.

Paul Bradley wanted a sophisticated, technical education in a team-oriented setting. He found both in the UCA College of Business and the Department of Management Information Systems.

A Conway native, Bradley grew up around computers and in the middle of the internet and dot-com boom.

“I remember I was about 8 years old when my parents bought our first computer,” said Bradley. “It was interesting. It was so big and bulky, and old school. You look at it now and think of what an antique it is.”

The internet’s influence grew and so did Bradley’s computer skills. He learned how to build applications and develop websites. He took several high school courses to further his knowledge. He also worked for a local internet provider, selling its dial-up network.

When he came to the UCA College of Business in 2002, the MIS program allowed him to grow even more.

“It was a people-minded program,” said Bradley. “It had the technical, computer and IT aspects, of course, but it wasn’t a sit-behind-your-desk, never-talk-to-anyone type of program.”

Real-world situations presented in the classroom allowed Bradley to gain a deeper knowledge of the concepts and applications discussed.

“The professors had real-world experience to go along with an academic foundation,” said Bradley. “The classes I found most valuable were when the professor could present a concept in the form of a case study and show a wide scope of applications. You could think through the logical steps, expound on the complexities and go beyond what is in the book.”

When he returned in 2007 to pursue an MBA in the college, Bradley found the same benefits. Only this time, he could directly apply what he learned in his career.

“There were concepts I could take from strategic management and organizational behavior and could apply to the team I was leading, which made it much more valuable to me” he said. “My employer at the time was going through a production transition process, so a lot of the classes about operations and logistics applied well because we were searching for ways to reproduce processes and make things easier.”

Now, Bradley works for Edafio Technology Partners as its Conway Market Leader. The company has offices in Conway, North Little Rock and Rogers and serves as an IT managed services outfit, supporting its clients’ networking, server and infrastructure needs.

Bradley continues to see the benefits of his undergraduate and master’s education at UCA and the College of Business play out in his professional life.

“I do feel I was prepared in a much more professional, mature sense at the College of Business,” he said. “I feel like UCA set me up very well compared to peers I’m competing against for positions.”

Noah Heffron discovered the field of Management Information Systems as a high schooler enrolled in the UCA/Acxiom IT Careers Camp and never looked back.

Heffron, a senior in the UCA College of Business’ Department of Management Information Systems, had always been interested in business and computers, so MIS seemed the perfect blend of those two passions. His connection to Acxiom has blossomed as well.

What began as an internship during his freshman year has developed into a near full-time role since. Heffron, of Rogers, said it has been fantastic to have worked at Acxiom throughout college and gained so much experience along the way.

“I was initially helping with the functional and regression testing for our solutions, but through my first summer there I quickly became test lead on a couple projects and releases,” said Heffron. “I’ve settled into a position where I am valued for my attention to detail and am trusted to lead releases and interact with clients.”

It’s the investigative aspect that Heffron enjoys the most about the MIS field.

“You’re finding how the different parts of the solution, whether hardware, database, frontend, networking or something else, interact and either work perfectly or provide chances for oddly interesting bugs,” he said. “Being able to use my MIS experience to take a technical concept and determine the business case that the client must have had in mind and seeing how that scenario would play out is intriguing.”

In the MIS Department, Heffron said he’s been introduced to the topics and materials he needs to be successful in his internship and career.

“It’s provided me numerous opportunities for realistic team scenarios, allowed me to practice cooperating with a group of individuals with a unique, yet connected specialties on different types of projects,” he said.

Heffron is the departments 2018 Outstanding MIS Major and received a scholarship this fall from Acxiom.

Jim Downey, Ph.D., chair of the MIS Department, first met Heffron while a high school senior at the IT Careers Camp and recognized an “amazingly bright” student.

“When he showed up on campus a year later, I had him in class and it was immediately apparent he was head and shoulders above everyone else in the class,” Downey said. “I’ve had him since then and he’s a wonderful student, obviously, with a 4.0 GPA.”

Even with his accomplishments so far, Downey said the most interesting thing is Heffron’s working near full-time for Acxiom the last couple of years while still enrolled in the college.

“It’s not unusual for students to have an internship, which is a short-term project; it’s not unusual for students to have a part-time job throughout their college careers,” he said. “But Noah has continued to work for Acxiom while maintaining his great GPA, being a leader in the class, and being an Honors College student.”

The growth and development of his IT skills, from work at Acxiom and in his coursework in the college, said Downey, will set him apart from other recent MIS graduates.

Upon graduation in December, Heffron will begin a full-time position with Acxiom as a software tester.

“I’ll be able to take on more leadership roles on our accounts, and with the experience and knowledge I’ve gained in the MIS department and in my internship with Acxiom, I feel exceptionally prepared,” said Heffron.