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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.

University of Central Arkansas College of Business alumni Robert and Lauren Redfern have created an endowment to provide continuing education, training and professional development for faculty members in the college’s Department of Accounting.

The Robert and Lauren Redfern Family Faculty Enhancement Endowment will be distributed annually and be used for faculty expenses including continuing education, travel, research, and professional conferences.

“It is not uncommon for our faculty members to pay out of their own pocket for research expenditures to attend conferences and other expenses related to their professional development,” said Michael B. Hargis, Ph.D., dean of the UCA College of Business. “This generous gift from the Redfern family relieves some of that burden for faculty in our Department of Accounting and provides them with more opportunities to seek professional development.”

Robert and Lauren Redfern and their son, Spencer, have accounting degrees from the UCA College of Business. Because of their deep connection to the university and college, Robert Redfern said he and his family wanted to give back to a program that meant so much to them.

“Everything we’ve accomplished professionally goes back to the education we received there,” he said. “We love our school, we love the accounting department, and we wanted to do what we could to give back. We thought this would be a great way to promote the program and draw in more students.”

Robert and Lauren Redfern both work at the family-owned firm, Robert R. Redfern & Co., which has offices in Danville and Atkins.

“God has blessed our family immensely and we want to show our gratitude to Him by sharing with others,” said Lauren Redfern.

Robert Redfern is a certified public accountant and served a five-year term, which ended in August, on the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy. He is also an 11-year member of the Danville Public School District Board of Education. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Arkansas Society of Certified Public Accountants, Chambers Bank Board of Directors and Danville Lions Club.

Lauren Redfern is the firm’s office manager and accountant. She works with many of the Danville individual and small business clients regarding their bookkeeping and payroll, as well as managing the firm’s day-to-day operations. The Redferns have four children: Jenny, Clay, Spencer, and Nicholas.

The UCA College of Business is the fastest-growing college at the University of Central Arkansas with more than 1,650 undergraduate students and 150 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.

Stephanie Watson, Ph.D., chair of the University of Central Arkansas College of Business’ Department of Accounting, is the 2018 winner of the Arkansas Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award.

The award recognizes full-time, college-level accounting educators for excellence in teaching and prominence in the accounting profession.

“Stephanie is a gifted, engaging professor who helps mold our accounting students into better business professionals,” said Michael B. Hargis, Ph.D. dean of the UCA College of Business. “Not only that, she leads our accounting department with creative and strategic thinking. It is wonderful to see the industry recognize her great work and contributions.”

Watson will be recognized at the ASCPA Accounting Educators Conference in May.

Watson has served as chair of the College of Business’ Department of Accounting since 2015. She came to the college in 2003 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2009.

She earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in accounting from Louisiana State University. She’s been a certified public accountant since 2010.

Watson has co-authored several journal articles on topics ranging from accounting education and foreign and domestic taxation to interview etiquette and tax court.

She received the College of Business’ Administration Excellence in Service Award in 2007 and 2015, and its Administration Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005. She received the Beta Alpha Psi’s Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award in 2011. Watson was included in Who’s Who of American Women in 2008 and Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Educators in 2007.

Watson is a member of the American Accounting Association, Arkansas Society of CPAs, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and Beta Gamma Sigma.

The UCA College of Business is the fastest-growing college at the University of Central Arkansas with more than 1,650 undergraduate students and 150 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.

COB Professor Provides Black Friday, Holiday Shopping Tips on THV11

Ron Duggins, M.B.A., Ed.D., assistant professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the UCA College of Business’ Department of Marketing and Management, was recently featured on THV11 to discuss Black Friday and holiday shopping.

Duggins provided tips for shoppers to research and locate the best deals and sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday to complete Christmas shopping. Duggins was interviewed by THV11’s Erika Ferrando.

Check out his interview here.