January 28, 2003 Feature
Story
Big
Business at Utah State
What do Malcolm Forbes, Milton Friedman, Dave Thomas, James
Burke and Jon Huntsman all have in common? Well, aside from
being America's top executives and CEOs of the business world,
they’ve all been feature speakers at a Partners in Business
seminar for Utah State University.
The world's top business leaders have visited Utah State for
the past 33 years, thanks to the Partners in Business program.
But it’s not the administration that reels in these speakers-
- all the work is entirely the product of students. Through
the Partners program, students have a chance to coordinate one
of eight business seminars held each year. They are responsible
for inviting featured speakers like the ones mentioned earlier.
 "Coordinators
invite companies they are interested in working for some day,"
said Lindsay Schiess, assistant director for Partners. "It
gives them a chance to interact on an intimate basis with business
professionals who are top executives."
Many student coordinators in the past have received job offers
or internships from their involvement with Partners. Ross Robson,
executive director of the program, said one student coordinator
invited an executive from Delta to speak. The student picked
him up at the airport, shadowed him the whole day, and gave
him a resume. Three months later, he applied for a position
with Delta and was competing on a national level. He got the
job.
"It was a slam dunk for him," said Robson. "He
set out to work for Delta, and he accomplished it solely by
working for Partners in Business."
 Robson
mentioned that other students involved with Partners have ended
up at some of the nation's major companies, including O.C. Tanner,
3M, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motors and Wall Street as a result
of their experience with the program.
"There is no other organization like us in the United States,"
said Schiess. "It is all student run, which makes some
people skeptical. But when they see the speakers lined up for
each seminar, they see how professional it really is."
The recent Information Technology seminar proved the professional
level of the program when Dr. Peter Chen, creator of the internationally
acclaimed Entity Relationship model, spoke about information
modeling. Chen not only attracted students going into the field
but businesses from all over the Intermountain area. Aside from
the technical explanations of his widely-used model, he offered
advice on getting ahead in life.
 "You
need to have the right idea, the right place, the right time,
and persistence if you believe in your own vision," he
said.
Many other featured speakers offer similar encouragement to
those who attend the seminars. Robson said that businesses from
all over Utah pay to hear these professionals, and it is one-fifth
the cost of other national professional training forums. But
it's free for any Utah State student.
"By attending these seminars, students can get info and
ideas from top CEOs you couldn't get anywhere else," said
Schiess. "I wish more students knew about it."
But many do know about it and are taking advantage of the seminars.
Brad Zobrist, a student coordinator for the year 2001-02, said
his experience with Partners taught him the principle of networking
and has helped him get recommendations for internships.
"It's best to get involved early," said Zobrist, who
has participated in the Partners program since Spring 1999.
"The more opportunities you have to meet and talk with
CEOs and managers of companies, the better your chances are
to find one that clicks and offers you a job."
Students like Zobrist pile into the Eccles Conference Center
on campus during each seminar to hear what the professionals
have to say. Schiess has seen many of these students succeed
in their networking efforts, and she recommends being a student
coordinator or student host to anyone interested.
"It's a great thing to see all your work come together,"
she said. "It gives students the opportunity to shine and
show professionals they could be an asset to their company."
For more information on future Partners in Business seminars,
call USU Partners in Business at 435-797-2279 or 1-800-472-9965
or visit the Web site at http://www.partnersusu.org.
Contacts: Lindsay Schiess, (435) 797-8270
Marie Bonham, (435) 797-3844
Writer: Miaken Christensen, (435) 797-1350; miaken@cc.usu.edu
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