USD Magazine Fall 2010

WORLD CLASS R e n own e d f a c u l t y j o i n s S BA [ p r o f u n d i t y ]

says Pete Iovine, program man- ager and USD associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “There is an entire community out there that is interested in these questions. We like to think that, here, students really get hands-on training and that is the hallmark of a USD education in the sciences.” The Science Academy students also explore college life by attend- ing the annual Creative Collabora- tions student research expo, and then the juniors spend the night in the residence halls, each with a USD science student as host. “We got to know what it was like to be in college for a day,” says academy student Barbara Elenbaas, who plans to major in zoology or marine biology. High expectations throughout the program have all of the stu- dents crunching calculus, work- ing formulas and occasionally scratching their heads until the concepts click. And then, glory. “In the beginning of the DNA workshop, they were saying it was over their heads. But by the end, they were high-fiving each other, saying, ‘I get it!’” says Bruce Edwards, assistant director of Foundation Relations. “It’s so gratifying to know that our students are getting these advantages,” says Pat McGregor, Mater Dei science department chair and director of the Science Academy. “It is doing things for our students that we cannot do.“ The second year of the collabo- ration includes enhancements such as a broad theme to which all workshops and field trips tie a closer connection between the USD projects and Mater Dei lesson plans, enriching the entire Iovine. “We want to do innovative things and we want the program to have sustainability. There is the energy and the will on USD’s side and the enthusiasm on Mater Dei’s side to do that. It’s been a very positive experience.” curriculum for the students. “We want to excel,” notes

M by Liz Harman

ost business schools would be happy to add just one internationally

finance practice at McKinsey & Co., is happy to be back in the academic world full time. And with Gόmez, USD can tap the skills of someone who helped Tecnolόgico de Monterrey’s busi- ness school gain worldwide recog- nition in just a few years by inter- nationalizing the curriculum and student body as well as emphasiz- ing ethics and social responsibility. His new title as distinguished professor formalizes an arrange- ment Gόmez has had with USD for more than a decade, as USD and Tecnolόgico de Monterrey offer a dual international MBA degree. Both he and Copeland say USD’s business school is on the way up. In fact, Copeland sees the school becoming one of the nation’s top 10 to 15 business schools in the next decade. “It’s a challenge but it’s viable. We have everything going for us — the right attitude and the right lead- ership.” Copeland thinks teaching is already one of the school’s strong points but that it needs to make the same strides in research. “As Dean Pyke puts it, excellence in the classroom supports excellence in research and vice versa.”

recognized scholar to their faculty, but USD managed to land two of the biggest names in one year. Thomas Copeland (at right, below) is one of the few people in the world with deep experi- ence and top credentials as both an academic and a practitioner in financial economics. And Jai- me Alonso Gόmez’s leadership helped bring international rec- ognition to the graduate busi- ness school at Tecnolόgico de Monterrey in Mexico. Last fall, Copeland was named Distinguished Clinical Professor of Financial Economics at USD’s School of Business Administra- tion, while Gόmez is now a Dis- tinguished Professor of Interna- tional Business. “Our ability to attract such high-caliber professors is a reflec- tion of the great strides we’ve made in the last few years in improving the depth and breadth of our programs,” says the school’s dean, David Pyke. Copeland, who left UCLA in the ‘80s to help lead the corporate

BRUCE EDWARDS

community and offer experiences that are reserved for graduate students at most universities. Additionally, a summer internship program gives four rising seniors the chance to conduct research with a USD professor and present a poster on the project. “It’s mind-boggling for me because I never thought I’d be able to do college work while I’m still in high school, or to be able to work one-on-one with a professor,” says Nick Day, who interned in comparative physiol- ogy and is considering a major in biology or environmental science. The program highlights the collaborative nature of the sciences and the unique undergraduate research opportunities at USD. “The students see that this is more than just a science class,”

RODNEY NAKAMOTO

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FALL 2010