November 2007

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Welcome

Welcome to the November edition of the Northwood University Alumni e-newsletter.  This month has been full of activity with the many regional holiday alumni gatherings.  We have held events in Midland and Atlanta and will be headed  to Grand Rapids and Detroit soon.   It has been delightful to spend time with so many of you this holiday season and we look forward to catching up with more of you after the holidays at the Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland Auto Show receptions.    

You should receive the winter 2007 edition of the Northwood Idea in the mail any day.  As you are perusing the publication, be sure to pay particular attention to the “Northwood Nuptials” request on page 60.  We are looking for stories about spouses who met at NU.  If you have any other ideas for features in the Northwood Idea please forward them to me at alumni@northwood.edu.

Here in Michigan it’s quite cold so I thought the following quote was fitting:
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”  Anne Bradstreet

Enjoy the season!

Julie Felske
Class of 2001
Director of Alumni Relations
felske@northwood.edu

Erin Mazurek (Class of 05) poses with Woody at the tri-city Alumni Holiday Gathering at Dow Diamond
Erin Mazurek (Class of 05) poses with Woody at the tri-city Alumni Holiday Gathering at Dow Diamond

Upcoming Events

5th Annual Alumni & Friends Reception at the North American International Auto Show
Please join us for the 5th Annual Alumni & Friends preview of the North American International Auto Show on Wednesday, January 16, 2008.   This event continues to grow each year with over 100 in attendance at last year’s event.  Please click below for additional information.      

Brian Parr, Tim Nash, Larry Lindsey, and Warren Mault at the 2007 NAIAS Reception.  Chris Chandler, Nick Busscher, and Lawrence Riddick at the 2007 NAIAS Reception.
Brian Parr, Tim Nash, Larry Lindsey, and Warren Mault at the 2007 NAIAS Reception.  Chris Chandler, Nick Busscher, and Lawrence Riddick at the 2007 NAIAS Reception.

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Kavanagh's Korner

There are two exciting areas in the Advancement world:

  • A brand new Michigan Alumni Board convened for its inaugural meeting on November 21st. The members are:
    • Victor George
      President, Victor George Oldsmobile 
    • Ryan Heckman
      First Vice President, Commercial Banking, LaSalle Bank
    • Nick Busscher
      Chief Experience Officer, Experience Marketing, Inc.
    • Justin Koebnick
      Director of Sales – eCommerce & Content Solutions – Manufacturer Segment, WHI Solutions
    • Judy Miner
      Project Specialist, The Dow Chemical Company
    • Shirley Wazny
      Township Clerk, Township of Saginaw
    • Anthony Miles
      CEO of A.E.Miles & Associates

      We are also in the process of re-establishing a National Alumni Board that will oversee and support all Alumni Chapters and programming. Our goal is to combine Alumni and other friends of Northwood into a broader organization to be known and named as “Alumni & Friends of Northwood.” Our goal is to convene the National Board in late January in conjunction with the Outstanding Business Leaders Awards Gala in West Palm Beach, Florida. The initial board will include 2 representatives from each operating unit—University College, Florida campus, Michigan campus, Texas campus, and the DeVos Graduate School.

  • The Advancement team has been asked to develop fundraising plans for two badly needed improvements on our Michigan campus. The first is a total remodel and updates for the NADA facility, including a full service kitchen. This will be a real complement to the new Sloan Family Aftermarket Building that is scheduled to open this spring.  We will also be developing a plan to raise funds for a much-needed expansion of the Bennett Sports Center. Among many purposes, we need to improve our indoor tennis facilities and add considerable locker room space. We will be asking for Alumni volunteers to assist us in planning and overseeing each project, so if anyone is interested, please let Julie Felske or I know.

Thanks for all that you do for Northwood and best wishes from all of us!

Tom Kavanagh
Vice President of University Advancement
Northwood University
Kavanagh@northwood.edu

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News @ NU

Click on the press releases below to read the rest of the story:

Northwood University Mock Trial Team Has Unprecedented Success
On October 29, 2007 the Northwood University Mock Trial Teams experienced unprecedented success at the 2nd Annual Scarlet and Gray Invitational, a four round tournament. During each round, two scoring judges are given the opportunity to complete a scoring ballot. The Tabulation room adds up the score on each ballot and the team with the highest score is the winner of that ballot. Each round a team can win up to two ballots.

Out of 8 potential ballots, Northwood University Team 931 ended up winning 5 ballots (and lost the remaining 3 ballots). In the first round they won both ballots against Eastern Michigan University and in the final they won both ballots against OSU. Additionally, they won a ballot and lost a ballot against one of the University of Pittsburg teams. They finished 6th out of 22 teams.

Team 930 faced the following teams and won at least one of two ballots every single round: University of Tennessee, Notre Dame and two separate Ohio State University teams.  Out of 8 potential ballots, Northwood University Team 930 ended up winning 4 ballots; another ballot ended in a tie and they lost the remaining 3 ballots.  They finished with the same number of winning ballots as one of the University of Pittsburgh Teams and one of the Notre Dame teams.

In addition to the success experienced by both teams, NU students were selected for more individual awards than ever before. Three students playing the role of attorney were selected for an Outstanding Attorney Award: Farris Muhammad, Jonathan Hartsfield and William Freeland.  Lilli Merchant, who was also selected for an Outstanding Witness Award at our first invitational tournament this season, won her second Outstanding Witness Award at the OSU invitational.

Thank each and every one of you for your continued support.
Professor Leapheart

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Continuing Education

EXPOSING THE MYTHS OF USED CAR INTERNET SALES
“Key insights from Northwood University and Auto Trader.com about maximizing your used vehicle department’s performance and taking Internet Marketing and Advertising to the next level.”

Co-presented by Joe Lescota, Chair, Automotive Marketing, Northwood University, and Chip Perry, President and Chief Executive Officer, Auto Trader.com.

Friday, February 8, 2008
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm

San Francisco Hilton
333 O’Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA  94102
Room: Franciscan A & B

Seating is limited to 150 and there is no charge for the seminar.

Please RSVP by January 28, 2008 to jbecker@northwood.edu
Questions: 989-837-4349

Please provide the following information in your enrollment request:
Full Name
Address, City, State, Zip
Company/Dealership
Phone Number or Email

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What's new in Athletics

Click on the press releases below to read the rest of the story:

Click HERE to visit the Northwood athletics website.

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DeVos Graduate School of Management

As the DeVos Graduate School of Management continues its effort to provide innovative and relevant management and leadership curriculums in the Master of Business Administration discipline, it is a privilege to announce that through industry research, student feedback, and thorough curriculum review, DeVos has redesigned its part-time MBA program of study and launched the DeVos Evening MBA Program this fall!

The MBA program redesign process was a comprehensive and collaborative effort amongst faculty, staff, and alumni. The redesign allows DeVos to better meet the current demands of working professionals with significant management experience desirous of the MBA degree. The result, a dynamic module-based curriculum focused on integrative management and leadership at all levels of the firm as well as the core DeVos outcomes of Business Acumen, Critical Thinking, and Personal Effectiveness.

This modern approach to graduate education seeks to further provide understanding, application, and the relationships that exist amongst key leadership content elements. Expanding upon the key attributes of our Executive and Managerial MBA Programs respectively, the new Evening MBA Program broadens the learning spectrum and adds depth to encompass elements involving: Satisfying Shareholders, Satisfying Customers, The External Environment, Measurement, Thinking Reasoning & Analysis, Leadership, and Integration/Implementation. This module-based approach further synthesizes the skills vital and necessary for emerging leaders and enables a well-rounded training and development process that students can readily apply to their respective careers. In short, students are immersed and exposed to all facets of leadership as opposed to traditional methods of segmentation.

The new DeVos Evening MBA has been received well in the marketplace as evidence by record enrollment across all of our part-time MBA program locations. Student feedback has been very favorable, and we are working diligently toward recruiting our fall 2008 cohort group!

This is an exciting time at DeVos, and we look forward to continuing to work with you to provide current and relevant curriculums that prepare our MBA candidates with cutting-edge leadership skills. For further information on the new DeVos Evening MBA program, feel free to review the information online at our website.

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Eye on Business

The purpose of the Eye on Business section is to provide you with interesting websites to add to your “favorites” on your computers, as well as to provide you with key economic data at a glance.   

CEOExpress  http://www.ceoexpress.com
Detroit Economic Club http://www.econclub.org

Facts and Figures

  Present – November 28, 2007  Previous Year – November 28, 2006 
Dow Jones Industrial Average 13,289.45 12,136.44
NASDAQ 2,662.91 2,412.61
Price of Crude Oil ($ per barrel) 91.42 60.28
Price of Gold 803.9 623.50
Prime Interest Rate 7.50 8.25
Average Home Mortgage Rate 5.82 5.86
Value of U.S. $ relative to Euro .6776 .7616
Value of U.S. $ relative to Yen 109.74 115.928
U.S. Budget Deficit 161 Billion 248 Billion
Quarterly GDP 13,967.3 billion 12,573.5 billion

 

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Feedback

Your suggestions and feedback are vital in our planning of this newsletter and our alumni events and services.  Please complete the online feedback form by clicking on the following link: 

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Northwood University
Alumni Office
4000 Whiting Drive
Midland, Michigan 48640
Toll free: 800.622.1007
alumni@northwood.edu