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June 2006 Greetings alumni and friends. Hats off to our most recent graduates, the Commerce class of '06! We are proud of you and you have now joined the ranks of an elite group of Commerce alumni. The updating of Commerce at Mount A passed some major milestones in the past few months. We have enriched the program by adding the requirement for B.Comm students to complete a minor in a field outside of Commerce as well as distribution requirements of courses from arts and letters and the humanities. This develops a strength of our business program: its grounding in the liberal arts education for which Mount Allison is renowned. We have also added some new courses which add to the areas of internationalization, student research, entrepreneurship, and involvement with the arts. In the future, we plan to increase opportunities for practical learning through connections to business and non-profit organizations and add a global perspective that includes international work and study. This will be achieved through internships, international exchanges, inter-school competitions, field trips, guest speakers, and student research opportunities. Let us know if you or your organization would like to be part of this student-centred initiative. This is the last newsletter for this year. Read about a some of our amazing graduates, profs, visiting speakers, and our entrepreneurial students.
The Charles Frederick Allison Avard Prize is given to the graduating student in Commerce who has the highest average in the four-year Bachelor of Commerce degree. Jessica also won the award for Manager of the Year when Mount Allison honoured its athletes in the Night of the Mounties. Jessica starts work for Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. as a Manager in their Leadership Edge program this July. Commerce professor receives research funding to study workplace safety for young workers Young workers between the ages 15 to 24 are participating in the labour force at an unprecedented rate. As a result of the type of work youth perform, inexperience, and lack of safety training, this group is at the highest risk of being injured on the job. Despite this high risk for injury, very few researchers have looked at this problem.
The study will look at how the safety socialization process within organizations affect young workers’ attitudes towards safety and their safety behaviour within the first several months of being hired. According to Mullen the early days of employment for youth are critical as this is the time that they learn about safe work practices by observing the behaviours of co-workers and supervisors. Mullen says “Young workers receive training in health and safety during their formal education but unfortunately when many enter the workforce they find very different attitudes towards safety.” Ultimately Mullen hopes the research will lead to the development of practical health and safety training material for workers to be used in the workplace to reduce workplace injury. The study will be carried out over three years and a significant part of the funds will be used to hire three students from the Commerce Programme as research assistants. Headed to Broadway and the
Boardroom
So what are the future plans for this savvy musician/entrepreneur? “I plan to start working right now and get a little experience under my belt,” he says, “Eventually I would like to get my MBA and work on the corporate side of the entertainment industry. I’d like to write a full-length musical at some point.” Look for the name “Roderick Henderson” on Broadway and in the boardroom! To read the full story click here. Looking closer
at a star
In her academic life this year, under the supervision of Dr. Gina Grandy, Tricia approached Padinox Inc., a privately owned a cookware manufacturer located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to determine the company’s interest in being the subject of a case study. Tricia said, “We wanted to write something about an Atlantic Canadian company and I was familiar with Padinox from a fieldtrip we took last year. The company agreed and has been extremely supportive in allowing me access to company employees and documents. The VP, Mr. Sean Casey, has been amazing and he is always eager to help me in any way he can”. Over the course of last summer, Tricia visited the organization several times to interview staff, executives and members of the board. Using these interviews, corporate documents and information on competitors from other sources Tricia developed a case and teaching notes which will be submitted to an academic conference and journal or casebook. After graduation Tricia took a well deserved holiday to Egypt! She begins work for Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. as a Manager in their Leadership Edge program in July. Activities, academics, and real life J. Roger Cheng knows what it’s like to jump into something
new headfirst. Not only did the Vancouver native move all the way
across the country to attend an unfamiliar university, but he also
threw himself into both academics and extracurricular activities.
And thanks to his willingness to take on a challenge, he’ll soon
have two Bachelor’s degrees from Mount A and a wealth of real-life
experience. Roger recently graduated from Mount A with a Bachelor of
Arts in International Relations with Honours, and in the fall, he’ll
receive a Bachelor of Commerce.
Dr. Nauman Farooqi who organized the talk said “Charlie’s been running this successful small business for nearly 20 years now; that’s a rare and significant accomplishment in the arts. I was pleased when Stephen Haff, Mount Allison’s Crake Drama Fellow, suggested him.” Two other guest speakers shared their industry experience with students in the Global Context of Business course. Peter Jollymore, '60 has many years of experience with NBTel and is a sought-after board member. He spoke about the importance of responsible corporate governance and issues which impact the composition and role of boards of directors. Michael Wilson, President of Atlantic Industries Limited and winner of the 2005 Ernst & Young Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year Award, gave a presentation on the rewards and challenges of doing business globally. Mr. Wilson talked of growth by acquisition and of moving into culturally different markets. He also spoke of balancing work and family life.
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Jessica Forsythe
is not only outstanding academically but made significant
contributions to university life. She was recognized for
her accomplishments when she received the Frances S. Allison
Award in April and the the Charles Frederick Allison Avard
Prize at convocation in May. The first award was established
in 1896, and recognizes the Mount Allison senior female
who best exemplifies the qualities of character, scholarship,
personality, and leadership. Jessica has these qualities
in abundance. She has served as manager of the Mount Allison
varsity football team for three seasons and participated
in fundraising for Hospathon 2004 and for the Muscular Dystrophy
Association. She has been a representative on the University's
Budget Advisory Committee and the Board of Regents' Finance
and Administration Committee. Jessica is also one of the
chief organizers of the Career Management MTA project.
However,
this is about to change. Commerce professor, Dr. Jane Mullen
has received $90,300 from the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to research what factors
influence the safety of young workers in New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia. 
Along
with pursuing two degrees, he has also been involved in
a number of university and community organizations, including
the founding of Black Tie Productions, a theatre group with
a focus on small cast musicals. Established in 2004, the
group has put on two very successful productions to date:
Little Shop of Horrors and Into the Woods. Roderick is also
a founding member of a barbershop quartet on campus and
a vocal jazz quintet and is a seasoned violist with Symphony
New Brunswick. He says, “This was one of the best features
of Mount A, the opportunity and encouragement to get involved.
These qualities were part of what enabled me to join so
many organizations and begin new ones that reflected my
personal interests.”
As well as being a full-time student, Tricia was President
of the New Brunswick Student Alliance (NBSA) for 2005-2006.
The NBSA is a lobby group which represents over 17,000 students
from six campuses across the province. The group raises
awareness of issues that affect students, keeps a close
watch on government policy and defends the rights of students.
Under Tricia's leadership in the past year the NBSA succeeded
in their lobbying efforts for such things as the harmonization
of federal and provincial student loans, ensuring students
are eligible for the provincial home heating rebate, and
creating a separate post-secondary ministry.
“That’s why I came to Mount Allison,” explains Roger. “Mount
A is a small liberal arts school – out west, there isn’t
anything this small. And because of the smaller size, there
were all kinds of opportunities for me to take on leadership
roles.”
Dr. Farooqi is one of Mount A's most popular teachers.
He has extensive experience teaching MBA, Executive
MBA and BBA/BCom level courses. In addition he conducts
training seminars and workshops for public and private
sector companies. Dr. Farooqi has also worked as
a consultant for the World Bank and for the Government
of Pakistan. When he is not teaching, he is developing
new methods of teaching, and he is writing papers
on how to be an innovative teacher. He also researches
Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS). 
Charlie Rhindress,
Artistic Director of Live Bait Theatre gave a highly entertaining
talk at Mount Allison University’s Windsor Theatre on January
26. His talk, “Live Bait: Luring the audience, the challenges
and rewards of operating a professional arts organization
in a small town” was attended by commerce and drama students
and the wider university community. It was part of
the CGA (Certified General Accountants) Distinguished Lecture
Speaker Series.
Two teams of Commerce students from Mount Allison were chosen
to present at the Student Research Symposium sponsored by
the Centre for International Business Studies at Dalhousie
University. Most of those presenting were graduate students
representing universities from across the Maritimes, HEC,
Montreal, and Pace University, NY. Third year students Peter
MacLeod, Udai Panicker and Henry Skey, presented their paper
entitled, Lay’s Potato Chips in India and Canada: A
Comparative Study. Spencer Crouch, in third year and
Tom Davies in fourth year presented, Nokia: A Pan-Regional
Approach. The Mount Allison papers were part of the
course work for the Fall 2005 International Marketing course.