Smith Student Appointed Student Regent

“How could I not apply for a job like this?” That was Joel Willcher’s immediate reaction when asked why he chose to run for the position of “student regent” on the University System of Maryland’s governing board. “This kind of opportunity does not knock very often,” he adds.

Willcher, a junior business major at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and president of UM's Student Entertainment Events (SEE) was nominated by Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to serve on the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents. The student regent, chosen from nominees from each University System of Maryland school, serves a one-year term and acts as the student representative on the board, which governs the system. He has the same voting power as other regents.

As the only student from UM to serve on the board in two years, Willcher describes the nomination process as arduous. The process began with a campus competition to select College Park's candidate for the position. “As I walked to my interview for the campus competition, I thought about all of the great leaders at the university who would make excellent regents. I felt confident in that I was qualified to do the job and knew that I would be taken seriously by the committee but I had no expectations in terms of the outcome,” he says. “I was so honored to have been chosen from a pool of what must have been excellent candidates.”

After the competition, the System Student Council picked three top candidates and forwarded their names to the system’s Chancellor William Kirwan. “I was particularly nervous about the meeting at which the student council members interviewed us because, while I was completely comfortable discussing any and every issue pertaining to my university, I was not as familiar as I expected the other candidates to be with the rest of the system’s institutions,” he says. He believes he won the council over by focusing his comments on the importance of a statewide network of students and of collaborative policy making. “My description of the approach that I would take if offered the position must have struck a chord with the council members,” he opines.

▓ Priscilla Mwangi, MBA Candidate 2006, Smith Media Group

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From the Rest Of Us?
Entrepreneurs are no more likely to want to stick their necks out than wage earners, they just have an unusual amount of self-confidence, according to results of a recent research paper, "Entrepreneurial Risk and Market Entry." Study findings debunk a common stereotype about entrepreneurs – namely that they are inherently more comfortable with risk.

Joining us for this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is Anne Marie Knott, co-author of the study and visiting professor of management at the Smith School.

You can see Smith Business Close-Up every other week on Maryland Public Television stations across our region. Check your local listing for the station in your area.

Thursday, March 31, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 1, 4:30 a.m.
Sunday, April 2 , 11:00 a.m.

►Watch previous segments of Smith Business Close-Up online now!

Lost & Found

There are two official Lost & Found locations in Van Munching Hall – Smith Operations (2410) and Office of Undergraduate Studies (1570). If you FIND an item that someone may have dropped (inside or outside the building), such as keys, ID card or gloves, or you find something left behind in a classroom, such as a textbook, calculator or book bag, please take the item to either Anne Stevens in Smith Operations or to the front desk in the Office of Undergraduate Studies. If you have LOST an item, please check these locations.

Spring Pre-Retirement Seminar

The ORP Pre-Retirement Seminar will be held on Friday, April 15th in 1101U Chesapeake Building from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  The Pre-Retirement Seminar for the State Pension/Retirement System will be held on Friday, April 22nd in 1212 Van Munching Hall from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.  Registration for both seminars is now available online at http://www.uhr.umd.edu/. Once there, scroll down to Benefits and then click: online registration.

►Congratulations to Ernie Soffronoff, Systems Administrator, Office of Smith IT. He and his wife Catherine and son Henry welcomed a new addition to their family on March 25: Thomas Philip Murray Soffronoff, 6 lbs. 9 oz.

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