A welcome back message from Dean Percival

There is something truly special about the start of a new academic year at the Schmidthorst College of Business. As the Maurer Center fills with the voices of returning students, the anticipation of incoming Falcons and the fresh perspectives of our newest faculty members, we find ourselves standing at a unique intersection of celebrated history and bold innovation. I am filled with gratitude for how far we have come and with genuine excitement for where we are going together. A dedicated feature introducing each of our new faculty colleagues follows later in this newsletter, and I encourage you to join me in extending them a warm Falcon welcome.

Reflecting on Three Years of Excellence and Impact

As we prepare our mid-cycle review for AACSB accreditation, we have been given a wonderful opportunity to pause and reflect on the many accomplishments that have defined our college over the past three years. What emerges is the story of a community that has not only grown, but grown stronger, more relevant, more efficient and more deeply connected to the world we serve.

We have made significant updates to our curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, ensuring our programs remain relevant and that our graduates are prepared for the evolving demands of their future careers. Even as we have grown, supporting a significantly larger undergraduate student body, climbing from 1,750 to 2,200, we have improved our operational efficiency and effectiveness without ever losing sight of our mission to serve our community.

That mission is deeply intertwined with our AACSB commitment to societal impact. We focus our efforts on enhancing the economic vitality of our region by developing career-ready talent and cultivating regional prosperity through meaningful industry partnerships, such as the collaborations supporting our Certified Financial Planning program. Our faculty's research reinforces this work, generating insights for healthy workplaces and communities while advancing responsible innovation, ethical leadership and sustainable organizations.

These commitments reflect a long-standing strategic focus on our engaged ecosystem of students, faculty, staff, alumni and industry and community partners. From our Ohio Export Internship Program to the many guest speakers who bring their expertise into our classrooms, integrating and preparing the talent pipeline for emerging industry trends is central to everything we do.

Celebrating Faculty, Staff and Student Success

This dedication to student success was recently recognized by the provost at the annual Chairs and Directors retreat, where our college received the Undergraduate 4-Year Graduation Rate Award in recognition of an increase in our 4-year graduation rate of over 15% across the past four cohorts. This outcome reflects the community we have built and the focus we place on providing each student with the support and pathway they need to achieve success. It also reflects you, our alumni and philanthropic donors, whose generosity makes these opportunities possible.

At that same retreat, our Business Analytics, Economics and Information Systems (BAEIS) department was also honored for a remarkable expansion in both grants applied for and grants awarded over the past year, a testament to a growing culture of scholarship and impact.

And this same excellence extends to our newest graduates. This past season, we watched with pride as more than 160 scholars, spanning our doctoral, master's and bachelor's programs across organization development and change, accountancy, financial economics, the MBA, applied statistics and our undergraduate degrees, crossed the stage and stepped into their professional lives. Their success is inseparable from the tireless commitment of our faculty and staff, and from the generous support of a community that believes in them.

A Bold New Partnership: Presenting Sponsor of BGSU Women's Athletics

As we look ahead, we are expanding what a business education can be through deeper integration with our community. I am thrilled to share that the Schmidthorst College of Business is now the presenting sponsor for BGSU women's athletics.

The partnership spans all 11 women's sports at BGSU and reflects a shared belief between our college and Falcon Athletics that the leadership, teamwork and perseverance student-athletes build through athletics are the same durable skills businesses look for in graduates.

This collaboration allows us to celebrate the extraordinary women representing BGSU in competition, share stories of how athletics cultivates the essential skills of tomorrow's business leaders and promote our graduate programs to alumni and community.

Enrollment Update: Growth, Stability and New Pathways

Our footprint on campus is growing right alongside these partnerships. This fall, we welcome 490 first-time freshmen to Schmidthorst and nearly 60 transfer students to BGSU, along with more than 40 students in our pre-business pathway who will benefit from expanded resources designed to help them transition successfully into the college. Although our incoming freshman class is slightly smaller than in recent semesters, strong retention has our overall undergraduate population climbing by roughly 100 students.

On the graduate side, most programs will hold steady, with our full-time MBA returning to approximately 40 students, buoyed by the growing success of our bachelor's-to-master's pathways and the exciting launch of our new online Master of Analytics, designed for working professionals ready to lead in a data-driven world.

Leading in Generative AI: The BoodleBox Rollout

We are also ensuring our graduates are prepared for the next frontier of industry through our leadership in Generative AI. As the first college at BGSU to roll out BoodleBox, we are providing equitable access to a suite of leading Gen-AI tools (including Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT and Perplexity), all in one platform built for higher education. This initiative empowers our faculty, staff and students to explore how AI can augment human creativity and professional judgment, while learning to lead with the ethics, discernment and critical thinking that must never be abdicated. Preparing our graduates to collaborate thoughtfully with AI is not just an educational priority, it is a defining commitment of a Schmidthorst education.

Student Spotlight: A National Champion

Amid all these college-wide achievements, we cannot close without celebrating one of the individual student successes that makes our community shine. Please join me in congratulating Kieran Percival, a proud member of our Beta Alpha Psi chapter, whose team captured a first-place finish at the national "Project Run with IT" case competition, sponsored by the Baker Tilly Foundation. Partnering with three fellow students representing Beta Alpha Psi chapters from across the country, Kieran and his teammates rose to the challenge of collaborating with peers they had just met to solve complex, real-world business problems. Their victory is a powerful reminder that our students hold their own, and thrive, on the national stage. Later in this newsletter, you'll find additional highlights from our students' summer internship experiences, offering even more evidence of the impact our Falcons are making beyond the classroom.

Save the Date: Homecoming, Sept. 23–27

As we prepare for Homecoming, Sept. 23–27, I warmly invite our alumni and friends to join this momentum. Whether you'd like to meet a student over coffee to support their career exploration, share your expertise in a classroom or simply reconnect with the community that shaped you, our new External Relations and Community Engagement Specialist, Beth Ash, is ready to help facilitate your visit and connect you with current students and faculty.

Together, we are not just witnessing the future of business, we are building it. Thank you for being part of this engaged ecosystem. I cannot wait to see what we accomplish in the year ahead.