Partners in Progress
Partners in Progress is hosted by HEI Program Coordinator,
A-State Graduate School, J Jagriti, a testimonial-driven series featuring conversations with CEOs and industry leaders who have successfully collaborated with Arkansas State. Moving beyond abstract innovation, the show focuses on the specific strategic dividends and ROI achieved through the university’s pipeline. This program serves as a transparent risk-mitigation tool for potential sponsors, proving through peer testimony that a partnership with A-State is a high-yield investment rather than a philanthropic gesture.
Partners in Progress
Defying Enrollment Declines: Why STEM and Soft Skills Win
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The corporate landscape is shifting too fast for traditional textbooks, and employers are demanding new hires be completely AI-literate on day one. As universities nationwide face steep enrollment cliffs, adapting curriculum to meet immediate industry needs is the only way to keep degree programs relevant and valuable. Dr. Washam, Dean of the Neil Griffin College of Business at Arkansas State University, shares how he is rewiring business education to bridge the gap between classroom theory and real-world execution.
We get into how higher education is evolving to meet these rigorous employer demands. We explore the tactical integration of machine learning into traditional fields like finance and accounting, the critical advantage of STEM-designated business degrees, and a new Epicenter U partnership offering $40,000 fellowships to student entrepreneurs. The core philosophy driving this shift is Dr. Washam’s push for systems thinking, ensuring graduates understand exactly how a decision in marketing creates ripples in finance, rather than operating in isolated departmental silos.
Innovation rarely happens without friction, and building a startup or mastering new enterprise tech requires a willingness to fail fast and learn even faster. Students are currently facing intense pressure to balance complex technical upskilling with essential soft skills like executive presence, financial literacy, and team management. You will walk away with a clear blueprint on how to leverage industry certifications like Coursera and the Corporate Finance Institute, strategies for navigating early startup development, and actionable advice for cultivating the lifelong curiosity required to adapt to rapidly changing enterprise environments.
If you care about curriculum innovation, practical entrepreneurship, and workforce readiness, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with educators, founders, or business leaders looking to stay ahead of the curve. What core soft skill do you believe new graduates are currently missing in your industry?
@Arkansasstatemedianetwork.com.
0:00 - A 37-Year Legacy at Arkansas State
3:33 - Defying Enrollment Declines and Global Expansion
7:04 - Integrating AI into Traditional Business Fields
16:07 - Why STEM Designation Matters for Graduates
18:23 - Epicenter U and $40k Startup Fellowships
23:45 - Building Soft Skills and Financial Literacy
Hi, my name is Teja Gredi, and today I'm recording Partners with Progress with Dr. Washam, the Dean of College of Business. Welcome to the show, Dr. Washam.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Jigredi, it's great to be here.
SPEAKER_02I am so honored to have you today, just because not only I graduated from College of Business, but I also had a really great connection with him because I also got to work with him as a graduate assistant. So I'm so happy that you're here today. Would you like to share a little bit about your background with this?
SPEAKER_00I'll tell you a little bit about my journey. Um, my journey with Arkansas State goes way back. I actually came to Arkansas State between my junior and C years of high school to take classes. That's way before the internet, so you had to come on campus and fell in love with the place. I actually went back to my high school and asked about the possibility of skipping my senior year to go directly to college. Uh, that didn't work out. They had a couple of other classes they wanted me to take. And so I ended up staying and finishing high school at Jonesworth High and came to ASU. I did my undergraduate year and my MBA. Um, during that time, there's a time where I'm in a freshman year, I was trying to decide what to do. Um, I thought I had a plan that changed. I thought, well, I'm not sure what I want to do. And I was in a math class with Jerry Lindstedter. Dr. Lindstedtter was chair of the math department, and I thought that looks like fun. I think I'll do that. So here I am. Uh I kind of went back and forth, uh, decided on a finance major. Uh, this my sister was a finance person, so I kind of followed in her footsteps and worked through there. So uh he was my mentor all through my time at A State. And so we've got I came here, well, it was in high school. I did my undergraduate here, my MBA. Um, my wife also graduated from A State, and both of our both our kids graduated from A State.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I tell people I've seen this institution from every possible angle. I've been a student, I've been a parent, I've been a professor, I've been an administrator, so I've seen it all.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just to say and sum up all that, he has been here 37 years. So he uh Dr. Washam is in uh finance faculty for 37 years. And how long have you been a dean for College of Business?
SPEAKER_00I've been permanent dean for four years.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wonderful. Yeah, so almost when in in 2022 I came here. I think that's when it was your first term here. Yes, right? So I met Dr. Washam in 2022. I was completely new, we didn't even had our orientation yet. I literally came from India. Second day, I was like, let me just go navigate where my college is. So I came here and in the lobby, I saw him and I knew who he was just because I saw his picture on the website beforehand. So I was like, oh my gosh, the dean is just right in the lobby. Because it's really it was kind of a culture shock too, because in India, if we need to see our deans or anything, we have to make an appointment, a formal application that why we need to see them. So, you know, the approach is different. So I just saw him hanging out in the lobby, and the reason he was there is so that he can actually greet any new students who are coming. So I thought he was so humble, so kind, and ever since we've been just we got to know each other since that day, and it's just been a blessing to know you and work with you. Well, thank you. So that's our little fun story from the lobby. So let's talk about a little bit about college of business. Let's talk about enrollment, growth, and expansion. So, while college of business and business schools nationwide are facing steep enrollment declines, your MBA program just jumped 78% and tech focused majors searched over 70%. Why are students voting their feed for A-State right now? And what does this expanding of talent pool mean for regional employees looking for qualified employees?
SPEAKER_00It has been an amazing few years for the Griffin College of Businesses A-State. I think in fall of 22, our total enrollment was about 1,900 students. And spring of 26, it was about 2800, something like that. A lot of that growth has come from our graduate programs. Uh, the MBA has grown a lot. We did some redesign in the program. Uh, we streamlined our admissions process and did some other things to modify the program to make it more attractive. And also make sure we took care of our students as we went through it. Yes. That's a very important thing for us. So we we've got a lot of growth there. We also had growth in the undergraduate program across the board. I think we've had since fall of 21 to fall of 2025, I think we were up overall about 75%, something like that. So it's and that includes our campus here in Jonesboro, our online programs, and our campus in Carretero, Mexico. So it's just a really great time to be here. We have a lot of innovation in our programs. We have a lot of new things happening this morning. I'll share my morning excitement. Yes. Uh I spent part of my morning in a meeting about a new study abroad program called called Chimba.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00That is in Italy, about an hour north of Venice, I think is what they said. Can't remember the name of the city. But it's gonna be an incredible opportunity for our students. Uh, we'll start recruiting for that kind of heavily in the fall. That would be great. And students could go there in the fall, spring, summer. Um, all the classes are in English, they'll transfer in easily. So it's gonna be an amazing opportunity for those students. We have so that uh any students here who would like to go to get Ethereum for study abroad, those classes are all taught in English and transfer. Well, they don't really transfer because there are classes, so they're just here. You don't have to worry about that piece.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it's a really great time at a state, just overall with the growth we're seeing and the new things with the College of Veterinary Medicine, and that's attracting attention to the university, which anything that attracts attention to the university also attracts attention to everybody across the university.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So if the A state name is the A state name gets out, that means the college business gains from that also.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00And so it's a it's a wonderful time there. We've seen, like I said, we've seen growth across the board.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh also I think our other host, Heather Nelson, she teaches some classes in Shimbao, right? She does. Yeah, so I think that's a great opportunity because she already goes there. And yeah, that'll be amazing. And I think uh when I was in college, we had a couple of students who were on an exchange visa basically from Mexico, from our Mexico campus, and they were here studying. So it's really cool, very diverse. Um, college, I would say, College of Businesses as I think has the most diversity, in my opinion, or maybe I'm just biased.
SPEAKER_00We'll take bias, that's fine. We'll take bias. We're good with that today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So employers keep telling us that they need hires who are AI literate on day one uh because AI has been so big in every industry right now. Uh so not six months into the job, they want the AI literate students day one. And how are you weaving AI, machine learning, and data analytics into traditional fields like accounting and finance? So your graduate lead tech adoption in their office rather than to be replaced by it.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's something AI is something everybody's struggling a bit with right now because the changes are so fast, and it's one of those things that everybody knows it's important, but they're not sure exactly what they're going to do with it. Yes. So it's a really interesting quandary for us. Although we have been on the leading edge of incorporating analytics for the last few years. Yes. Our accounting program is heavy analytics. Actually, the the name of the accounting program, the BS in accounting, is Bachelor's of Science in Accounting with Data Analytics and Applied AI now. So we've added that to it. And so we've got that in the graduate programs along with the MBA, which has a concentration in analytics. Uh, there's also a Masters of Science in digital technology that has a concentration. One concentration is applied AI and the other one is analytics. And we're just trying to incorporate it across. One of the new things you'll see this fall is we are implementing a new course. It's a sophomore level course that all business students will take. And that course is going to be an introduction to AI. And it will cover sort of what AI does, kind of how it works, not the programming side of it, but what's really kind of going on in the background. Um, and then it will cover different platforms, what platforms tend to be best to use for which applications and some basic prompt engineering. The students will work on some projects to kind of get familiar with perplexity and Claude and ChatGPT and Copilot and what they do. And our goal with that is that every business major during their freshman sophomore year will have that class as a tools class. And that prepares them to go ahead and use those tools when they hit their junior level business classes and be integrating that into the junior and senior level business classes as well. So that they have those AI components as they go through. Um, one thing I started doing about a year ago, I guess about about a year ago. Yeah. In my business finance class is incorporating a little uh 50-minute course from Corporate Finance Institute. Wasn't much, but it was something to start with. Yeah. And it was basically AI for Excel. Oh, wow. And it's a really cool little course, about 50 minutes. Um, and the instructor on that one goes through mostly a problem in Excel. And then so we have this spreadsheet, and when you take these pieces out of this column and over here, whatever it was, and we need a formula to do that. And then he shows how he can use different LLMs to come up with the formula he needs to do that from that spreadsheet. Um, and so it's a really nice little induction to how you might use it just in sort of that environment. Yeah. And started there. We'll incorporate more next time. Uh, our students here, in addition to the regular material in class, yeah. Uh, we have access to a system called Corporate Finance Institute.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And Corporate Finance Institute has lots of classes of courses in related to finance, accounting, statistics, a few others as well. And there's a lot of AI built into that now. And then also all the students on campus have access to Coursera, which has some AI tools as well. And we're working on integrating more of that into our classes.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Because I think you you introduced Crossover uh Coursera last year. Yes. Um, because uh our and I remember our graduate students, they worked on a project with you guys in collaboration, and you introduced that. Um, do you have a little word of mouth or like a little introduction basically for what Coursera is for our listeners?
SPEAKER_00Coursera is a platform that provides uh courses, they're recorded courses with instructors with projects, things like that built in. And we have access to a system called Career Academy, although I think Coursera is changing the name of that, but I'm so called Career Academy that gives our instructors and our students access to like 70 different certifications and their industry certifications. So it'll be a Google certification in artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Or an IBM certification in data analytics or something along those lines.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And students can do an entire certification, they can do one course out of certification. We can incorporate individual projects and classes. We could do that as well. Um, we have an and that Coursera is available for everyone in campus, and also alumni have access to Coursera. Oh, wow. So our alumni can use that to upskill with AI and other things as well.
SPEAKER_02Well, that would be me.
SPEAKER_00And plug in that sign you up. Uh, we also have, like I said, Corporate Finance Institute is a similar system that focuses primarily on financing.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm I'm really excited because I didn't know um about it yet about um how AI can be programmed in Excel and whatnot. And as you mentioned, like for accounting and finance, if you are in in accounting or finance, you can't go do one thing without Excel. So I think that'll be a game changer for sure.
SPEAKER_00It's really handy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I use it, I use it. Um I'm not excel I'm not an AI expert by any matter. Uh I'm still playing around with it also. But yeah, I use it for little things like cleaning up data, download data, and I'll have it format, put in the spreadsheet the way I want it and format everything and format to print the way I want it. Um I used to build formulas sometimes because if I run into those things, I'm like, yeah, I needed to do this, but I'm not sure how to do that. Um I'll build a formula with it or write a macro. That's wonderful. I've run into situations where normally in the old days, like a year ago, I would, it might be something I need to do in Excel where I would write a macro to get that done. And one day I was working on one of those things and I thought I need a macro to do this. And I thought it's gonna take me like probably 15 minutes to write that macro and debug it and stuff. And I thought, I wonder how fast AI can do. And AI was faster than me, still debugging, but it did it pretty quick. Yeah, but we're um so we've got that. One of the things I'm really excited about for this fall is that we have um a company who's come to us and we've met a couple of times, and they are working on their enterprise-wide AI implementation. And they're headquartered in Jonesboro, but they're located all up and down East Coast and Texas, I think, um, multiple locations. But they're working on that, and they're still in the process. Right now, they're struggling with okay, how do we structure things so that things that aren't supposed to get out, get out, and that kind of thing. And they're looking at those security issues, but they're also looking at what platforms might they use and what are they gonna use it for. That's one thing that you really need to work on. Everybody knows we need AI, but you've also got to say, what do we need it for? What are we gonna do with it? Right. And as their team is starting that research, they are partnering with one of our classes in the College of Business. And they will come in, the plan right now is they will come in probably first or second week of class and talk about their project and give the students that class task to do, basically. And they say, we're working on research about these platforms right now, what they do best, whatever it happens to be. And those students are gonna work on that, yeah. Their team at the company is gonna work on it, absolutely, and then a couple of weeks later, they'll come back, ask the students what they have, and tell them what they found, gotcha, and collaborate that way, and so then we start again. It's wonderful. So it gives the students not just the tool piece of AI, but the strategic piece of AI as well, which is a huge thing.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, and the implementation in like real world. So that'll be incredible too.
SPEAKER_00Because you know, it's one of those things where you use the tools by figuring out how it all fits together. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's great. That's super cool. I didn't why didn't we do it when I was in there?
SPEAKER_00Because it's not a big thing. Yeah, I wasn't in vintage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Because as soon as I graduated, it was like, oh, Chat GBD, here I am. And I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00I guess it was in Village, just not dig yet. Yeah. They were working on it.
SPEAKER_02So as we are talking about courses and classes, I also want to say that we are um College of Business is STEM certified, basically. Like it It depends on the degree.
SPEAKER_00Oh, gotcha. Many of our degrees um are STEM designated.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh. I think 50 of them, 50 programs, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Uh, if you count concentrations, make it there. I don't know if we're there or not, but our graduate programs, um, MBA is STEM designated.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00The applied digital technology degree is STEM designated, which that's what we're just changing the name of. So I probably said the wrong name on that one. But anyway, uh that's and then accounting at the underhead level, STEM designated and IT.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So for parents or non-technical students who are listening, uh, can you explain a little bit about why uh those degrees or STEM is such a game changer?
SPEAKER_00Um, one of the big things, a couple of things, one of the big things with STEM is for international students.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00International students who come to A-State have normally one year of optional practical training after they graduate, which basically means after they graduate, they're allowed to work full-time for somebody for a year before they have to start the visa process, the H1B process. If you come out of a program that is STEM designated, then that student has three years to work for a company before they have to start the visa process.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that's one big reason why I chose A-State. Um, just because a lot of colleges, even talking about tuition and everything, A State had the perfect environment. It had the degree, the accreditation that would give me three years of work here, but also the price was significantly low as I compared with other universities. And then immediately I was like, yes, I'm going to A State. Because when I saw that it had all the accreditations, I saw what Jonesboro is like. Of course, I was not here yet, but I still took a lot of tours and whatnot, uh, just online, uh, like our virtual tours and stuff. So I was like, I'm not paying that much money to go somewhere else. I am just coming right here.
SPEAKER_00Our job was to um deliver great value and amazing opportunities.
SPEAKER_02Yes, perfect. That that sum it up. So if an ambitious student walks onto campus today with a startup uh idea or a local Arkansas business needs an um injection of fresh innovation, what constant um what concrete support incubators or mentorship pipelines does A State offer to turn rural ideas in real invent in real adventures?
SPEAKER_00So as you look at the entrepreneurship environment, uh this is a great area for entrepreneurship. We have students that come in who have ideas, we have students that develop ideas as they go. And the students who are very focused, uh very determined, are willing to fail fast and learn and go again are the ones that are really gonna succeed in that environment. Because it's one of those things where it may not work the first time or the second time or the third time or the fourth time, but you've got to say, okay, I learned for this. Now let's go again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we try to support those students as much as we can. Um one thing that we have just done starting this semester is we have an agreement with Epicenter out of Memphis. Okay. Epicenter is funded by the Delta Regional Authority, and the goal for Epicenter in Memphis was to put together an entrepreneurship ecosystem that would keep entrepreneurs in the region. So look at Memphis and the Delta because even when they had people who might have a great idea in Memphis to start in Memphis, they would go someplace else to get the resources they needed.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00So they're working on putting that support together. So one of the things that's happened is they received about an $800,000 grant from the Delta Regional Authority to establish something called Epicenter U. And we're the first university partnership for Epicenter U.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00Um, they may do another one later. I don't know. They'll probably like us so much. Oh, yeah. And it's incredible, it's an incredible opportunity for us because basically what's gonna happen is they're gonna be a sequence of two entrepreneurship courses. The first one's gonna be this fall, and uh Nicole Mansor has been hired to come in and teach those. She is a great resource, she has quite a bit of startup experience, she has an MBA from the University of Chicago, amazing lady. And she's gonna come and teach that class, and she's gonna focus on idea creation, all the way needs assessments, idea creation, everything you need to get kind of your plan together. And then she's also gonna teach a second class in the spring. So you can have a full year of the entrepreneurship class, kind of develop those, develop those ideas, and then um we'll have up to five fellowships.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00And basically, one thing that happens is people may come up with an idea. Student may come up with an idea in those two classes, develop that idea, but then they get out of school.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And there's this problem that they have to pay the bills, and so they have to get a regular job and then work on their idea on the side when they have some time. So we'll have up to five fellowships available for students who have viable business startup ideas. And those will pay $40,000 for the first year.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00To free those students up to work on their ideas. Uh, there will also be some money available for some startup costs as well. But that's gonna be an awesome thing because you can come up with ideas, work on it, then give $40,000 your first year out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it'll be like a launching pad. Yeah. Yeah. So that's great.
SPEAKER_00We have that that launching pad um also for students who are working on businesses or just in the region. Uh, we house the Small business technology and development center. So far this year through July, they have assisted with about $14.8 million in capital and fusion in the region. We handle a 10-county region in Northeast Arkansas. Started about 200 clients and assisted with about 12 startups so far this year. And so it's another big number. Yeah, another piece of support they have. And of course, they also have faculty to help with their business plans, advisors to help with their business plans. So if they have a question about something, always go to faculty member to ask.
SPEAKER_02That's great.
SPEAKER_00And so that's a really good spot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's just a great team effort for them. They have a team of people who are there to help them without like expecting much out of them. So we talked about a lot of technical things that you offer to students, but a lot of corporate recruit recruiters, like as we hear all the time on LinkedIn, for example, uh they routinely complain that while uh grads have technical book smarts, they often struggle with communication, executive presence, and team management. How does Center for Leadership Excellence actively bridge that professional skills gap? Because that's another source that they have. We briefly called it CLE, but that is housed in uh College of Business. Right. So would you like to say something on that?
SPEAKER_00We are on our 10th year, the Center for Leadership Leadership Excellence. So our 10th anniversary conference is coming up in September. Oh, one. So it's gonna be really, really cool. But the Center for Leadership Excellence is something was developed to help with those soft skills and help with leadership skills. Uh, because a large portion of our students are first generation college students. So a lot of them didn't come from that background where they saw some of those corporate soft skills that are needed, and they didn't have the experience with that. And so the goal with the Center for Leadership Excellence is to involve a lot of the students. We have about a hundred interns normally every year, and the leadership excellence interns work on projects, they meet with mentors. We have about a hundred interns, about a hundred mentors. And so those interns will participate in mentoring sessions. Some of those are online and some of those are group mentoring sessions. So sometimes we'll be on Microsoft Teams or Zoom, and I'll get a group for 20 minutes, and they'll send me another group for 20 minutes, and the group that gets away from your lucky. But it's fun. Uh, they also do uh one-on-one mentoring sessions, so lunch with mentors, things like that. Some will call their mentors when they get a job offer to ask for ask questions about it and see if it's okay and everything else. Um, they get the chance, some get the chance to travel. Uh, we are the only Forte Foundation partner school in Arkansas. Yes. And so that provides us access to their conferences. So we've sent studio groups to Forte conferences, like the Fast Track to Finance Conference in New York City, or we've also sent the conferences in Charlotte and Atlanta. New York City this year was extra fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I was there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because you guys got some extra days.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we got extra days just because we got stuck in blizzard. But um, again, one more thing that I can flex about college of business. I had 10 students and with a uh fellow professor that we took 10 students with us, and students got stuck in the blizzard. College of business paid for extra accommodation, food, everything. So again, thank you for that in person.
SPEAKER_00Make sure you're taking care of while you're there.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful trip and four day. I don't think I have even attended a conference on that big level uh somewhere. So it was just great and great to meet other students, other co-workers like my age, you know, other administrator people from different colleges like Boston University and we got connected on LinkedIn, so I still get to see what they are doing in their colleges. So I think that was great for students and for the people who went.
SPEAKER_00So and those are the mentoring, they do also have resume reviews, they have mock interviews, they have all sorts of activities like that. Develop those soft skills. And along with, we call it step up reach, reach back, along with the stepping up part, visiting with the professional mentors, they also reach back and do community service projects. Um, they do a high school leadership conference, yeah. Things like that.
SPEAKER_02That's one of my favorite ones.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I like that one a lot, actually. So let's talk about one of your other programs, Scarlet to Black.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02One of our most popular, I would say, in college of business, or maybe second popular, I guess, after CLA, because maybe again, I am biased.
SPEAKER_00You're biased. It's okay.
SPEAKER_02So personal finance, uh, financial stress is one of the single biggest reasons uh college students drop out. So, how is Scarlet to Black program actively moving students of personal debt and into wealth-building habits? And why is personal money management such a critical learning business? And also, you can share about your K to 12 program with Scarlet to Black.
SPEAKER_00Because we actually have kind of two things that mesh together for me. We have the uh Case Foundation Scarlet to Black program for financial independence, and we also have the Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy. And those two programs impact different levels. Uh, Scarlet to Black focuses on college students.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00And so there's several things offered through Scarlet to Black. One thing is there is a nine credit hour personal wellness certificate that is available to any student on campus. So if you're a business major or an engineering major or a sociology major, an agriculture major, an English major, history major, whatever it is. Try to think if I left anybody, a nursing major, uh, try to get all the way around campus. Uh whatever it is, if you have some elective hours and you want to do that, it's a nine credit hour certificate that you can add your degree that will take you through basics of budgeting, investments, buying a house, okay, all those types of things. It's got to prepare you for that. Um, they also do classroom visits. Most of those classroom visits are with our freshman classes. So our first year experience classes, they go in and talk to them about financial wellness and basics of budgeting and things like that and strategy during the first semester at A State. Since fall of 24, I think they've visited about 700 students through that, college students. Um, they host interactive workshops for students on campus. So they've done some investing workshops, they do budgeting workshops, they host those. The students can come to one-on-one guidance with peer mentors. Um, Scarlet to Black is run by our directors Philip II and assistant directors Melanie Ricker. Uh they run it, but they also hire some students that work with the program as well. The students work with Scarlet to Black and uh Economic Education. And um, so they do some one-on-one peer counseling, which is really cool because they get some training for that, of course. But it's nice because if you're a college student, your problem, your financial situation may be different than my financial situation. It is things may look different to one person than another.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so it's kind of nice because they're seeing some of the same stresses and they've had to deal with some of the same stresses. So they do the one-on-one guidance, uh, they do some one-on-one guidance for students applying for scholarships as well. And so scholars to black focuses on those types of things. Um then Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy kind of goes along with that. Uh, they focus still Dr. Two and Melanie Ricker, and they tend to focus on elementary school, middle school, junior high kids. Since fall 24, I think they've brought about 2,500 kids to campus. Oh, wow. Uh that's a big number. They have several conferences every year. So they'll they'll do a couple of things. One thing they'll do is they'll do conferences for for students for um like K-12 students. Like I said, they're mostly elementary, middle school, some junior and high. Uh they do several conferences a year. They the big ones are probably the small business leadership conference, small business leadership conference. Uh, students build a business around a toy they invented. They invented a toy, they build a business, they go with a marketing plan, everything else for it. That happens every fall. Uh, last fall we had like 300 students participate in that from 14 different schools. Oh, wonderful. So it is a fun day on the third floor of the student union when we do that. That's a great time. And we we have college students who help out with that, help run that and lead kids around and uh do that type of thing. There's a budget simulation we do. About 700 kids participated in that last year. One of my favorites is in the spring, and that is the Arkansas Healthy Food Cart Competition. That's one of my favorites because on that one, they come up with like a healthy food item and uh they design uh usually a food truck around it. Oh, they get usually a food truck and a business plan around it. And there are a few of them who compete and get selected to have their actual food item judged. Oh and so uh I think I think I missed one year, but most years I judge for the food car competition. Yeah, first in line. First in line. And they're very creative.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00They're very creative. I've eaten some different things. Oh wow. I was ready. The famous one that I was safe from is uh I think Dr. Two like made sure the broccoli jello was gone. They thought broccoli's healthy, jello's healthy, we'll put them together. He that one left before we got to us, so I was happy about that one. But we usually have a couple hundred students show up for that one too. And yeah, along with the conferences we do here in campus, they go out and do class visits. Um, so visit with with public school classes, yeah, uh, just around the area. So they may be in Jonesboro, they may be in Markt Tree, Truman, wherever it happens to be. Uh, so they'll go out and do those as well. And they also do education for teachers.
SPEAKER_01Oh.
SPEAKER_00Uh, just last week, uh, we had 23 teachers on campus for a workshop we did, we partnered with Economics Arkansas to do a workshop for the teachers.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's super cool.
SPEAKER_00Stuff.
SPEAKER_02So that's a lot of things um that we discussed about. Um, and you did a great job explaining those. So for people who are still interested in knowing more, um, all these different programs are available and very active on social media. Because Scarlet to Black, they have their Instagram, uh, College of Business have their Instagram. So you can just search up their names, some keywords, or you can go to College of Business website and you can find all that information there too. Um, because I know I I keep up with some things, like, for example, graduate programs is doing so that I can kind of put those books in other colleges still, like, hey, College of Business is doing that, might as well, you might do it too. So, yeah, I think they are doing great things over there. So it goes to show your leadership too and your execution too. So that's great. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00I just kind of keep things running and let the let the people who are really good at stuff take care of it.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So, Dr. Washam, you have been a cornerstone for Arkansas State University for 37 years. Uh, you have watched market is uh markets crash, economies boom, and technology transform from spreadsheet to artificial intelligence. When you look at freshmen walking into Neil Griffin College of Business uh today, what is the most single mindset or skill they need to cultivate uh right now to ensure they aren't just surviving but leading in the economy?
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna go first with some of those kind of standards, it's always been kind of standard attitude for lifelong learning. Uh, but that's something they really need now. Yeah, unfortunately. Because things change so quickly. It's always been important, but right now it's very important. Um I think they need the ability to develop those soft skills. I think, along with the technical skills, um, I'm assuming some technical skills here that are done, but they need, like I said, they need to be a lifelong learner, they need to develop soft skills, they need to develop um curiosity. They need to be curious and ask questions. It's one of the biggest things.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Because when I talk to employers, some of them they'll say, Well, they're really good at whatever they do, but things happen and they don't ask questions about it. It just happens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They just say this happened. And when I say why, they say, it just happened. It just happened, I don't know. The number's this now. Like, why is the number that now? The number's that. And so part of it is the curiosity to ask those questions and figure out why something happened. Um, and to go along with that, they gotta put all that together. I think the ability to see how things fit together. They need to look at things as systems because they need to understand that finance, oh finance person. So finance is great as it is, doesn't operate in a operate in a vacuum. Um marketing, you know, as you look at the business, it's a business, as you look at the business, yeah, there are lots of different moving parts to it, and they all impact one another. Nothing's in isolation. And when when's traditionally, when you start your career, you start in one of those areas and you're kind of kept in that area. You do the accounting, you put this here, you do the finance, you do this, you do the marketing, you do this. And you don't really look at how they go together until you advance in your career. Yeah. So you advance through your career, then you start having to look at okay, how does all this work together? Um, I think they have to develop that sooner. And I hope that's one thing that we do in the college of business is I hope, in addition to putting putting out a great accounting major, a great finance major, a great marketing major, or a great management major, no, you know, whatever it is, uh, whatever that major happens to be, in addition to that, I hope we put out students and graduates who understand how the system works within a business. So they understand how what they do impacts something else, or when a decision's made, what all the impacts are. So I hope they understand how that web all ties together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because that's that's important for sure. And any closing remarks, because I think my rapid fire questions are over now, because I got to touch on everything that I could think of. So any closing remarks that you have for upcoming students, current students, parents, uh, floor is yours, basically. Mine, okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um was expected closing remarks. I'll go anyway. Um it's an amazing time in Arkansas State right now. The growth, the opportunities, what's happening in Northeast Arkansas all present wonderful opportunities for our students, our graduates, and people who just want to move dark in Northeast Arkansas. Yes. Um so I think if you are looking for a college or you're looking for a university, come check it out. Once you spend some time on our campus and meet everybody and learn about the programs, uh, you'll be here. Yes. That's the way I look at it.
SPEAKER_02And that'll be great too. Yeah. So I think um it's been a blessing that I was there for almost two, three years, and I have barely met anyone, or like I don't think I can't think of anyone when I say that they had a bad experience in college or business. Like, faculty is super nice, people are super nice, Dean is great, so fun, so jolly. Like, look at him, he's so nice. So it's just, I think it's just a great environment to study and do the things that you need to do. And yeah, it's just been a great experience. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_02So I would like to thank Dr. Washam for today's show. And today's show, Partners in Progress, was recorded um in collaboration with Arkansas State Media Network and podcastvideos.com. Uh, if you want to check out more episodes uh episodes, please check out Arkansas State Media Network on all our social medias uh Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, just check out podcastvideos.com and you'll find all our plugins um on the website too. And hope you all have a great day. Thank you.