Michigan Tech College of Business Newsblog

Branding Expert, Alumna Monica Hahn Visits Tech Marketing Students

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Students members of the Michigan Tech chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) this week spent time with College of Business alumna, brand management expert, and entrepreneur Monica Hahn. After a successful career in marketing for well-known global brands, Hahn is now thriving as a franchisee with Elements MassageTM. Elements Massage is one of the largest retail massage franchises in North America. Hahn owns and operates two studios in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Before joining the Elements family, Hahn spent several years as a brand strategy consultant and career coach, focused on inspiring brands and individuals to reach their potential. Before beginning her own practice, she was a respected senior executive for a number of large companies, including ARAMARK, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Burger King Corporation, and Whirlpool.  

Junhong “Jun” Min, faculty advisor to the AMA group, says that learning real-world marketing stories and examples is an essential feature of Marketing at Michigan Tech.

Monica’s passion for education and leadership development reaches outside her day job. For a decade, she was a board member for The Leadership Investment, a Denver-based nonprofit focused on advancing the collaborative power of women and men leading together. Since 2012, she has served on the Board of Directors for Asante Africa Foundation, a nonprofit working in East Africa to educate and empower the next generation of change agents, whose dreams and actions are transforming the future for Africa and the world. And through her work in Africa, she connected with the Michigan Tech Pavlis Honors College, and is a member of their External Advisory Board. Hahn has been a member of Michigan Tech’s Presidential Council of Alumnae since 2007. 

Vice president of AMA, Ryan Calkins, says that a key takeaway following Hahn’s presentation was that connecting with people is one of the most important aspects of brand management. And Jaxon Verhoff, president of AMA, adds: “It was really fulfilling to hear Monica discuss her experiences in marketing. Listening to her validated my decision to choose marketing as my major.”

In addition to the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration she earned at Michigan Tech, Hahn holds an MBA in marketing from Western Michigan University. She is passionate about food, travel, education and a healthy outdoor lifestyle, and resides in northern California with her husband.

About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.

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College of Business Welcomes Professor Tripti Singh

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Tripti Singh is an assistant professor of management information systems (MIS) in the College of Business at Michigan Technological University.
Dr. Tripti Singh
Dr. Singh earned her Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Alabama. Before joining the doctoral program, Singh worked in clinical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also holds a Master of Business Administration (Information Systems) and a Master of Public Health (Healthcare Organization and Policy) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Singh is also a certified Project Management Professional and holds the Six Sigma Green Belt certification from the American Society of Quality.

Her research focuses on 1) cybersecurity, 2) healthcare information systems, and 3) information privacy. She focuses on the intersection of human behavior and security within the cybersecurity domain to understand information security policy (ISP) compliance issues. Singh also researches the role of security-related stress among cybersecurity professionals. Her work focuses on understanding the digital divide, adoption of healthcare technology, information privacy, and health information disclosure issues among patients in the healthcare domain.

About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.

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My Engineering Management Co-op Experience

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This summer, engineering management major Mitch Watters participated in a co-op at Greenheck. The third-year student completed real-world work assignments related to his major while being simultaneously enrolled in a course requiring online discussions, written assignments, evaluations, and a final report. 

Q: Where are you doing your co-op?
MW: I am doing my co-op at Greenheck, which is a supplier of air movement and air control systems. I grew up in the same Wisconsin town Greenheck is located in, so when I saw a co-op job posting on LinkedIn, I applied right away.

Q: What are your responsibilities there?
MW: I am a test engineer at the dampers lab. I am responsible for performing tests and carrying out test plans. To set up tests, I perform air-leakage tests on our products; other times I make modifications or adjustments to our products and test how they perform. I collect data and communicate test results to our product development engineers. I also help brainstorm and make recommendations for our tests.

Student Mitch Watters in a test oven

Q: Who do you work with?
MW: In the lab I work with our lab supervisor and test technician. A lot of the testing I do comes from our engineering team and product development engineers. I spend most of my time working with our product development engineers.  

Q: What are you learning?
MW: I learned how engineering teams work together and how my role assists the sales team. I learned the importance of effective and efficient communication.

Q: Favorite co-op memory?
MW: Some of the best parts of my co-op were when I traveled for field issues. I was able to see the application for our product in the field and how to maintain a professional level of communication with our customers.

Student Mitch Watters

Q: What will you take away from this experience?
MW: My co-op experience helped shape my future career by giving me the engineering experience needed for my degree. As an engineering management major I need an understanding of both the engineering and business side of the company. Next summer I hope to do an internship where I can gain hands-on business experience. Overall, I am even more certain that I will really enjoy an application engineer position.

About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.

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Xin Li Joins College of Business Faculty

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Xin Li is an assistant professor of finance in the College of Business at Michigan Technological University. He earned his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Economics from Texas A&M University. His Bachelor of Economics was obtained from the Central University of Finance and Economics.
Professor Xin Li
Dr. Li’s research interests are in empirical asset pricing, bond pricing, institutional investments, fintech, market microstructure, and risk management. He presents his research at national and international conferences including American Finance Association, Financial Management Association, European Financial Management Association, Eastern Finance Association, Southern Finance Association, and American Risk and Insurance Association. A paper based on his dissertation was invited to revise and resubmit for the publication of Management Science.  

He has served as an ad-hoc referee for journals such as the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal and the Journal of Financial Counselling and Planning. Li’s teaching areas include principles of finance, advanced financial management, risk management, and investment. In the past, he was the sole winner for the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award of the College of Business at University of Cincinnati and also won the Finance Department Teaching Award as well as the Dean’s List of Teaching Excellence. Li was the winner of the Spencer Doctoral Candidate Scholarship. He also won university-wide awards including the GSG Research Fellowship and the Excellence Award for Exemplary Scholarship from the University of Cincinnati.

About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.

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College of Business Student Selected as Gates Scholar

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Jaylen Body is no stranger to scholarship applications. The Warren, Michigan, native who attended Chandler Park Academy was a finalist in both the Impact Scholarship and Leading Scholar events on campus earlier this year.

Michigan Tech student Jaylen Body

The two competitive awards served as a warm up for Body who would later learn about the Gates Scholarship from his college counselor.

Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Scholarship is intended for minority and low-income, college-bound students. Body was one of 300 students to earn a full-ride award out of an applicant pool of nearly 35,000 across the nation. The three-phase scholarship process began back in summer 2020, culminating in a five-day virtual conference in spring 2021.

“The Gates Scholarship is a foundation for my future; putting ‘Gates Scholar’ on my résumé makes me stand out as a driven and determined person, and that makes me feel incredibly proud,” Body says. Michigan Tech student Jaylen Body

Jaylen began his college search early. By the 10th grade he was sold on Tech’s business program and already connected to many faculty and staff on campus. “I knew I wanted to go to a college with an atmosphere that was not only academically innovative but also made me feel comfortable for being different.”

Browsing YouTube, he found “Jack’s Vlogs.” The quick-hitting, student-produced videos gave him a preview of Tech’s atmosphere. “Those videos really made me fall in love with campus,” he adds.

For Body, who is pursuing a dual major in accounting and management, his goals on campus go beyond simply earning a degree. “I truly hope to make as many contributions as I can to help foster the growth of Michigan Tech. It’s my second home and I want it to be the best it can possibly be.”

About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.

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