Poets & Quants for Undergraduates is associating the adage “great teachers are change agents and difference-makers” with student-mentoring by Sandra Loughlin and J. Gerald Suarez at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
In “Favorite Professors of the Class of 2017,” the business education news outlet reprises testimonials given by subjects of its “2017 Best and Brightest Business majors,” including now-Smith grads Sylviane Alexion ('17, accounting) and Mimi Verdonk ('17, finance and Arabic studies).
Loughlin, director of the Office of Transformational Learning, gets this treatment: “Sheryl Sandberg may urge her followers to ‘lean in,’ but Loughlin’s students are pushed to ‘get up front.’ Here, students are given independence to create and the credit for doing the ‘dirty work,’ says Sylviane Alexion (referring to her Innovo Scholars Consulting program experience with Loughlin). It doesn’t stop here, she adds. “Dr. Loughlin also goes out of her way to put her students in front of important people with the power to adopt our solutions and advance our careers.”
Verdonk, meanwhile had told Poets & Quants that “she considers herself ‘lucky’ to have had Dr. Gerald Suarez (Professor of the practice in systems thinking and design) as a teacher. Suarez didn’t just dispatch content, she says, but also gave her the tools to figure out who she wanted to become... With Dr. Suarez, there’s always a deeper meaning and time allotted for your own personal reflection,” Verdonk reminisces. “He isn’t content with you memorizing information; he encourages you to explore your passions and to learn more about yourself and what makes you tick. Dr. Suarez, with his jokes and warm heart, is always there to encourage you, to test you and to challenge you to be your best self. I walked away from his class with a greater understanding of who I am as a person and what kind of leader I will be in the business world.”
Read the entire piece at Poets & Quants.
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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.