SCMA Kicks Off a Busy Fall Semester

Dr. Harrison speaks with the Introductory Lunch Participants.

Early in September, SCMA hosted the first of its kind Supply Chain Introductory Luncheon which provided an opportunity for the first years to get an answer to all their queries regarding Supply Chain Management and for the second years to share their experiences with regard to the industrial relevance of Supply chain concepts and fundamentals, while interacting with senior Supply chain faculty members.  Dr. Thomas kicked off the luncheon with a description and explanation of what a supply chain looks like.  He was followed by Dr. Harrison who described career prospects in the field of Supply Chain Management.  Dr. Novack concluded the program with a detailed description of Supply Chain program at Penn State including reference to the Center for Supply Chain Research, which proved to be a hot topic of interest among the students.  The luncheon was attended by around 50 students.

Brian Ferguson from Sears presents to the SCMA

In mid-September, SCMA conducted a Sears roundtable chaired by Brian Ferguson, VP (Inventory Management Systems & Support) with Sears Holdings Corporation. This afforded an excellent opportunity for the first year students, very early into the Program, to get an insight into the company which is one of the biggest recruiters for Smeal MBAs and to leave a favorable impression on their lead recruiter. The agenda for this roundtable consisted of an overview of the company and elaboration of the opportunities available as well as the skill sets required to be successful in this field. More than 30 students turned up for this event.

Stephanie Bond and Rama Murugan run the grill.

This was followed by the stupendous success of Dell sponsored tailgate on September 26. In spite of the inclement weather, there was a large turnout of current students as well as alumni. The big game against our recent nemesis provided the ideal setting for SCMA to leave a favorable impression with our sponsor company who seemed extremely pleased with SCMA’s organization and conduct of the tailgate.