Korean Students Visit Albany Welfare Sites

In another example of the University's continuing international connection, 13 undergraduate students from Hallym University in South Korea visited the School of Social Welfare from January 5-18. Nam Soon Huh, a doctoral student at the School who now teaches in South Korea, organized the visit because, based on her time in Albany, she felt the trip would be a great experience for her students.

While here, the students toured various agencies in the area including the Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center, the Arbor Hill Community Center, Parsons Family and Children Services, the Colonie Youth Center, and the Schenectady YWCA Domestic Violence Program. In addition, they also visited New York City and the New York State Museum as well as other cultural events in the region.

The students were accompanied to the different sites by Mary McCarthy, a lecturer in the School of Social Welfare. She described the visit as a good chance for the students to gain an awareness of how the American social welfare system works. But they were not the only ones who benefited from the experience. "I have learned how universal the ethics and values of the profession are and how universal social problems are but also how different the response is from different countries and cultures," McCarthy said.

Philip McCallion, a professor at the School, said, "This event allows us to hear different perspectives and enables us to become part of discussions about solutions for social problems in other countries."

According to McCallion, the School has arranged trips for professionals from Holland, Finland, South Africa and other countries to speak and conduct research here at the University but this is the first time such a visit has been arranged for students. He added that he hopes there will be a reciprocal relationship with Hallym University in the future.

Lisa James

Three student entrepreneurs were honored by School of Business on Wednesday, Dec. 11. The School bestowed $1,500 in awards to students as the Entrepreneurship class winds up the semester with a banquet and presentations of business plans developed by students during the semester.

At 5:30 p.m., developers of the top three business plans in the class will make presentations to a group of local business people at the Fort Orange Club. Of 26 plans developed by the class, the best six were sent to the judges for consideration. The top three plans will be given awards. The plans, which were worth 50 percent of the students' grades for the class, are judged on creativity and entrepreneurship. "I'm very impressed by the effort and initiative the students put into writing the business plans," said Thomas Dandridge, associate professor of management at the School of Business and instructor for the class. "The students see it as an opportunity to integrate all their functional courses into one product."

Wednesday's dinner and prizes have been underwritten by Chase Manhattan Bank, NYBDC -- Business New York, Schwartz Heslin Group, John Lemery of Lemery & Reid PC, Gary Burger of Rothstein, Kass & Co. PC and David Ackerman of Karp, Ackerman, Skabowski & Hogan PC. Judging the business plans are Steve Lobel, assistant vice president for alumni affairs at the University at Albany; Eugene Schuler director of technology development at the University, Robert W. Lazar, president and CEO of NYBDC -- Business New York and Bob Schwartz of Schwartz Heslin Group. This is the sixth year that local businesses have supported these awards.