Carol Carter
Assistant Director,
Entrepreneurship Institute
Assistant Director,
Entrepreneurship Institute
LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
December 1, 2006 |
VOL. 23, NO. 8 |
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| Carol Carter Assistant Director, Entrepreneurship Institute |
What is your research interest?
Women’s business issues and female entrepreneurship.
What was your previous position?
I started my own business in 1994, which I ran for 10 years in Baton Rouge. I developed and ran the first local consignment-retail boutique specifically designed for maternity and infant apparel. Prior to that, I was an account executive at a local television station for a number of years.
What are your major accomplishments?
I would say that raising my daughter, who is 13, has been my biggest accomplishment, and the one for which I am most proud. Starting my own business was challenging and an accomplishment. I also take pride in helping teach students how to start their own businesses and helping women learn the ins and outs of business startups.
What do you hope to accomplish at LSU?
At LSU, I hope to accomplish my goal of teaching entrepreneurship – especially to the extent that we can use this tool to teach our students what they need to know to start their own businesses. We can keep them in our state if they can start their own companies – this way they don’t have to leave for a regular job. It’s good for them and good for our state’s economy.
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| President of Shell Oil Company John Hofmeister, left, was recognized on the field of Tiger Stadium during the LSU-Alabama game on Nov. 11. He is pictured with LSU System President William Jenkins, center, and LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe, right. |
Shell Oil Company will donate $3.5 million over a three-year period to leverage Louisiana State University’s scientific and academic expertise in support of Louisiana’s environmental and business recovery efforts under way since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The donation is the largest one-time cash pledge from an energy company in LSU’s history, and it is the first major corporate donation made since the “Forever LSU” campaign was officially announced in June this year.
“This donation is an important step in what has been a long and mutually productive relationship between LSU and Shell,” said LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe. “We are proud of this great partnership and dedicated to taking our collaboration to new heights with this most generous gift.”
“Shell is dedicated to the Louisiana communities where we live and work,” said David Sexton, President of Shell Oil Products U.S. “We hope this grant will benefit the state long-term – particularly with regard to environmental restoration and business revitalization.”
Approximately $3 million of the gift will create a state-of-the-art coastal ecosystem research project in the Breton Sound area along the Mississippi River delta immediately south of Plaquemines Parish, as well as a $1.2 million endowed chair.
The Louisiana Board of Regents is expected to supplement the chair with an additional $800,000, giving the Shell gift $4.3 million in total impact. The initiative will be managed by LSU’s School of the Coast and Environment, or SCE, under the leadership of Dean Edward Laws and Professor Robert Twilley, who was recently named associate vice chancellor for research and economic development.
The research data acquired at the Breton Sound facility will be evaluated at the SCE’s existing “Shell Coastal Environmental Modeling Laboratory,” also financed by the company via $700,000 in previous donations. The significance of the Breton Sound research project was summarized by LSU Interim Provost Harold Silverman: “Shell’s funding of a comprehensive and systemic study of a large and important portion of coastal Louisiana should provide long-term benefits to the state based on exceptional interdisciplinary science aimed at understanding restoration mechanisms.”
The remaining $500,000 of the donation will be utilized by LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business to provide critically needed business counseling and related assistance for women- and minority-owned businesses in several Louisiana parishes hardest hit by the 2005 hurricanes. Under the direction of Dean Robert Sumichrast, the counseling and training will be provided by Ourso College faculty and graduate students via a new “mobile classroom,” an 18-wheel truck retrofitted with the latest educational technologies.
“The $3.5 million donation signifies an important expansion in an LSU/Shell relationship that has been steadily improving over the past several years, due to a number of factors, including a highly responsive campus workforce development team and an outstanding, multidisciplinary academic and research effort that is positioning LSU as a global leader in coastal and environmental studies,” said Jeff Hale, senior director of corporate and foundation relations with the LSU Foundation.
LSU will hold its annual Candlelight Celebration to usher in the holiday season with the lighting of LSU’s Christmas tree and, in anticipation of the beginning of Hanukkah, the kindling of the menorah. The celebration will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Memorial Tower. It will be immediately followed by the annual Holiday on Campus event at the LSU Fieldhouse from 6 to 8 p.m.
All are invited to attend the Candlelight Celebration and will be delighted with different performances during the event, including the LSU Tiger Men’s Glee Club. Sounds of bells and brass will be provided by the LSU School of Music and the Baton Rouge Concert Band, and the University Baptist Church will perform the Joyful Noise Bells. There will also be a chorus program provided by the LSU Schola Cantorum, under the direction of Conductor Sara Lynn Baird.
Those wanting to help families in need can donate to the “Giving Tree” at the event. Donors can bring canned goods, wrapped new clothing and wrapped new toys to the appropriate collection bins located in front of the Memorial Tower from Tuesday, Dec. 5, to Friday, Dec. 15. Please specify on a tag the age and gender of the child who should receive your toy or clothing item. All donations will be taken to the Baton Rouge Food Bank, Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army.
Sponsors of the event include Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Entergy, Clear Channel Communications, Lamar Advertising, Cox Communications, Fine Woods, LSU Dining, LSU Student Media, Wright and Percy and Campus Federal Credit Union.
LSU students, faculty, staff and their children are also invited to Holiday on Campus following the Candlelight Celebration. LSU Staff Senate will sponsor the 17th annual charity event, which will include free food and drinks. Children will have the opportunity to have their pictures taken with Santa, mingle with clowns, tour a fire truck and climb the rock wall provided by University Recreation. The LSU cheerleaders, the Golden Girls, the Tiger Girls and Mike the Tiger will be on hand to bring in the holiday cheers. In addition, attendees will have a chance to win door prizes, including autographed sports equipment. Arts and crafts and face-painting will also be available. Admission for adults is a canned food item for the Baton Rouge Food Bank, and admission for children is a new wrapped gift for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.
All LSU department offices are also invited to participate in the “2006 Holiday Office Decorating Contest.” The theme for this year’s contest is “A Cajun Christmas.” There will be first, second and third prize winners for each category, which include office bulletin boards, doors, entrance ways or Christmas trees. Each category will be judged on creativity, appearance and theme adaptation. The deadline for decorations completion is Dec. 4. To receive an entry form, contact Shannon Smith at 578-4307.
To date, LSU Press authors have received four Pulitzer Prize awards, with the most recent coming this year when Claudia Emerson was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book “Late Wife: Poems.”
Along with “Late Wife,” LSU Press winners have included Henry Taylor’s “The Flying Change,” Lisel Mueller’s “Alive Together” and John Kennedy Toole’s novel “A Confederacy of Dunces.”
“These four Pulitzer Prize winners are a testament to the quality of books being published by LSU Press,” said Michael Ruffner, LSU vice chancellor for communications and university relations. “Having an award-winning press is part of LSU’s goal of being a well-rounded flagship university.”
LSU Press was founded in 1935 and is a member of the Association of American University Presses and the Association of American Publishers. LSU Press publishes approximately 80 titles per year and currently has some 1,000 titles in print. The LSU Press editorial program focuses primarily on the humanities and social sciences, with a special emphasis on Southern history and literature. The press is also noted for its work in the fields of politics, Latin American studies, poetry and music, as well as for books about Louisiana and the Gulf region.
The Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership, or CCELL, has instituted the innovative Faculty Scholars Program, or FSP, to promote the institutionalization of service-learning courses in every department and to advance the objectives of the LSU Flagship Agenda. The deadline for proposals is Friday, Jan. 12.
Participating faculty members will receive a $2,000 stipend for the semester after committing to attend a weekly, 1.5-hour seminar with other scholars, where they would plan a “hands-on” class, said Jan Shoemaker, CCELL director. The seminars seek to explain the university’s obligation to the community and allow faculty to begin planning the courses, she said.
“Faculty will share ideas about social responsibilities of universities, reflection strategies, course design, liability, assessment and documentation for tenure and promotion,” Shoemaker said.
Scholars will develop a service-learning course syllabus during the spring to be instituted during the fall 2007 or spring 2008 semesters.
Full-time faculty members at the rank of instructor or above are eligible. The LSU Service-Learning Advisory Council is seeking scholars who represent a variety of disciplines and areas of expertise, with familiarity and experience with service-learning, Shoemaker said. Projects that respond to issues exposed by recent disasters are especially encouraged.
The university began offering service-learning courses in the mid-1990s, and the program has expanded to include more than 65 different sections within 35 departments.
Bel Leejay, secondary education alumna, took a service-learning course and said it was much more interesting than taking a regular course. She and fellow students served a community partner with an identified need for about 20 hours during the semester.
The service-learning courses create a bridge between the university and the Baton Rouge community.
“We are committed to working with the community rather than simply providing something for the community,” Shoemaker said.
Shoemaker said her research shows that programs such as the service-learning courses help students learn more effectively, since they receive hands-on experience.
Shoemaker quoted Marybeth Lima, biological engineering professor, who said, “The difference between a good engineer and a great one is an engineer who can understand social context and knows how to interact with people. Ultimately, service-learning at its best creates democracy.”
An application is available at the CCELL office in B-29 Coates Hall or the CCELL Web site, www.ccell.lsu.edu. For more information, call 578-9264.
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| LSU congratulated the winners of the 2006 LSU Foundation Staff Outstanding Service Award at a ceremony on Nov. 14. Front row from left to right are Chad Gothreaux, College of Education; Melinda Braud, Professional Practice, Hebert Law Center; Kathleen Wylie, Law Enforcement Online; and Cheryle L. Peters, Minority Engineering Program. Second row from left to right are Joan Gobert, Human Resource Management, LSU Agricultural Center and Kristine Calongne, Public Affairs. Third row from left to right are Joan Payne, Geology and Geophysics and L. Rachelle Bethel, Accounting Services. Forth row from left to right are Cheryl Duplechain, Renewable Natural Resources, LSU Agricultural Center and Steven Waller, Residential Life. Back row from left to right are Joseph Alexis, Citrus Research Station, LSU Agricultural Center and Nona Everett, Union Parish Extension Office, LSU Agricultural Center. Not pictured is Gerald Masterman, Petroleum Engineering. |
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the LSU Foundation awarded 13 full-time, non-academic staff employees of LSU, the LSU Agricultural Center and the Paul M. Hebert Law Center with Staff Outstanding Service Awards at a ceremony at the LSU Faculty Club. Recipients were nominated by their co-workers for their superior work performance and outstanding contributions in aiding in the achievement of departmental and university goals.
The recipients were given thanks and praise for their hard work over the past year, especially in matters dealing with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. William Jenkins, LSU System president; John Costonis, Paul M. Hebert Law Center chancellor; Sean O’Keefe, LSU chancellor; and William Richardson, LSU AgCenter chancellor, commended the honorees for their hard work and dedication.
“To those individuals honored and all those they work with, we owe all of you a tremendous debt of gratitude,” O’Keefe said. “Thank you to the LSU Foundation for sponsoring an event honoring those individuals that make the university work.”
Recipients were presented with recognition certificates and $500 cash awards during the ceremony, attended by recipients’ family members and co-workers.
“Without these folks, we just don’t operate,” Richardson said. “I couldn’t be prouder of those honored today. I want to congratulate all the recipients on a job well done.”
Gwen Hamilton, Baton Rouge Area Foundation; Lee Rayner, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center; and Kyle Viator, Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program, served as judges and selected the award winners based on their letters of nomination.