Students Honored for Excellence in Written Works

Above Image: Jordan Goines, Marketing major, Junior; Dr. David Wyld, Management professor and creator of the WOWED! program

Southeastern’s College of Business held its inaugural Written Projects or Works of Excellence and Distinction (WOWED!) program awards ceremony Dec. 5.

The WOWED! program was created to recognize students who have created the “best of the best” written individual and group projects, works, or papers each semester under the guidance of a faculty mentor, said Merritt Professor of Management and Program Director David C. Wyld. Three students were selected by the awards committee to be honored for their written projects – Taylor Steele, a senior marketing major from Springfield, Jordan Goines, a junior marketing major from Slidell, and Celeste Knight, a senior general studies major from Franklinton.

The program was established by College of Business Dean Antoinette Phillips in an effort to advance the College of Business’ learning goal in regards to continually working to improve students’ written communication skills, said Wyld.

“The WOWED! program is significant for several reasons,” said Phillips. “It recognizes students for excellent academic written work, further encouraging and rewarding their efforts in this area. It also reinforces one of the college’s key learning goals and provides a venue for celebrating student success, and archiving the selections provides other students with current, peer-authored examples of excellent writing.”

Each student gave a brief overview of their work at the ceremony, having turned their papers into academic posters for the event. Steele presented her project on “Hometown Pharmacy,” which explored the challenges facing her own family’s business. Professor of Marketing Michael Budden nominated Steele for the program.

Goines presented his work titled “New Cable: The Obsolescence of Cable in the Age of Streaming,” which detailed the massive changes across the entertainment industry—and personal lives—with the rise of streaming services. Assistant Professor of Marketing Juliana White nominated Goines for the program.

Knight presented her work on “Wild Blu Boutique,” a women’s clothing store in Bogalusa. Budden also nominated her for the program.

Phillips said the students honored for their written works were nominated by their faculty mentors as exemplifying the excellence that all College of Business students should strive for in demonstrating their written communication skills. They competed with their peers and were judged as the best not only in their respective classes, but also among all other courses taught across the College of Business.

“These projects, works, and papers will have a lasting impact, as they will be featured on Moodle as examples for future students to follow in preparing high-quality and highly effective written works,” Wyld said. “In doing so, these students have done a great service to help their future peers to develop better written communication skills to aid them in their college careers, and more importantly, in their careers beyond Southeastern.”