HPU'S PHILLIPS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: HELPING STUDENTS DISCOVER, DIFFERENTIATE AND DIRECT THEIR PATH TO SUCCESS.

• Position: EXTRAORDINARY EDUCATION

The Earl N. Phillips School of Business mission is simple: "Prepare students to become tomorrow's business professionals." It keeps faculty focused on their core goal to help students gain relevant experience and valuable skills. They accomplish this in a variety of ways, both inside and beyond the classroom.

Faculty use every opportunity to inspire students to embark on a program of self-improvement and analysis known as the 3D Experience:

Discovery. Differentiation. Direction.

DISCOVERY

Before students can forge successful careers, they must first discover the many avenues and opportunities available to them. The Phillips School of Business opens that door of discovery in many different ways.

One is the PSB Speaker Series. Business students are exposed to all kinds of tremendously successful people with great stories to tell. The theme is always to teach students about the career paths and how to handle the curves and opportunities that life may bring.

The series, which comprises 18 events, each one featuring a renowned business professional, has reached over 2,500 attendees.

The speaker list is composed of successful CEOs, CFOs, corporate VPs and co-founders from a variety of business backgrounds.

Another means of discovery comes from the classroom, including a freshman course titled, Introduction to Business Careers. For the students who know they want a career in business but can't decide which specific path to follow, this class explores many options.

DIFFERENTIATION

Once students have discovered the path they wish to pursue, they turn their focus to differentiating themselves with unique skills and talents.

PSB has established a number of ways for students to gain crucial experience and skills that are necessary to stand out in the workforce, and faculty are always adding more.

This past year, a four-week professional selling module was added to the business core curriculum. Now, every business major and minor will be taught the technical skills to sell and the skills of persuasion.

Their leader? Professor Larry Quinn, who worked for decades in the corporate world as a national sales training manager at Xerox and vice president of sales and marketing at Thomson Professional Publishing Group and Duplex Printing Corp.

Today, Quinn chairs the Department of Marketing and Sales at HPU's Earl N. Phillips School of Business.

Quinn was a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve, serving as an aircraft commander and instructor pilot. Though he forged a successful business career as a top corporate executive after his military service, it's his time spent in the Navy that Quinn draws on often when teaching HPU students the most crucial aspect of selling.

"When I was in the Navy, I would take new pilots up in a jet, just the two of us with me sitting behind them, and teach them how to land on a...