By Neil Schoenherr
March 30, 2001
In a rapidly changing world, corporate recruiters have come to consider these same qualities essential for key jobs in the new millennium.
"Companies face many unique and different challenges these days," said Barbara Schaps Thomas, a 1976 graduate of Arts & Sciences and now senior vice president and chief financial officer of Time Warner Sports/HBO.
A member of the University Board of Trustees since 1994, Thomas is one of many alumni who helped shape the new curriculum by providing often passionate input regarding the benefits gained from a broad and rigorous undergraduate education in Arts & Sciences.
"Because of the new media and emerging markets there is a wide range of qualities that we desire in new employees," Thomas said. "Particularly, we need employees who can be articulate and communicate well, who can write a very succinct and to-the-point business memo but also can take a step back from the day-to-day activities of their jobs and look at the overall picture of what is happening around them."
Thomas, a drama major who held several acting jobs before earning a graduate degree in business, credits her undergraduate work in Arts & Sciences with her success in the business world, citing the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills she learned in math, English and foreign language classes, as well as the confidence, self-esteem and teamwork developed in her performing arts courses.
"We are training our students for careers of every imaginable variety, as well as for graduate and professional schools, by providing knowledge that is fundamental to all that we understand about our world," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences. "It's not possible to say to an entering student, 'Arts & Sciences will prepare you for this career or that profession.' In truth, we prepare our students for life in a changing, increasingly global world, one in which they are likely to have several consecutive careers over their lifetime." ent ethnic groups," McLeod said.
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