Meet Our Advisors: Allison Konderwich – Academic Advisor in the Office of Student Success Services

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

The advisors are the main point of encouragement and support for our students.  Many advisors develop a long relationship that helps the students with whom they work through the inevitable ups and the downs of life and study.  In this article, Excelsior met with Allison Konderwich, from the Office of Student Success Services, to find out more about one of the unsung heroes who daily help give our Excelsior students the support and guidance that they need.

Excelsior: Can you tell us a little more about yourself: interests, home, favorite teams, etc?

Konderwich: I live in Albany, NY with my husband, Mike, who works in IT.  When I’m not working, you can usually find me running.  I have been a runner for as long as I can remember, thanks to my parents!  I’ve run 16 marathons, but nothing beats the Boston Marathon.  My husband is also an endurance athlete, and there is a great community of runners and cyclists in the Capital Region, so it’s become a big part of my social life, too. I’m incredibly competitive and goal-driven, so it’s fun to see how far I can push myself in my training.  I also rely on running as an outlet for stress, so it helps to keep me balanced.  We are big New England Patriots fans, so you’ll find us cheering in front of a TV, or occasionally at Gillette Stadium during football season.  I love Celine Dion and Hamilton (the musical), and love spending time with family and friends.

Excelsior: What is your role at Excelsior College and can you describe a typical day?

Konderwich: We are in the process of transitioning into our new centralized student services unit- the Office of Student Success Services, or O3S.  Up until now, I’ve been an academic advisor for students in our technology degree programs.  That position has involved both academic evaluation and academic advising, which are both incredibly involved.  In centralizing, evaluators can focus on the evaluation piece, and advisors can focus on the advising piece, which will truly allow each person to develop in their position.  I am looking forward to moving into my academic evaluation position, where my day will be centered around the evaluation of academic credit- reviewing and classifying transfer credit, completing initial evaluations, and updating student files.   Evaluators must be especially well versed in Excelsior College policy, degree curriculums, and course classification, especially as it relates to their specialization.   Beyond that, Evaluators represent the unit on committees, take on special projects, and collaborate with many other colleagues in O3S and other units in the College.

Excelsior: What excites you most about your role at Excelsior?

Konderwich: I really enjoy the problem-solving piece of my job!  Each student presents a unique case, and as an evaluator, I can review any transfer credit, consider the program of choice, take academic policies and procedures into account, and produce the best possible academic evaluation.  Every day I see something different, so it keeps my job very exciting!

Excelsior: What is the best piece of advice that you would give a student to make a success of their studies?

Konderwich: Take some time thinking about how much time you have, and what you can realistically take on in each term.   Excelsior students are driven and committed, and sometimes we focus on the end goal and don’t other obligations or life stressors into account, which can make for some challenging terms.  The main objective should be to be successful in each class, and if that means sometimes only take one course per term, then it is important to consider that.

I also recommend becoming familiar with the different resources that Excelsior College offers, and making the most of them!  If you haven’t yet, check out the Library and Career Center.  We have excellent Student Success Coaches to provide additional support if needed.  Our Faculty Program Directors across the different schools offer webinars and other ways to connect with and support students in their areas.  This just scratches the surface!  At Excelsior College, are all committed to the student, and we have the same resources and tools that most traditional brick and mortar schools offer- just ask and we’ll lead you to them!

Excelsior: Who is the one person, whether in business or from history, who most inspires you and why?

Konderwich: I’m inspired by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman to earn a major party’s nomination for president of the United States.  She is brilliant, she is strong, and she stands up for what she believes in.  As a young woman, I am inspired by her tenacity.

Excelsior: What is the most memorable thing that you have ever done? And what made it so memorable?

Konderwich: I would have to say the most memorable day of my life thus far is my wedding day!  Marrying my husband, and sharing the day with so many of my friends and family was incredibly special.  In the busy world that we live in, it’s hard to get everyone together in one place, so I will always treasure that day.  Beyond that, breaking 3 hours in the Boston Marathon was special.  I will never forget running down Boylston Street to my first sub 3-hour marathon!

Course Feature: Study Great Military Leaders

Posted on by Jenna Kerwin

“I would definitely recommend this course to others. Military personnel and civilians can learn a lot about leadership from this course…”

This is one student’s comment after taking the eight-week course MIL 301 Great Military Leaders. In this course, students examine the qualities of military leaders throughout history and analyze specific traits that contributed to their excellence in leadership. By so doing, students isolate leadership traits and qualities that make a great leader and then apply them to new situations. Brenda Roth, faculty program director in the School of Public Service, explains that examples of the leaders studied are from ancient history, like Sun Tzu; from more recent history, like Rommel and Montgomery; and include U.S. military leaders like Washington and Patton.

Many Excelsior students are in the military and so they would especially benefit from the course topics. Roth explains students are encouraged to write essays based a series of posed questions and to hone their research skills through a final paper on a contemporary leader of their choice.

The course is required in the Military Leadership major, but can also be considered a social science elective for “any student interested in history or military history as part of their program of study,” says Roth. “The course focuses largely on comparing past leaders to contemporary ones, and students define for themselves which leadership traits stand out over time.”

So far, students have had high praise for the course saying, “Hands down one of the best classes I have taken at Excelsior,” “I cannot think of a single thing to make this course better. It was honestly a really great experience that has forever changed my thoughts about online classes favorably,” and “I found this course to be both challenging and interesting.”

Roth reports that “this is the favorite course out of the military leadership courses for faculty to teach.” In fact, she never has any challenges finding volunteers to teach the course. “Faculty have told me that they love the students and wouldn’t want to teach anywhere else. I have faculty who are retired or still active duty and can identify with the students,” says Roth.

So, what are you waiting for? Speak with your academic advisor and sign up for MIL 301 Great Military Leaders for next term!

 

Meet Our Advisors: Dan Palladino – Academic Advisor for the Technology Degree Programs

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Academic advisors are a point of encouragement and support for our students. Many advisors develop a long relationship that helps the students work through the inevitable ups and the downs of life and study. Excelsior Life met up with Dan Palladino, from the Office of Student Success Services to find out more about one of the unsung heroes who gives students the support and guidance they need.

 Excelsior: Can you tell us about your interests, home, favorite teams, etc?

Palladino: When I am not advising, I enjoy spending time with my wife (we have been married for two years). We take walks, watch a little TV, and travel. We have also been in the process of moving into our new house. This has been a very long process; we bought the house over a year ago but it was abandoned at that point. It was built 200 years ago so we have carefully been fixing it up while not destroying its original charms. We finally moved in at the beginning of October, and it is fantastic!

When I do not have a house project, I enjoy reading, or fixing or building something in the garage. I also have a classic car that I have done almost everything to (mechanicals, welded in new floor pans, installed new convertible top, repaired the body, and prepped for paint, etc.), so I enjoy driving that in the summer months. I feel that my garage and home improvement interests pair well with advising technology students. I truly enjoy being an advisor. I originally started my advising career as a liberal arts advisor, and found it to be very fulfilling; when a position opened up to be a technology advisor, I applied. It has been a great experience to work with students in the various technical disciplines. I can honestly say that I am learning a lot about the different technology fields, from both the students and the faculty. Everyone seems friendly and happy to share their knowledge.

Excelsior: What is your role at Excelsior College and can you describe a typical day?

Palladino:  My main responsibility is to communicate with students enrolled in technology degree programs about college policy, procedure, and academic planning. These communications are typically done via phone, email, or via the My Excelsior portal. As an academic advisor, I talk to students about what is an ideal course workload given a student’s situation, how a student is paying for courses, which courses or exams a student should take each term (to ensure prerequisites are met), how long it will take to complete a degree program, or what other degree program might be a better fit. On a typical day, I take calls and respond to messages from students to discuss these topics and a variety of other items that can arise. I also do outreach for students if there is an issue with their academic status or something that needs to be adjusted in their course plan, or sometimes if I have not had contact with a student for a while. I also update student academic plans as more coursework is completed, and I work with faculty program directors as necessary to find solutions when a contingency arises.

Excelsior: What excites you most about your role?

Palladino: The exciting part for me is watching students progress through their degree program. I really like talking to a student and by talking through a problem, such as how to finish their degree in a timely manner, we hit upon a solution that both of us are excited about…In those moments, it truly feels like a connection has been made and a problem has been overcome!

Excelsior: When do you feel that you went the extra mile to help a student?

Palladino: I try to do my best to do whatever I can to advocate for a student. I had a student who was overseas. She would call to get advisement on what courses to take next before each term, and often the call would disconnect in the middle of the conversation. I would follow up via email and we would go back and forth on email for a few days to finish the planning for the next term. It took a lot of time, but she did graduate. She came to Commencement and we met! Another time I had a student who needed a second degree. He already had a degree from an institution in Puerto Rico, but he needed a technology degree for his job, and needed it quickly. The course descriptions from his other institution were in Spanish, so I worked with an advisor in another unit to translate them, then worked with my director to determine which ones could be used toward his technology degree. Then he asked if we could apply more of his credit. He provided more information on some of his courses, and I worked with the faculty program director. It took quite a bit of time and effort, but it got the student a little bit closer to his goal.

Excelsior: What piece of advice would give to a student?

Palladino: Stay in touch with your advisor to ensure that you are taking the best courses in the best order, and make sure you have time to successfully complete the course load you have planned for a given term.

Excelsior: Who is the one person either in business or in history, who inspires you the most and why?

Palladino: I don’t think I am able to narrow this down to one person. I am inspired by people who have the courage and grit to achieve success. There are many people in history and in business who I could name. Conversely there are people that I know and meet during a day that inspire me. I often get inspired and then re-inspired as I talk to students and hear the different challenges each has faced during the pursuit of their degree.

Excelsior: What is the most memorable thing that you have ever done?

Palladino: The most memorable thing I have done was when I traveled to Europe for the first time when I was 18. I went as part of a collegiate wind ensemble made up of young people from all over the U.S. I played the French horn. We traveled to several different countries and performed once or twice each day. It was memorable because it was my first time abroad and we did so many different things. It was an exciting experience!

Turkey and Career Development with a Side of Stuffing, Please!

Posted on by Maribeth Gunner

Good gravy! Why are we connecting Thanksgiving and Career Development? Well, they are both special occasions celebrated in November. In fact, all of November is National Career Development Month. Another important similarity regarding these celebrations is the perfect opportunity each offers to reflect on all you may be thankful for: supportive people in your life, good health, steady work, educational achievements, comfortable lifestyle and more.

Yet despite the mutual commonalities, there’s also a few differences between these celebrations. Thanksgiving occurs once per year, while Career Development Month highlights an evolving lifelong process. A more notable difference is the awareness of each event. Most Americans are well-versed regarding all aspects of the Thanksgiving holiday and its reverence, history, and customs. In contrast, career development does not claim the same notoriety or universal understanding of its value. Not everyone invests significant attention in the concept, and few mark the occasion on their calendars. Some people experience career development by chance, engage in it partially, or maybe not at all. Others pursue it proactively but often without a clear direction.

How would do you describe your career development? Does it deserve a bigger spotlight? Learning more about the career development process is a beneficial and empowering way to steer your career onto a path of satisfaction and success.

 

The Career Development Process

 Career development is an integral part of your lifelong journey. It includes the process of exploring, evaluating, choosing, and acting on educational and occupational roles and options as you move through various life stages. It is interwoven with your personal development and holistic; it draws upon biological, psychological, sociological, and cultural factors across your lifespan.

Although complex in many ways, there are a few basic concepts that help define the career development process and break it down into manageable steps. Here’s the four main steps in the process:

  1. Self-Assessment – identifying your skills, abilities, values, and interests to make informed education and career decisions.
  2. Career Exploration – researching key occupational areas and market trends based on self-assessment results; gaining experience in your desired field to make meaningful career decisions.
  3. Decision Making – using critical thinking and reasoning to evaluate and choose options that will establish a path/direction of your desired career outcomes.
  4. Developing and Executing an Action Plan – planning and following a series of short-term and long-term goals you have identified to target and attain your career aspirations; creating a flexible action plan to follow

The career development process is ongoing and sequential. Yet, it is also fluid, meaning you can move back and forth between steps at any time. It is important to note that because everyone has different life circumstances, everyone experiences the career development process in their own unique way. If you’re pursuing your first job, or re-entering the workforce, it might best to first conduct some self-assessment to clarify and/or confirm your direction. If deciding on a career change or job search, you may repeat all or part of the process. Or, you can begin with career exploration to discern the next best opportunity.

By taking the time to conduct a self-assessment, and explore what opportunities are available, you can determine if additional education or training is needed and target your preparation and planning. Your educational choices will influence your career trajectory. Exploring options and requirements for your field of interest will help link your academic and career goals.

In addition to self-assessment and career exploration, setting goals, making decisions, and creating an action plan are also essential elements of the career development process. Some people tend to overlook or bypass the decision making and planning aspects of the process. This is comparable to embarking on a sailing adventure in a boat without a rudder, aimlessly floating without direction. The rudder helps control the direction of the sailboat and balance the wind in the sails. Likewise, planning is an essential component of the process, and strengthens your navigating abilities. It’s worth the time and energy to consider your routes and map your course. The quality of your career development plans impacts your entire lifestyle, your self-concept, your educational and occupational choices, your social circle, and where you reside.

Be Ready for the Future

In today’s workplace changes are a constant. Chances are you will most likely refine your career direction several times during your life. You may need to re-examine your goals, and revise your career plan to take advantage new opportunities. Globalization, changing industries, and increased technology can have a disruptive impact on careers. Many jobs that exist today may be reconfigured or become obsolete in the future. For some occupational fields, there are jobs that do not even exist yet, and new jobs are created every year. You can best prepare for, and embrace, these changes by using the career development process as a guidepost when needed.

Enjoy and Give Thanks!

Whether you are in the beginning, middle, or later stages of your career, actively engaging in your career development will increase your ability to live a fulfilling lifestyle with meaningful work.

So, this November, while relishing your turkey and cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, remember to reflect on all the personal and professional accomplishments you have amassed — and those you aspire to achieve. You have the steps you need to create your own destiny. Now that is something to be thankful for.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy Thanksgiving, and a wonderful Career Development Month!

 

Maribeth Gunner Pulliam, MS Ed

Director of Career Services

 Visit the Excelsior College Career Center to access the many resources and services that can assist in every step in the career development process.

 

 

Tomorrow’s World: Challenge, Change, and Career Readiness in Logistics

Posted on by John Coy

In this series of articles titled “Tomorrow’s World,” members of the Excelsior College faculty reflect on the changes taking place in their field and consider how those changes might impact someone planning a career in that discipline.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.

Transportation, logistics, and operations management are at the core of the global supply chain, encompassing manufacturing, distribution, retailing, recreation, and national security industries. There is a growing demand for professionals capable of executing and overseeing the procurement, warehousing, and transporting of goods in an increasingly global market and business environment. Logistics management is the process of planning, preparing, implementing, and evaluating all logistics functions that support an operation or activity.

career readiness in logistics

Logistics Future Challenges: The Growth of Global Demand

One of the largest challenges in logistics is the current growth rate of jobs. According to the U.S Department of Labor, 270,000+ logistics-related job openings will need to be filled every year from now until 2024. These openings will keep pace with projected industry growth and equate to 2.16 million job positions nationwide. These positions fall into six separate categories, including logistics operations; industrial engineering; warehousing and distribution; trucking; freight rail; and air cargo supervisor.

The Skills of the Logistician

Maintaining the proper skill set is challenging, and for logisticians, those skills need to be able to transfer into multiple areas like air, rail, road, and sea movement. In addition, logistics professionals require skills in supply chain management, including addressing global supply chain challenges. Logistics skill sets include transportation and inventory management; transportation sector requirements (road, air, rail, water, and pipeline) and challenges; reverse and lean logistics; warehousing; distribution; logistics technology, economics, and globalization; and intermodal or multimodal movement.

 Career Readiness in Logistics

In this dynamic, ever-changing business-technological environment, there is a need for organizations to integrate business, process management, and technical skills to solve challenging logistics problems. “U.S. businesses spent $1.3 trillion on logistics-related costs to make all this commerce flow” (U.S. DoL, 2015). Moreover, the average salary for supply chain and logistics professionals has been steadily increasing and reached $115k annually in 2015 (Logistics Management 30th Annual Salary Survey, 2015). Finally, our nation’s 7,600+ educational institutions currently generate more than 75,000+ formally trained, degreed, or certified logistics workers each year. These trained workers are expected to fill only approximately 28 percent of the logistics-related job openings that are projected to be available every year (Logistics Management Annual Salary Survey, 2015).

 Certifications and Credentials of Competence

Learners who enter the workforce with industry certifications bolster their resume and present a willingness to learn more about a specific subject matter. Most industry certifications target a specific job role or skill set. Potential partnerships with notable industry associations and certifications include:

  • Institute of Supply Management (ISM®).
    • Certified Professional in Supply Management® (CPSM®)
    • Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity® (CPSD™)
  • American Society of Transportation and Logistics
    • Global Logistics Associate (GLA)
    • Distinguished Logistics Professional (DLP)
    • Transportation & Logistics (CTL)
    • Professional Designation in Logistics and Supply Chain Management Professional Certification (PLS)

Careers in Logistics for Tomorrow’s World

The demand for logistics professionals is not going away in the near or distant future. On all geographic levels, projections estimate faster-than-average growth for logistics occupations. Government-affiliated organizations list logisticians and logistics managers as “bright outlook” occupations. According to Logistics Management’s 30th Annual Salary Survey, some of these professions and their average salaries (equivalent degree-level requirements) include logistics director/manager professional ($109,760 – bachelor’s to master’s-level degree), supply chain director/manager ($114,275 – bachelor’s to master’s-level degree), operations manager ($98,235 – bachelor’s to master’s-level degree), purchasing/procurement director/manager ($85,070 – bachelor’s-level degree), warehouse director/manager ($84,730 – bachelor’s-level degree), traffic manager $69,480 – associate to bachelor’s-level degree), and coordinator/analyst ($67,000 – associate to bachelor’s-level degree).

These professions are projected to grow faster than average, have 100,000+ job openings, and are new and emerging fields. Excelsior College helps learners meet the demands of the industry with its logistics management concentration in its business program. The program prepares students in supply chain management; lean logistics; project management; quality control; and transportation, warehousing, and distribution. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that logistics jobs that require these skills will grow at a faster-than-average pace, estimating 22 percent job growth between 2014 and 2024. This growth trend reveals that it is a prime time for learners to acquire crucial logistics skill sets. Click here to learn more about Excelsior College’s Business Degrees.

 

References

Bright Outlook Occupations: Logistics. O*NET Online. http://www.onetonline.org/help/bright/

Logistics Management’s 30th Annual Salary Survey. Retrieved from http://www.supplychain247.com/article/logistics_managements_30th_annual_salary_survey

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016). Occupational Employment Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/oes/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016). Occupational Outlook Handbook. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/oes/ooh/About/Occupational-Information-Included-in-the-OOH.htm/

U.S. Department of Labor (2016). Employment Trends in the Logistics Industry Cluster. Retrieved from doleta.gov/performance/results/AnnualReports/docs/2016_State_Plans/Economic_Reports/

 

 

 

Course Feature: Caring For Our Nation’s Heroes

Posted on by Jenna Kerwin

In honor of Veteran’s Day, we thought we’d introduce you to a course especially designed to teach health care workers of the needs of military members and their families.
NUR 340 Caring for Our Nation’s Heroes and Their Families is an 8-week, 3-credit elective course that provides critical insights and skills that are required to assess the unique healthcare needs of the military, veterans, and their families, and ensure they receive culturally sensitive and superior health care. The course takes a deep look at the military and veteran culture, the military and veteran health care systems, veteran health care resources, and the military family. It explores veteran-centric health-related topics such as post-traumatic stress disorder, transition issues, poly-trauma, homelessness, women veteran health issues, LGBT topics, and applicable theories.
“The content on the military family is important, especially for nursing students, as nurses provide holistic care,” says Patti Cannistraci, assistant dean of the School of Nursing, who oversees the RN-BS & MS nursing programs. “The nurse is providing care for an entire family unit with the focus being the patient.”

Students needn’t be a nurse, however, to take advantage of what this course offers. Anyone with an interest in understanding military and veteran culture more deeply would benefit, says Cannistraci. “Even for students who just work alongside veterans—those students would be significantly enriched by the course content,” she adds. The course is important to nursing students, though, because it allows them to expand their thinking skills to be a better care provider to veteran patients and families.

So far, course evaluations show students have “loved this class!” and thought it is “a great course.” One student said, “I found this course to be very interesting and I found myself wanting to learn more. It is surprising that others are not wanting to learn of our military. It has to be that others are not aware of this course. This is a class I would definitely recommend.”

The inclusive learning environment may be a contributing factor to students’ high approval ratings. Cannistraci points out that veteran students are encouraged to bring their own experiences to the discussion boards. She explains, “This type of sharing can facilitate the civilian student as seeing their own world as ‘other,’ and they may begin to change assumptions as they develop a better understanding of the military and veteran culture and experiences.”
With all the discussion surrounding veteran health care, it is important that our health care workers and nursing professionals be prepared to aid this population. One faculty member who recently taught NUR 340 said, “I love this course and think that every nurse, especially those in direct care, should take this course.” So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for Caring for Our Nation’s Heroes and Their Families as your next elective!

Dr. Bonny Kehm from School of Nursing Is A Finalist for March of Dimes, Nurse of the Year Award In Education

Posted on by Nursing Staff

Congratulations to Dr. Bonny Kehm, Faculty Program Director in School of Nursing. She is one of 11 finalists for the March of Dimes, Nurse of the Year Award in Education.

According to the March of Dimes, Nurse of the Year events recognize and honor distinguished nurses for their outstanding contributions. Hundreds of applications in categories ranging from Advanced Practice to Surgical Services are reviewed and scored by high-ranking nurse leaders. Through this competitive process, finalist within each category are then determined. The March of Dimes is proud to announce and honor the 2017 Nurse of the Year finalists.

EDUCATION
Amy Reed — Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Angela Andrews — Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Bernadette Henrichs, PhD, CRNA, CCRN — Washington University Saint L
Bonny Kehm – Excelsior College
Christopher D Boyer — Mercy Hospital – St. Louis
Emily Gunn — St. Louis University School of Nursing
Geralyn Frandsen — Maryville University
Joanne Kern — Maryville University
Kathy Williams – St. Anthony’s Hospital
Mykale Elbe — Maryville University
Stephanie Torrence — Barnes-Jewish Hospital

The nominating committee looked at:

  • How you’ve made an impact on the lives of your patients, colleagues, or students.
  • How you demonstrate serving diverse and underserved populations.
  • How you demonstrate leadership in order to impact positive change in the profession.

At the award banquet on November 18, 2017, they will announce the Nurse of Year from each specific category.

Good Luck Bonny!

Were you seen? Nyquist Leadership Series on Open Education and College Readiness

Posted on by Mike Lesczinski

On October 18, policy makers, advocates, and researchers convened in Albany, New York for the Nyquist Leadership Series event: Creating College-Ready Students Through Open Education. Panelists and attendees engaged in a thoughtful discussion on practices and policies to help traditional and adult learners transition to college and attain higher education success, including the benefits of open educational resources (OER), strategies for successful implementation of OER across college curriculum, and obstacles to mainstream OER adoption.

Dan Fuller, NYS Assistant Secretary for Education, served as the moderator. Panelists included: Jason Bryer, PhD, Executive Director, Diagnostic Assessment and Achievement of College Skills (DAACS), Excelsior College;Elizabeth Johnston, PhD, Associate Professor, English Composition and Literature, Monroe Community College; Frank Crocco, PhD, Director, Online Writing Lab (OWL), Excelsior College;Gerard L. Hanley, PhD, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Technology Services; Executive Director of MERLOT, California State University; and, Mark McBride, Library Senior Strategist, SUNY System Administration.

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Tomorrow’s World: Challenge, Change, and Career Readiness in Cybersecurity

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

In this series of articles titled “Tomorrow’s World,” members of Business & Technology faculty will reflect on the changes taking place in their field and consider how those changes might impact someone pursuing a career in that discipline. In this article, Dr. Andrew Hurd, the faculty program director for cybersecurity, considers challenges and changes in the field of cybersecurity and suggests how students should be career-ready for tomorrow’s world.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.

Cybersecurity can be considered one of the oldest disciplines in the computing world; the evolution of cybersecurity has developed from the merger of computer security and information security. It has evolved from the early days when government officials feared foreign nationals were stealing secrets off computers, to the modern day where the Office of Personnel Management was hacked (Finklea et al., 2015). These threats are real and candidates entering the workforce need to be prepared to handle problems that may not exist today. Educating students of problems that don’t exist is a difficult task for educational institutions; preparing them to think creatively, and to be agile in their approach to problem solving is a challenge. A major goal of Excelsior College is to facilitate students to not only think about the problem at hand, but also what the problem can turn into, and how to solve that new problem.

Cybersecurity’s Future Challenges: The Internet of Things

One of the biggest challenges for cybersecurity is the Internet of Things (IoT) (Manral, 2015). The myriad devices that have been introduced onto the technology scene pose a large and constantly changing landscape for the people trying to protect the information stored. The ability to problem-solve in ways that most people do not recognize is important for cybersecurity specialists. The financial implications in cybersecurity are large and growing (Moore, 2010). It is difficult to predict, or even quantify, the cost of a security breach. People entering the workforce, or transitioning jobs, have a difficult time estimating the cost associated with breaches.

The expansion of IoT increases the possibility of breaches, the types of those breaches, and their complexity (Markowsky, 2015). If the IoT continues to grow, and manufacturers continue to put out devices with minimal security and unchanged default configurations, challenges for cybersecurity specialists will continue to rise. The challenge is that security specialists must understand how these devices connect and communicate with each other before they can secure the information. Individuals in the industry must stay up-to-date with their skillset. The IoT plays an important role in individual’s personal identifiable information (PII), which has direct correlations with health care and many other financial entities. A great example of this is the Equifax breach that just happened. We as a collective will feel the repercussions from this breach for years to come.

The Skills of the Cybersecurity Specialist

Maintaining the proper skillset is challenging, but exciting. The world of cybersecurity is fast-paced and cybersecurity specialists need to be informed and vigilant. Middle and high school technology programs are preparing learners with the proper skillset to be successful in college (Simon and Banford, 2017). Programs like Project Lead the Way have been instituted to help young learners develop beneficial skills earlier in life. They can expand tthese skills throughout college and into their careers (Cahill, 2016). Initiatives into STEM programs become increasingly important because individuals within these areas will be working with cybersecurity specialists to safeguard information, or some of the individuals within these programs will go on to become cybersecurity specialists (Eberle, 2010; Cherinka and Prezzama, 2015).

Career Readiness in Cybersecurity

Some institutions are focused on bringing career readiness into their curriculums (Lui and Murphy, 2017). There are many ways for learners to try and keep their skills current and up to date. Some can continuously take college classes. Others can enhance their knowledge through industry certifications; still others may receive on the job training. The biggest competencies for cybersecurity workers are the ability to learn and the willingness to do so. Understanding how to evaluate risk and learning the techniques of risk mitigation play a large role in incident response and cybersecurity threat analysis.

Certifications and Credentials of Competence

Many believe that industry certifications are the best way to prove proficiency in the cybersecurity field (Evans and Reader, 2010; Morgan, 2016). Those who have industry certifications entering the workforce bolster their resume and present a willingness to learn more about a specific subject matter. Most industry certifications target a specific job role or skillset. Learners can specialize in areas that are of interest to them. Educational institutions that partner with entities like CISCO and become training academies offer a proven curriculum to their students. Training academies adopt the materials that are put forth by the manufacturer and learners get access to discounted exam vouchers for the industry certifications. This is a nice feature to promote career readiness and to offer a benefit to workers who are investing in the educational programs. There are five major industry certification vendors for IT and cybersecurity: (ISC)2, CompTIA, EC-Council, CISCO, and ISACA. Each specialize in their own areas and in many instances, there is an overlap of skills between vendors and certifications. Each vendor offers the assurance that if a student holds a certification with their company credentials, then they have an increased competency in the given area.

Large institutions like ABET and the ACM have been trying to figure out where cybersecurity can be integrated into their strategic goals (Greenlaw, Phillips, and Parrish, 2014; Chesnais, 2012). The door is wide open to workers of all levels to be part of a future cybersecurity landscape.

Careers in Cybersecurity for Tomorrow’s World

The demand for cybersecurity is not going away in the foreseeable future. If there is money to be made, then there is a need for specialists in cybersecurity. At Excelsior, the baccalaureate degree, the master’s degree, and the credit-bearing undergraduate and graduate certificates in the business and technology programs recently underwent revisions. The bachelor’s degree meets all the guidelines for the Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD). Excelsior College is designated as a 4-year CAE-CD by the National Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security. The credit-bearing courses institute the philosophy of hands-on, virtualized learning where applicable. The courses still contain foundational theoretical concepts, but the student must demonstrate their proficiency with the technical skills that align with the knowledge. The degrees also incorporate the development of soft skills that employers are looking for, such as the ability to work in groups and to present information to a group of people. These soft skills and the hands-on experience are essential to prepare students for careers in the industry. They prepare students to be agile and handle any given task while preparing them to tackle the problems of the future.

References
Cahill, J. (2016). Project Lead the Way—Bridging the College and Career Prep Divide: How to Provide Youth with Hands-On Experiences That Help Prepare Them for Their Careers. Young Adult Library Services, 14(4), 26.
Cherinka, R., & Prezzama, M. J. (2015) Innovative Approaches to Building Comprehensive Talent Pipelines: Helping to Grow a Strong and Diverse Professional Workforce. Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Volume 13, Number 6.
Chesnais, A. (2012). ACM’s annual report. Communications of the ACM, 55(1), 9–13.
Eberle, F. (2010). Why STEM education is important. Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society Publications. Retrieved from https://ww2.isa.org/standards-and-publications/isa-publications/intech-magazine/2010/september/why-stem-education-is-important/.
Evans, K., & Reeder, F. (2010). A human capital crisis in cybersecurity: Technical proficiency matters. Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Finklea, K., Christensen, M. D., Fischer, E. A., Lawrence, S. V., & Theohary, C. A. (2015, July). Cyber Intrusion into US Office of Personnel Management: In Brief. Library of Congress Washington D.C. Congressional Research Service.
Greenlaw, R., Phillips, A., & Parrish, A. (2014). Is it time for ABET cybersecurity criteria?. ACM Inroads, 5(3), 44–48.
Liu, X. M., & Murphy, D. (2017). Are They Ready? Integrating Workforce Readiness into a Four-Year College IT/IS Curriculum. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=sais2017.
Manral, J. (2015). IoT enabled Insurance Ecosystem-Possibilities Challenges and Risks. arXiv preprint (arXiv:1510.03146).
Markowsky, L., & Markowsky, G. (2015, September). Scanning for vulnerable devices in the Internet of Things. In Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications (IDAACS), 2015 IEEE 8th International Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 463-467). IEEE.
Moore, T. (2010). The economics of cybersecurity: Principles and policy options. International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, 3(3), 103-117.
Morgan, S. (2016). One million cybersecurity job openings in 2016. Forbes. Retrieved from https://pcage.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Forbes-Cybersecurity-Article-1.pdf.
Simon, N., & Banford, M. (2017, March). Cyber Crime Investigators: Pathways from High School to Cybersecurity Careers for First Generation College-Bound Students. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 717-717). ACM.

 

Perspectives: “Good Living” by Blue Lemay

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Excelsior College will be hosting social media discussions all this week surrounding the popular Netflix documentary, What The Health. We asked a few of our subject matter experts to give their thought-provoking commentary on the documentary and the topics surrounding the issue.

*Please note that the author’s opinion is their own.

“Even if this documentary is only 60% correct, what would that mean?”  This was the first question I asked after watching What the Health. Other than a few colds in my life, I’ve never been ill, and so serious questions about health had never really occurred to me. This was the first documentary, however, that clearly showed how health is not simply a personal concern; rather, personal health issues are intimately connected to the social and economic health of our nation. From the documentary, it’s clear that big business has vested interests in industrializing food through huge corporate farming to sell us processed foods. What matters to them is not the damage to the environment, the treatment of animals, or the toxic exposure to certain communities, but their profit. Pharmaceuticals don’t care about preventing illness, but selling pills. We may think cancer, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems are the inevitable results of genetics and our family history, but well-known doctors across the country state that nutrition is the biggest factor in determining our health. So, after watching numerous other health documentaries, my wife and I began to shift over to a plant-based lifestyle.

After two months, what did we find out? Well, we’re not dying. I’m not dying because I lack protein just because we don’t eat meat. Plus, I eat more of a variety of vegetables and foods than I have ever eaten before. Most importantly, though, it’s really made us examine what is important to us. Do we really want a lifestyle that is so busy, so full, and so exhausting that we need to constantly rely on quick and easy processed foods? What I did not expect to find, then, is how much I began to value food. We signed up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and we began to plan our meals around what a local farmer shared with us, thereby supporting our local economy. My wife and I spend more time together in the kitchen now, and that just feels good. That’s what good living means to us. Good and just living depends not only on my health alone, but how we invest in our relationship with each other and with other Americans.

Written by V. Blue Lemay, Program Director for Humanities, School of Liberal Arts

Book Review: ‘Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior’ by Jonah Berger

Posted on by William Trevor

This book review is an article originally published in the Journal of Business and Technology, produced by the School of Business and Technology at Excelsior College. 

 

Following the success of his best-selling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On (2013), marketing professor Jonah Berger of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has published Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior (2016).  A work that looks at the social forces that guide our thoughts and actions.  Berger is one of those contemporary ‘rock star’ academics, like Dan Ariely, and fellow Wharton faculty Adam Grant, who have moved beyond limiting their ideas to the pages of peer-reviewed journals and succeeded in making them accessible to a wider audience through social media and the TED format. But it should not be forgotten that Berger also has a reasonable corpus of scholarship behind him that upholds his academic credentials and the rigor of his published works.

The author opens by describing one of his earliest forays into studying social influence when he bicycled around a particularly ‘tony’ neighborhood in Silicon Valley to place a survey on the windshield of every BMW that he could find (p2).  Berger was trying to unearth the reasons why someone bought a BMW and so, quite logically, he went to where you would expect to find them.  Berger concluded that the owners of these status symbol cars did believe that societal influence plays a part in whether someone bought a BMW or not, they just didn’t believe that such forces had any effect upon them.  Social influence was, therefore, something that people acknowledged as acting upon others, but were reticent to accept the evidence of any effects upon themselves.

To illustrate this further, Berger’s book challenges the reader to think about a recent choice, whether one as mundane as choosing a place to eat, or as important as selecting the next President of the United States and to question the cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors that give rise to that choice.  In suggesting that we ascribe personal thoughts and opinions as the driving force behind our decision-making, Berger downplays this notion and instead concentrates his focus upon the impact of others as the key influence on what we choose to do and the decisions that we make.  And in driving home his point, he provides illustrations of how, for example, the influence of the voting intentions of others encourages us to do the same or how the presence of someone alongside us at the gym, spurs us to run faster on the treadmill.

He groups the societal influences upon behavior into several categories, around which he then provides accessible examples that illustrate them more fully, whether that is differentiation, mimicry, avoidance or imitation.  One of the more prominent examples of the latter, which Berger gives in the book is the novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling (2014), written by an unknown debut novelist, Robert Galbraith (p54). While it had initially seen modest sales, after three months had passed it was certainly not a best seller, languished at the bottom of the charts, and facing obscurity.  All of that changed, however, when Robert Galbraith was revealed to be none other than J.K. Rowling, the creator of bestselling fictional children’s character, Harry Potter.  While the content and the writing remained the same, the perception of the book and the reaction of the buying public changed and created an overnight sensation.

With his captivating style of storytelling, Berger is heir apparent to Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point (2002) and Outliers (2008), amongst other works, whose findings the Wharton scholar has previously challenged, while simultaneously acknowledging a debt to both Gladwell’s narrative style and his ability to popularize previously dry topics (Sacks, 2013).  But if Berger was a little known scholar before he penned Contagious, he certainly has a higher profile now, even if he is yet to reach the stature and the acclaim afforded to Gladwell.  While the book taps into Berger’s extensive research, it does not strive to be a piece of academic writing that explores the data in a scholarly way, rather it self-consciously aims to be a practical manual that helps the individual to make better decisions in the light of its insights.

Ultimately Berger seeks to explain what we do and why we do it, whether that decision happens to be political, emotional, or economic.  While he acknowledges our ability to think independently and to act accordingly, his focus is upon societal influence and the way in which our thoughts and deeds are often inextricably linked with our response to others.  And in developing the thesis of the book, he dexterously draws upon the eclectic academic output of a range of scholarship, whether that is the social sciences, marketing, psychology, or the field of education, which may suggest that the analysis is spread too thinly in places for specialists within some of those disciplines.

The knowledge and the accessibility of the examples should, nevertheless, appeal to a range of audiences and to readers from different backgrounds.  With a focus upon improving decision-making, this book will appeal to the general reader of business non-fiction, but there is also sufficient rigor behind the narrative style to appeal to the scholar.  It will resonate with readers seeking to apply its ideas to fields as diverse as management and HR, consumer behavior, marketing, and those who seek to gain a greater understanding of why we make the choices that we do. Ultimately the book doesn’t seem to have the focus and the purpose of Contagious and its breadth could be perceived as giving it less substance than his first title, but it remains a very readable and engaging book for all that.

 

References:

Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: Why Things Catch On. New York, Simon and Schuster.

Galbraith, R. (2014). The Cuckoo’s Calling. New York, Mulholland Books.

Gladwell, M. (2002). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can make a Big Difference. New York, Little, Brown and Company.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Sacks, D. (2013, 03). Fifty Percent Of ‘The Tipping Point’ Is Wrong.” Jonah Berger Shows You Which Half. Fast Company. Retrieved 10, 2016, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3006693/fifty-percent-of-the-tipping-point-is-wrong-jonah-berger-shows-you-which-half.

 

Book Title: ‘Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior’

Author: Berger, Jonah

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Year of Publication: 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4767-5969-2

Price: $26.99

Dr. Ted Lehmann and the Geopolitics of Energy

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Dr. Timothy (Ted) Lehmann, the faculty director for the Social Sciences in the School of Liberal Arts, recently published a book on the international politics of energy: The Geopolitics of Global Energy: The New Cost of Plenty. The book features research from leading energy experts across the world, and addresses timeless questions about the way in which our ever-growing need for energy intersects with the interests of governments and corporations. Such questions include:

  • How are the world’s societies shaped by the designs and investments of the largest energy actors?
  • What happens when the most powerful energy actors fight among themselves?
  • How do states and corporations decide which resources to develop, and what are the social, environmental, and strategic consequences of these decisions?
  • Is it likely that the world will transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable forms of energy, and how might this be accomplished?

Dr. Lehmann’s own contributions to the book include a weighty chapter looking at American energy policies since World War II. In this, Dr. Lehmann argues that the U.S. has pursued twin goals since WWII: maintaining North American energy independence, and controlling Middle Eastern energy sources to influence the independence of others, particularly in East Asia. Other scholars in the volume address the world-leading developments on renewable energy in Germany and Japan, as well as China’s expansion into the South China Sea in search of oil and gas, and the prospects of developing the Arctic’s oil and gas resources.

Dr. Lehmann has developed a class on some of these topics for Excelsior College called POL320 The Geopolitics of Energy and Global Climate Change.  This class looks at the ways in which the dependence on traditional energy resources and the reality of climate change have shaped and continue to shape social, economic, and strategic developments across the world. This is a topic of enormous importance, and its consequences are transforming our world.  Because the course uses open educational resources, students can complete the class without purchasing a textbook or any other materials.

The Social Sciences program at Excelsior offers a wide variety of other cutting-edge classes on American and global politics, all of which use open educational resources, including: POL351 War and Peace After the Cold War; POL363 Order and Disorder in the Middle East and North Africa; POL370 American Political Behavior; and POL390 The Rise of China and the Pacific Century.

Students in the Bachelor of Science in the Social Sciences degree program can also choose a concentration in Human Services, Environmental Studies, or International Relations.