Matt Reilly is Dean of the School of Business and Assistant Professor of Marketing at Lasell.

In this episode, we meet with Dean Matt Reilly to discuss memories of connected learning projects, debates, and experiences from Symposia past. We also consider the evolution of Symposium over time and how it continues to showcase student learning teach critical career readiness skills.

Audio Podcast

Text Transcript

Heidi Burgiel: Welcome back to the teaching and learning at Lasell podcast with Matt and Heidi from the TLC. We're here today with Matt Reilly, Dean of the School of Business. Assistant Professor of Marketing. Welcome, Dean Reilly.

Matt Boyle: Welcome.

Matt Reilly: Thank you.

Memories of first Symposium

Heidi: Dean Reilly, what do you remember from your first symposium?

Matt Reilly: So the first symposium that I can remember probably is 2011, during my first semester as an adjunct faculty member, and I was teaching a business ethics course, and I'd received a bunch of emails about the Connected Learning Symposium, and I thought it was a great opportunity for students to participate in an event like this.

And, and I was able to tie it into the final project for the course. A live debate about whether or not a certain company or organization was ethical, right, and engaged in ethical practice. So I think the one that we use for the Connected Learning Symposium was Philip Morris, which is now called Altria Group. But at the time it was Philip Morris, and they were the largest tobacco company in the United States, and we had two groups.

One group was told that they were going to defend the organization, and the other group, you know, had to take an opposite perspective. And what was fun about it was I'd asked each group which side they would have preferred...and then I swapped them.

So that made it a little bit more challenging for them, caused them to conduct a little bit more research.

But it was really fun and we, we booked one of the one of the classrooms in the Winslow Academic Center. And, you know, we had a live debate and we had an audience, and it was a pretty packed house, which was fun. And at the end of the of the debate, which I think lasted about maybe twenty-five minutes or so, we handed out pens and paper, and the audience had to vote on which group won the debate. And it was close. It was close. And it was it was really fun.

But that that was a highlight that I really remembered about that first connected learning symposium that I had attended and that was again back in 2011.

Symposium’s Evolution Over Time

Matt Reilly: So we're looking at around 11 years ago, but since then I certainly have seen the symposium evolve.

I really remember attending a symposium, and there was just energy in the air where, you know, people were just excited about being able to present projects and participate in panels and things of that nature. And it was just a lot of fun and especially the poster session in DeWitt. And, you know, there was always some lemonade and snacks and things of that nature, which obviously encourage students to come in even more because everybody loves free food, right?

But it was fun just walking around and looking at all the posters. And again, speaking of evolution, you know, I remember we would just take poster board and tape it on a wall. And, you know, that was 10, 15 years ago. And now, now we have flat screen TVs up, and PowerPoints, and things of that nature.

So it's just been really cool to, to see students continue to, to showcase their work and involve technology and other, you know, the other NACE competencies, which obviously are extremely important. When I think about school of business in particular, what I try to encourage is have at least one presentation for each program that we have, right? And even, you know, we've even gone into each major. So I'm hoping for next year to get something going with that.

And, you know, we have a student, I think Ray Bruno, is from our sport management program. He's going to be presenting on drones in sports. And that in itself covers, you know, at least half of the eight NACE competencies, including critical thinking and technology and communication and things of that nature. So that's going to be really fun.

But then, you know, in business, we have Professor Huetteman usually, you know, she teaches a business negotiations class, and they actually have a live negotiation. You know, at like a boardroom, you know, in a boardroom table setting, and the audience can kind of sit around and watch. And, and then similar to the ethical dilemma presentation that we had 11 years ago, the audience can vote on. "OK, well, what do we think about this negotiation? Did somebody win? Did it end appropriately? You know, was anything left on the table?"" And things of that nature."

We have a couple of global marketing and digital branding presentations. Professor Tanvuia and Professor Buchin usually have something for our hospitality program. There's a course they teach. I think it's HEM401, if I remember correctly, and it's "Service Quality and Hospitality," and students throughout the semester act as secret shoppers and have the opportunity to spend a night in a local hotel that we have connections with.

And they audit it.

You know, everything from, you know, eye contact of the front door person to the valet to the, you know, how clean was the shower? You know, how was dinner? How was the room service? Things of that nature. And then they conduct this research and then we bring in the vice presidents and the GM's of the hotel to campus, and our students present to them, you know, what their experience was like. And that's always been something fun at a symposium.

So, you know, we love being able to bring in external parties, business experts, professionals. We love to bring them to campus. We love connecting them with our students. And again, this this in itself is connected learning, right? It offers students the opportunity to, to learn from industry professionals and connect with them and network.

And so that's always a great opportunity for them and certainly aligns with the educational philosophy of the institution. So sorry, I kind of went on a tangent there, but you know, over the years I was an adjunct and then assistant professor. I was chair, dean. So I've had a few different perspectives of the symposium, and I've witnessed a lot of, a lot of presentations.

But it's always fun and it's always a great opportunity for students to learn and to get connected to the real world.

Matt Boyle: You have it a very evolving perspective over time, both as an adjunct, as a dean. But no matter what you're speaking to how the experience sort of challenges students to step out of their comfort zone and speak to a wider audience, whether that's through debate or live negotiation, or this secret shopping experience that you describe. So I appreciate the perspective, the arc of it over time.

Career Readiness, the School of Business, and Symposium

Matt Boyle: Has the recent focus on career readiness changed the way your school engages with symposium?

Matt Reilly: You know, in the school of business, and this probably aligns with the other schools as well. But in the school of business, everything we do focuses on career readiness and career preparation. So I don't know if this newer focus on that for the symposium really changes anything with the school business because we believe that everything that we do is relevant and credible.

And so presentations, debates, you know, things of that nature are always related to career preparation and providing students with, well, I guess, allowing students to, to obtain a new set of skills or to hone in on the ones that they have. And you know, our focus has always been business education, career preparation, networking, and these values that we have in the school of business continue to align with the educational philosophy of the institution and really what the Connected Learning Symposium is all about, right?

So with regard to career readiness, we're just going to continue to do what we do, you know, continuing to also bring in industry professionals and allowing them the opportunity to connect with our students, allowing our students the opportunity to learn from one another and from faculty, staff, and business professionals is something that we do on a daily basis, really. And, the symposium is just a great opportunity for our students to be able to showcase what they've learned and what they are currently learning, and it allows them the opportunity to continue to think about what they want to do after graduation.

The Value of Showcasing Learning

Matt Boyle: I guess the only other question I have. Why do you think it is so important that students can showcase what they've learned?

Matt Reilly: You know, it allows the students who have learned it and who are doing the presenting to continue to build skills of communication, public speaking, networking. And it allows audience members, right, fellow students, colleagues, peers to learn from one another and participate in that conversation. And in that process of learning, and you know, this flagship event that we have, right? Allows students to showcase and celebrate the learning that they've done over the course of the semester.

It's like a real world event, right? You know, it's not just we're in a classroom, we're reading a textbook, we're listening to a lecture. This is real world stuff, and that's what Lasell is about. And this is a day that we can celebrate it with the whole community, and we can show everyone, "Hey, this is what we're learning. This is what we're doing, right? We're not just in the classroom, we're, we're going out. We're meeting people where we're preparing for our careers. We're enhancing our resumes. We're increasing our social networks."

So this is a day that the institution is and should be proud of because our superstar students have the opportunity to show off what they've been doing and what they've been learning. And we, we have students to this day that graduated years ago that still come back to symposium to learn about and listen to and connect with our current students, right?

And sometimes, you know, we'll have students who are, you know, presenting at the symposium. And all of a sudden and a half an hour later, they're in a casual conversation with an alumni. Some business cards are exchanged, and boom, now someone suddenly has an internship or, you know, a part time job or something like that.

So it's really just a great day that, that continues to focus on what we do as an institution and what we believe in and who we are, right? And that's, that's connected to learning, that's learning outside of the classroom, that's learning real world practical, relevant, credible, beneficial skills. Right? And, and we hope to continue to do this. And that's why that's why we love at the at the end of each semester. We love the opportunity to be able to celebrate who we are, what we do, and what our students are learning.

So it's a great day, and I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Matt Boyle: We are too as well. Thanks so much for joining us today. It was great to speak with you.

Matt Reilly: My pleasure.

Heidi Burgiel: Thanks!

Matt Boyle: Thanks so much for listening to us, everybody. Faculty interested in learning more about teaching and learning here at Lasell can visit https://my.lasell.edu. Or you can send us an email at TLC@lasell.edu, or give us a call: 617.243.2001

Creative Commons Music by Jason Shah on audionautix.com.

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