Greetings and Happy New Year!
I am pleased to provide the 2021 edition of the SCMA Department newsletter, to update you on the accomplishments and activities of our students, faculty, and friends. While the past two years have brought challenges, the SCMA faculty and staff have worked hard to continue providing our students with a high-quality educational experience. I’m proud of our faculty and students, who have been dynamic and resilient in the face of significant uncertainties and changing times.
As I write this letter at the end of 2021, and look back on the year, two experiences stand out. First, during the fall semester, I had the opportunity to teach the undergraduate capstone course, which is required for all supply chain management majors in their final semester. The course consists of a company-based project completed by teams of students over a semester. This is an important course for our students, and one in which the department is quite proud. The enrollment for the fall semester class was small, with just five students. However, those five individuals represented incredible diversity on every possible dimension. I was so impressed by these students, whose college experience ended up being quite different than they anticipated and hoped. But they adapted and thrived through determination and resilience, graduating into a world that needs their expertise more than ever. I was also heartened to see the connection these students built with each other, and the sense of community they created. I’m sure these friendships and bonds will stay with them throughout their lives. It was a great pleasure to get to know these students, and I am confident they will have exciting futures. Some are off to take Colorado by storm, another is returning to her home country to contribute her expertise in supply chain management, while others are staying close by, contributing to the growing technology sector in Omaha and helping Nebraska baseball achieve great things. Whatever they do, I know they will have great success and I truly hope they maintain and build their connection to the SCMA Department and College of Business.
The second experience that shaped 2021 was the sudden and intense interest in supply chain management from both the media and the general public, with supply chain issues impacting every industry and every consumer. In response, I was proud to see many of the SCMA faculty actively engaged in helping journalists and others in the media better understand the complex and diverse causes of the supply chain delays and disruptions we all experienced, along with possible solutions. I know that doing so was challenging and time-consuming. Just keeping up with the current events seemed like a full-time job and providing clear explanations and useful insights in the short quotes and sound bites required by the media is not an easy task. However, these activities are an important way for us to create societal impact, share knowledge and promote the expertise available within the College of Business.
While 2021 looked a bit different than previous years, as much as possible we continued our departmental activities, and looked for ways to leverage our new environment. As one example, we moved our research seminar series to a virtual format and took advantage of the flexibility that provided to host and connect with guest speakers from across the world, including Singapore, China, Mexico, and Germany, as well as throughout the US. These outstanding scholars shared their current research projects and spent time meeting individually with SCMA faculty to discuss mutual interests and identify areas for future collaboration. Although the pandemic continued to be isolating in some ways, the virtual environment created an opportunity for building international relationships that might not have been possible otherwise.
The supply chain management major continues to produce students with the skills needed to be successful in an ever-changing business environment. As of today, we have about 135 supply chain management majors. Our student organization, the Nebraska Supply Chain Club, has been active in organizing panel discussions, hosting guest speakers, and attending professional conferences. Our undergraduate business analytics minor continues to grow, with 95 students currently enrolled. College of Business students from all majors participate in the minor, building their quantitative skills and enhancing their ability to use data to provide insights. You can learn more about our educational programs and students in the stories contained in this newsletter.
Looking forward, 2022 is set to be another eventful year as the SCMA Department launches a new Ph.D. specialization, continues teaching students enrolled in our newest M.S. program in Supply Chain Management, which launched in the spring of 2021, and gets ready to host our inaugural Business Analytics Case Competition. We look forward to training exceptional doctoral students to be teachers and researchers in this growing field, to helping our graduate students develop in-depth knowledge and skills, and to providing our undergraduates with a fun and competitive opportunity to apply their analytical skills to a real-world problem.
Finally, while we are proud of our accomplishments this year, we know that we could not have accomplished everything we have without the support of our alumni, advisory board, and industrial partners. As always, thanks for your support of our programs and students!
Jennifer