TURNER COLLEGE SPOTLIGHT

Marvin Wayne Starks Scholarship Endowment

Local businessman Wayne Starks is not a graduate of Columbus State University, but he may know better than most about what CSU and its students can do. “Coming from the private sector and in human resources, I’ve had the pleasure of hiring a lot of CSU graduates,” said Starks, a business owner, angel investor and entrepreneur. “Firsthand, I’ve seen the caliber of talent that comes out of CSU. It’s impressive.” Starks’ admiration for CSU cultivating a workforce of impactful business professions inspired him to give $250,000 to establish the Wayne and Stella Starks Scholarship Endowment within the university’s D. Abbott Turner College of Business. “The college did an awful lot for my wife and me, and this was a good way to give back,” he said. “There’s no comparison to what the college was back then to the university that’s there today. The quality of the education there – you cannot beat it. We thought it would be fair to give back and maybe help some other students who might one day contribute to the community.” The scholarship assists undergraduate students pursuing degrees in business with preference for the entrepreneurship and human resource management tracks. “My philosophy: the best gift I can give to my kids and grandkids is to show them that giving makes a difference,” Starks said, “and if I’m going to talk the talk, I have to walk the walk.” Originally from White House, Tennessee, Starks earned an associate of arts degree from Cumberland University and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Middle Tennessee State University. Before settling in Columbus and taking on active roles in local medical staffing and real estate management ventures between Georgia and Alabama, he served as a human resources director for various Fortune 100 and 500 companies. “First and foremost, I want to help those who want to work hard and go to school,” he said. “This scholarship is an opportunity to attract those who may not have considered CSU and is a way to ensure the university continues to produce great employees. Outside of the Turner College main office is a marker noting that Wayne and his wife Stella established the endowment in May of 2017 to provide funds to recruit high achieving and high potential students into undergraduate business programs within the Turner College.

Note: Much of this Turner Business entry comes from CSU’s The First Choice Campaign report.

Comments

Four Turner College Faculty Recognized for Outstanding Teaching

CSU Head Women's Soccer Coach Jay Entlich recently released a list of CSU faculty who have been chosen by a player as a member of the CSU faculty who has impacted the player in a positive way along their journey at CSU. Four Turner College faculty were included on the list, along with the player who nominated each. Management professor Phil Bryant was named by Sophia Leal , a freshman midfielder from Oxford, Georgia. Sophia attended Eastside High School and was a two-time all-region selection during her high school career. Through the first 10 games of 2024, she has scored one goal and recorded three assists. Next, management professor John Finley was named by Lizz Forshaw , a graduate student forward from Stockton, England. Lizz, who attended IMG Academy in south Florida, has scored four goals and recorded four assists this season. During her senior year in 2023, she scored three goals and recorded two assists. As a junior in 2022, Lizz scored three goals ...

Seven Turner College Management and Marketing Faculty Have Combined to Produce Eight A-Level Journal Publications Between 2021 and the Present

A number of faculty in the Turner College's Department of Management and Marketing, which includes faculty in management information systems, have produced A-level journal publications in the last few years. This report covers that activity, starting with John Finley , the chairperson of the department. Professor Finley published a paper in the Journal of Computer Information Systems in 2022. Finley is joined by Kirk Heriot , the Crowley Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship. Heriot, who earned a PhD in management from Clemson University, published in a 2021 issue of Small Business Economics . One of the study's co-authors, Andres Jauregui of Fresno State University, was previously a member of the Turner College's economics faculty. Next is Johnny Ho , a professor of management, who has a 2022 publication in the Journal of Computer Information Systems . Ho has won CSU's Excellence in Research Award on multiple occasions, while he has compiled 2...

TSYS School, Jianhua Yang, Lixin Wang Each among Top Five in the World

New research by computer scientists in the School of Information Technology at Universiti Utara Malaysia that ranks institutions and individuals on the basis of scholarship in the area of stepping-stone attacks heaps praise on the Turner College’s TSYS School of Computer Science and two of its faculty – Jianhua Yang and Lixin Wang . The article, published in the April 2023 issue of the International Journal of Research in Engineering and Science , provides a bibliometric analysis of both publication and citation data from 2000 to September of 2022 related to research on stepping-stone intrusion. Among several results, it reports that Columbus State University ranks second worldwide, trailing only the University of Houston, using total publications on the subject as the basis of comparison. A number of other U.S. institutions appear in the top 10, including third-ranked North Carolina State University, fourth-ranked University of Illinois, sixth-ranked Iowa State U...

Turner Business

Search This Blog