Three members of the Sprott faculty were awarded for their dedication and passion to research, their profession and teaching.
José Rojas-Méndez, Emily Gray and Erin Oldford were awarded Carleton University Achievement Awards this week to acknowledge their achievements.
José Rojas-Méndez, Professor of International Business and Marketing, received the Research Achievement Award to support his research project: Canada’s Brand Personality in Latin America-Implications for Competitiveness.
His study will examine the impact of Canada’s brand personality in Latin America. The goal of the project is to advance literature on the subject and uncover influences that contribute to image effect. He hopes his study will provide a better understanding of how nation brand personality shapes the image of a whole country. It aims to uncover dimensions or facets that contribute to image effects.
Accounting professor Emily Gray was recognized for her dedication and passion at the Sprott School of Business with the Professional Achievement Award. She is known by her students for exploring a range of teaching styles in her classes, in addition to her leadership of Sprott Competes program that trains students to compete in business case competitions.
“Students walk out of the program with greater confidence in themselves and what they can offer the business world,” says Emily. “They move from being students to being professionals through the program.”
Emily worked as a Chartered Professional Accountant before starting teaching full-time in 2013. She is also a graduate of Sprott's Bachelor of Commerce program.
“My teaching strategy is simple: to care,” she says. “To care if they grasp what I’m teaching and can apply it. To care about their well-being. My teaching style adapts around these two main beliefs.”
She adds that one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is being able to explain a concept in a way that sticks.
“This is usually done through stories, examples, humour or physical demonstrations,” she says. “Something that is easy for them to picture later on and stays with them.”
Erin Oldford is a PhD in Management candidate and has been teaching introductory and advanced courses in Corporate and Investment Finance at the Sprott School of Business for several years. Erin has been awarded with the Contract Instructor Teaching Award.
She is known by her students for making complex material easy to understand and using a range of tools and techniques to engage her class. “It’s important to make the content relatable through companies like Snapchat or Jessica Alba’s Honest Company,” says Oldford. “It’s important to draw links to how the material impacts them."
For example, when learning about interest rates, she would explain how high interest rates and high compounding rates on credit cards make debts extremely difficult to pay off.
Erin says she is most proud when she gets to watch her students succeed, particularly those who have put in great effort.
“With hard work, disciplined studying and contact with the instructor, I’ve seen students struggling with material achieve an A grade at the end of the semester,” she says.