The Colangelo Scholar’s Business Principles Summit

The Colangelo Scholars, GCU’s honors business organization, hosted our second big event early in November of last year, where our attendees had the opportunity to learn from two guest speakers. The purpose of this event was to teach students the basic business principles of being an entrepreneur and the key to standing out in job interviews.

Our first speaker, Theresa Valade, has over 25 years of experience in tax, audit and consulting. She most recently was a partner with Moffitt & Company, P.C.  Her areas of specialization are nonprofits, real estate, hospitality, franchises, mortgage banking and brokering, title insurance, escrow and franchises. She was the audit partner responsible for over 20 certified audits and represented two of the largest not-for-profits in the state of Arizona. Theresa has worked with public and private clients, both national and world-wide, and has assisted and worked on offering memorandums, 10K’s and 10Q’s.

Theresa has a passion for assisting her clients in all aspects of their businesses. She is an advocate of long-lasting business relationships and takes a very personal approach to all her clients and focuses on the following core principles: people, products/services, processes, policies and procedures. She is a trusted advisor for her clients and is skilled in tax planning and income tax strategies. We were honored to have her speak to us about her entrepreneurial spirit and the recent launch of her new business, Concierge Consulting and Accounting, PLLC. She gave us a snapshot of what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how to evaluate if it’s something we’d like to pursue.

Following Theresa’s talk, we had Kimberly Roland, is the Director of Entrepreneur Programs for Better Business Bureau (BBB). Kimberly is also on the Honors College Professional Advisory Board. She earned her degree in political science and humanistic studies from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame and her master’s in social justice and human rights with a certificate in nonprofit leadership management from ASU. However, during her speech she mentioned that she is quickly becoming a Lopes fan and truly believes in GCU’s mission and its students.

Kimberly is responsible for the design and implementation of entrepreneur programming at BBB, including the development of new services for both accredited businesses and small business startups. Kimberly opened her talk by asking the names and majors of the students and proceeded to tell her story of being an entrepreneur and fighting to get the job you want. During her talk, she gave students a list of organizations and networks to get involved in and network at in order to stand out as a solid job candidate while using the connections we make to find a job. Students left feeling prepared and excited for the future.

Kimberly Roland shared quote that stood to the attending students: as Simon Sink said, “Working hard for something we do not care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” As president of the Colangelo Scholars, I am very excited for our members and the impact they will each make as they soon enter the business world. It was a great wrap of the semester events as we have a lot of exciting events in the works for spring semester.

To learn more about how you can get involved in the Honors College, visit our website or click the Request More Information button on this page.