MISSION SPOTLIGHT

Linda Coleman ’78 VSB: Discovering a Passion to Serve at Villanova

Linda Coleman credits her experience as director of Villanova’s Center for Access, Success and Achievement (CASA) with transforming her life: “I can fulfill my passion, supporting CASA staff and helping them serve our students.”

It wasn’t as if Coleman was sitting idle, waiting for passion to strike. Her mother had always made it clear to Coleman that she would go to college. “My mother had to leave school to care for her mother, so this was very important to her,” said Coleman. She’d discovered an interest in accounting in high school and asked her teacher which local college had the best program. The answer? Villanova. Coleman had always done well academically—she skipped eighth grade and served as an accounting tutor while at Villanova University—but life away from her close-knit family and community did present some challenges. “Sometimes you just need a place where you can relax and not feel different or an outsider,” Coleman said. She found that place in the Office for Social Action—a precursor of today’s CASA, run by Dr. Ed Collymore ’59 VSB. In addition to her mother, Coleman credits Dr. Collymore as a major influence: “He was supportive of me as a student and provided many academic and professional development opportunities.” Coleman’s accounting degree took her to a number of companies before a chance opportunity led her back to her alma mater. After success at Deloitte, where she earned her CPA, she moved on, taking jobs at several firms, including DuPont and finally Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. “I expected to wind up as a controller or CFO one day,” Coleman said. Instead, she was approached at Air Products to become its Equal Employment/Affirmative Action officer. “They needed someone with an analytical mind to help ensure their new software [tracking staffing and hiring equity] was used effectively. I thought, ‘Why not?’” Throughout her career, she stayed close to family, and continues to live in Philadelphia today. Eventually, the commute to Air Products in Allentown became onerous, and she looked for work closer to home. In 1996, she returned to Villanova as its Affirmative Action officer, working once again with Dr. Collymore—who served Villanova for 35 years and retired in 2004 as the executive director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, which has evolved into today’s CASA. “I learned a lot from Dr. Collymore—he was a great mentor. He provided guidance about navigating Villanova and shared his wisdom about working with staff, managing the office and making connections to key administrators,” Coleman said. Coleman oversaw the transition to CASA in 2016 and is now its director, after having served as associate director of Multicultural Affairs since 2008. CASA’s mission is to help recruit, retain and graduate underrepresented, first generation and Pell-eligible students through holistic support in a culturally diverse and academically excellent environment. CASA provides students with a sense of belonging in a nurturing environment, offers opportunities for self-realization and personal development, and holds them accountable for working to the best of their abilities. Coleman said “We assign each student a CASA coach, who meets with them regularly. We provide tutoring and operate a lending library of textbooks as well as loaner laptops. The challenge is to find enough resources to support our 400-student caseload and our 50 or so walk ins. But we find a way—CASA staff are awesome. My job is to make it easy for staff to serve our students. Quite frankly, any student will at one time or another experience some challenge during their college years and need help. CASA sees these challenges first and is already positioned to help.”

For students to get the most out of their college years, it’s important that they not only succeed academically, but that they make friends and participate fully in the Villanova community. We are preparing them to be change agents

and leaders.” –Linda Coleman ’78 VSB

Timeless Values Embedded into VSB’s MBA Capstone

“In the business world, you could spend all day thinking of ways to increase profit. Having the opportunity to work with an organization dedicated to making a difference, working with people dedicated to a cause is inspiring,” Nick Pontarelli ’21 MBA said, describing what made his experience so memorable in the MBA program’s capstone Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum.

In this practicum, students in small groups get to work with organizations to solve a business problem. Pontarelli is a current VSB MBA student as well as an admissions coordinator for the Villanova Business Graduate Program, and he was part of the fall 2020 group that worked with the not-for-profit Joy of Sox. The practicum launched in 2010 and has been a required component of the MBA curriculum ever since. Since 2010, about 275 Philadelphia-area organizations have benefited from practicum consulting services. “We instituted the program as part of an overhaul of the MBA program,” said Ann O’Connor, associate director, Graduate Business Programs. The Practicum anticipated what has become a growing trend in business, one that Deloitte Consulting first highlighted in its 2018 Human Capital Trends Report. Deloitte described it as “the rise of social enterprise” —a fundamental shift in the way businesses were being judged and evaluated. It was no longer enough to make a profit for shareholders. Instead, businesses were being evaluated on their impact on society at large. Deloitte’s subsequent annual trend reports have continued to focus on businesses as social enterprises, emphasizing the importance of this shift. “At one time, the various components of social responsibility were treated as separate buckets tacked on as extras. Now, rather than an afterthought, it’s become much more fundamental to the business—social value creation is now an integral part of economic value creation,” said Manuel “Manny” Nuñez ’03 MBA, associate dean of Graduate Programs.

Many students come to the class having extensive service experience. “They are very focused,” said O’Connor, “and want to bring all of their knowledge to bear helping these organizations.” Moreover, the practicum empowers all its participants with a sense of purpose and an understanding that they have skills that can make a difference to these organizations. “This is something I now know I can do,” was a common sentiment from many students about the experience. “We are preparing students to be global citizens and servant leaders, so every class seeks to enrich their learning and further develop them on those fronts,” said Nuñez, who also teaches the practicum. “Our next opportunity lies in expanding our reach and becoming even more efficient. The pandemic taught us that we don’t have to limit ourselves geographically, and while students choose the organizations they want to work with—and that has worked well—we’ve also learned that there is a lot of unmet demand. So, we’re working on formalizing the outreach, application and selection process to help VSB and social enterprise clients connect.”

The Joy of Sox provides joy to those experiencing homelessness by giving them new socks. They have already provided over 475,600 pairs of new socks in the Philadelphia/NJ region, as well as 33 states and five countries. Manuel Nuñez ’03 MBA Associate Dean of Graduate Programs

Making it work: First-hand Practicum experiences during the pandemic

Despite the raging pandemic that limited or eliminated in-person contact, Social Enterprise Practicum students, faculty, staff and clients didn’t miss a beat. Over the course of seven classes held in the spring, summer and fall 2020 semesters, more than

33 ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVED SUPPORT.

Sample organizations: Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation B+ Foundation Beau Biden Foundation Blazing Hope Ranch Brighter Horizons Bringing Hope Home CARIE CFF: Caring for Friends Codebug Coded By Kids CVIM: Community Volunteers in Medicine Eluna Fiorenza's Food for Friends Healing Hats and Toys Joy of Sox Kiva Mighty Boots Natural Lands No Limit Generation Noelle's Light Paws and Affection Sanctuary Farms Shift Capital YoungMoms James Searer

’21 MBA

Worked with CARIE, the Center for Advocacy for the Rights & Interests of the Elderly “You’d think we’d need to meet in person to develop a relationship and really understand the issues. But that wasn’t the case. We met weekly via Zoom and really felt like we were part of the company.”

Christian Lolk

’16 MBA

As a compliance officer and project manager at CARIE, he has experience as both a student and a client. “VSB's emphasis on service and community trains us to use our business skills in a socially responsible way—I found this to be the most meaningful part of my MBA training.”

Jeana D'Alonzo

’21 MBA

Worked with CARIE and credits her advisor, Therese Narzikul ’04 EMBA “Therese's connections as a leader in the health care space allowed us to understand the nuances and gaps in elder care as a real human issue. She was an excellent connector between what we were doing and the intersection of business, health care and social impact.”