Homecoming with the College of Business

The College of Business took Bengal Pride to the next level during Homecoming Week, participating in classic Homecoming traditions and launching a variety of new student and alumni opportunities.

Founders Circle

Thursday of Homecoming Week brought the inaugural reception of the Founders Circle - a new mentorship program and the first of its kind at ISU. Undergraduate and graduate students were paired with College of Business alumni based on interests, geographic location and academic background. The current alumni mentors have extensive experience in fields like accounting, cybersecurity, sales, technology, marketing, healthcare, finance, and more. Students participating in the program receive advice on internships, jobs, resumes, interviewing, entering an industry or specific organization and more.

“I was truly honored when Dean Dr. Shane Hunt asked me to be a part of the inaugural launch of the Founders Circle,” said College of Business alumna and retired Cybersecurity Channel Executive Tamela Gates May. “As a former senior leader at some of the world’s most cutting-edge technology companies, I know first-hand the importance of our nation’s business schools providing well rounded, mission-ready candidates.

The ability to sell immediate value-add is what will help ISU’s College of Business students become more sought after. The Founders Circle program allows me, and the other mentors, to work closely with student members to help them embrace their goals more fully, to guide them with a strong and proven road map based on our professional successes, and to help them stand out uniquely in the interview process. I, and the other mentors, would have loved to have had a similar program in place while we were doing our coursework at ISU. Getting to be at the forefront of the Founders Circle program’s creation and launch, meeting the other mentors, and getting to know our first student inductees has been a true privilege. I can’t wait to watch each of these special students succeed, and to become future mentors themselves!”

ICBSC Reunion

The International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC) Reunion, the first reunion of its kind for the College of Business, invited past and present ICBSC team members to campus to celebrate ten years of competition success for the College. Past team members were able to reconnect, as well as meet members from other teams and talk with current students interested in being part of a future team. Idaho Central

Credit Union Senior Vice President for Consumer Lending Wade Saunders also spoke during the event, congratulating the teams on their success and expressing ICCU’s pride in supporting ICBSC with mentorship as well as financial backing through the ICCU ICBSC Endowment. The event concluded with the unveiling of an ICBSC trophy case, located in the Walter Brown Center for Sales Excellence.

“The ICBSC reunion was everything we had hoped for and more,” said ICBSC Advisor and Professor of Management Dr. Alex Bolinger. “The turnout of our ICBSC alumni exceeded our expectations, and it was fun to reconnect and catch up on the remarkable careers that our College of Business alumni are pursuing. Unveiling the trophy cases was also a highlight of the weekend. The excitement from this reunion also translated into so much student interest in the competition that we were able to select two teams for the 2025 ICBSC, including ISU’s firstever all-undergraduate team. Here’s to the next decade!”