get to know us Kevin Andrews staying busy on the court and in class Luckily for Kevin Andrews, he knew something about time management when he came to Southwest Minnesota State University. “In high school, I was involved with everything,” said the Marion, Iowa, native, who will be a junior in the fall. The 6-foot, 4-inch Andrews was recruited by assistant coach Brad Bigler to play basketball at SMSU, and was named to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V College Division third team, the only Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference player named to the first, second or third team and just one of four Division II athletes so honored. He is an accounting and finance double major, “but I’m thinking of adding Management to that,” he said.
The son of Dave and Jan Andrews, he has little free time, even during the summer months. He is working as an intern at Schwan’s University this summer, and is playing with several Mustang teammates in a Sioux Falls college summer league. “The summer league helps keep you sharp, and I work out with weights, try and keep strong.” He believes in getting involved, and is a member of the Accounting Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) group at SMSU. He is a member of the Honors Program. “Being involved is a good way to meet people,” he said. Andrews said his coaches know that “as a student-athlete, being a student comes first,” he said. “They stress that.”
Kevin Andrews
George Seldat teaching business on a global level Associate Professor of Business Administration George Seldat has spent 23 years at SMSU and his classroom expertise has affected students, literally, all over the world. Back in 1996, Seldat traveled to Europe with Ted Radzilowski and Gerry Toland to explore the possibility of developing working relationships with European universities. One of the colleges they visited was the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia. A relationship was born. Seldat recently spent six months teaching at the University of Economics. His classroom included students from Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Thanks to technology, he was teaching the same course online to SMSU students. “The students were engaged, and they worked in culturally diverse groups,” he said. “We worked out business problems on an international level. [We] prepared cultural videos for each country and shared that information with each other.”
Seldat is also working with the U.S. embassy in Slovakia, the American Chamber of Commerce in Bratislava, and several Minnesota-based companies to develop an institute that will offer corporate training, the SMSU MBA program and study abroad opportunities for U.S. students. Seldat is an Illinois native who met his wife Peggy in Germany while she was traveling throughout Europe on vacation. They have four children: Erin, Jonathan, Lara (Bump), and Brigid (Lunder). He received his business finance and economics degrees, and later, his MBA, from Illinois State University. He made a career change from financial administration after nine years which brought him to SMSU in 1985. He has also been the women’s tennis coach for the past 14 years. “The students here are unique, a very special group of young people,” he said. “I also like the flexibility of the University in terms of the way you can do your job and the professional opportunities it can create.”
George Seldat
Deb Labat staying young after 31 years at SMSU One of the benefits of working at a university for a number of years is seeing a second generation of students come through the doors. That’s the case with Deb Labat, the Science office and administrative specialist at SMSU. Labat has worked at the University for 31 years, and feels that being around students “helps keep you young.” “I’ve met a lot of people, made good friends over the years. It’s fun to have the students come back for events on campus, and I’m seeing a lot of our former work study students have children who attend SMSU now,” she said. “They stop by and see us and introduce their kids.” Labat is a Hector native and is married to husband Russ. They have three children: Kari Labat-Bailey, Kelsey and Kimberly. She attended Willmar Vocational and Technical
Institute (now Ridgewater) where she received an accounting degree. She worked for the Marshall accounting firm of Gold, Carlson and Minehart for a year before coming to SMSU, where she began in the Science and Math area. She has also worked in the Office of Admission and the Registrar’s Office before returning to the science program seven years ago. Labat is an ambassador for the University, and does not hesitate to list the benefits of attending SMSU. “It’s a smaller campus, you get to know most of the other students. The faculty cares about you. It’s a place a person would want to come.” Working around science faculty and students with science majors has rubbed off on her. “I have learned more about the environment, and the different career choices a person can have with a Science degree. It’s really wide open,” she said. FOCUS MAGAZINE
Deb Labat
FALL 2008
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