Fall 2006

It added a slice of humor to Cherie Jones’ day when a co-worker spilled an entire Big Gulp on her keyboard. “I was totally laughing,” she recalls. Her co-worker wasn’t. Jones, a 2001 MAcc graduate and business tax auditor for Loudon County, Virginia, says her colleague panicked as she searched for napkins to salvage the keyboard. Big Gulp or deli sandwich, Jones’ co-worker isn’t the only one whose workstation doubles as an eatery.

Two weeks before Kristen DeTienne moved into her new home, she called the phone company to pre-install a new line. The company didn’t come through, and she went for weeks without a phone.

Standing in front of eight corporate leaders worth billions of dollars and presenting them with a new business venture is the epitome of applied classroom learning.

At all levels of government, we need more men and women who are willing to speak the truth, face the facts, take a long-term perspective, and prepare our country and its citizens. Many of these challenges are unprecedented in size, scope, complexity, and potential impact.

David Truscott is a do-it-yourself kind of guy. The Washington state native builds his own furniture, does his own home remodeling, and handcrafts violins that fetch upward of $3,000 apiece. What’s more, the violin maker and auditor recently developed an international supply chain that is expected to boost instrument production to nearly $250,000 this year. Not bad for a twenty-four-year-old.