State Regents Recognize Northeastern State University

Northeastern State University was among 22 institutions throughout the state recently recognized for their outstanding partnerships with community businesses.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Educations Economic Development Grant for the Partnership Recognition Program is designed to highlight successful partnerships between higher education institutions and businesses and to further cultivate the higher learning environment through State Regents Economic Development Grants.

State Farm Insurance and NSU have partnered to develop a number of programs that have had a positive impact not only on both State Farm and the university, but also on the financial education of prospective accounting and finance professionals and working professionals throughout the northeastern region of Oklahoma.

Through the support of the State Farm Foundation, NSU has developed a CFP Board Registered Program in financial planning, which is available as either an undergraduate degree or as a non-credit certificate program. In order to allow NSU to offer the program on both the Broken Arrow and Tahlequah campuses, the State Farm Foundation provided a gift to name and equip two distance learning classrooms at NSU.

Most recently, the State Farm Foundation has provided support for the Master of Science degree in accounting and financial analysis. Since its inception in 2001, this new program has grown to more than 90 students and serves both the accounting and finance communities.

State Farm also is an employer of numerous NSU graduates and a number of these graduates have advanced their careers with the firm. State Farm works with NSUs Career Services on a number of events, including career fairs and on-campus interviews.

With the improvements made in NSUs undergraduate program, NSU will be better able to meet the needs of State Farm and other regional employers for people educated in the most needed accounting and finance skills.

"If we're to improve Oklahoma's future, we need creative collaborations like this program," said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. "The partnership between business and higher education benefits us threefold: businesses retain employees, employees improve their education, and immediate needs are solved in Oklahoma's economy."

Institutions involved in these partnerships provide $500 for tuition waivers to employees of the partnering businesses, internships for current students of the institutions to work at the partnering businesses, or faculty externships with the partnering businesses. The State Regents provide a $500 match to the waivers.

The Partnership Recognition Program is an annual event. For more information, visit www.okhighered.org/eco-devo.