Professors teaching human resource courses in the College of Business Administration have recently joined together to form a series of forums that focus on various human resource topics.

“It’s an opportunity for our students to see how these can be applied to business,” said Mark Whitmore, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Management and Information systems. “Networking with the speakers and creating connections for the future jobs.”

Diane DeRubertis, management and information systems instructor, said as part of the curriculum HR management courses require the students to attend two or three of the HR Forums.

“The topics of the forums are related to what they [students] take in class,” said Julia Levashina, assistant professor. “They can better appreciate what they learn in classes and relate the material to real life issues and problems.”

DeRubertis said students learn the theory of HR in their classes. Through the HR forums, the professional panelists attending show the students HR in practice.

“The students gain a better understanding of what to expect when they get a job and go into the business,” DeRubertis said. “It’s about managing people. Things you could do to manage the situation, what to understand about the situation and how companies deal with the situation.”

At each forum there are three to four HR professionals who will speak about the topic and what the professionals do in their specific workplace.

At the upcoming HR Forum on April 18, Whitmore will moderate a panel consisting of Robert Hall, senior manager of training and development at Kent State; Jennifer Minturn, manager, learning and organizational development of Hyland Software and Amy Alexi, director, learning and talent development of Goodyear.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get one company to come speak to a class of 30, but when we tell an employer we are going to have 150 people there they are more likely to come,” Whitmore said.

Whitmore also said some professors may have connections with certain companies whereas other professors may not.

“We didn’t think it was fair to be in a class that your professor didn’t have connections,” Whitmore said. “So we decided to pool all of our professor’s connections for all the students.”

While the HR Forums might be targeted toward undergraduate students enrolled in HR courses, the event is free and open to all Kent State students as well as HR professionals.

The upcoming HR Forum will cover leadership development April 18 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the Kiva.

Contact Alexis Cummins at [email protected].