A select few Biz@Bear students have been given the opportunity to earn a $400 scholarship for participating in the ACRE Cubs reading group.
ACRE, the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, is an interdisciplinary Arkansas-focused research center that is sponsoring a weekly reading club in the Bear Hall classroom.
All Biz@Bear students were offered the opportunity to participate in the exclusive spring reading group by filling out an application. Ten students were hand-selected to participate in the study.
To obtain the $400 stipend, participants must attend every weekly meeting, contribute to thoughtful and reflective conversations, and read the articles given in advance for each week’s topic. The first meeting was held Jan. 27.
The theme for the Spring 2023 session is “Cities, Local Government and Local Governance.” The group will have the chance to discuss a variety of economic topics and even reach out to various Arkansas senators and government representatives.
Several business faculty are lined up to lead discussions on relevant and trending issues within their discipline.
Louisa Moseley, college of business academic adviser and UCA alumna, is the academic director for Biz@Bear and runs the reading group.
“Networking is the key to success,” Moseley said, who also teaches an accounting class.
She said she hopes students and faculty becoming better acquainted will lead to more open discussion in future classes and studies.
Biz@Bear aims to prepare students for the rapidly changing business world. Students majoring in a select few business majors will have the chance to bask in the culture of intellectual curiosity and community engagement that Biz@Bear has to offer, right from the comfort of their dorm.
Caitlyn Bellamy, a Conway native and senior student worker for the ACRE reading group, has been involved with the organization since her freshman year when she joined in search of friends and good conversations, which is exactly what she found.
“Hearing other’s perspectives and how passionate they are is life-changing,” Bellamy said of the group. “It gets people talking about what really matters.”
Upcoming discussions are ethics of data, sports economics, financial literacy and more. All discussions can be found on the ACRE Cubs reading group’s website, https://uca.edu/acre/acre-reading-group/. These subjects will be lectured by College of Business professors and faculty.
