By Sarah Hughes
News Editor
It’s graduation season again. Many enjoy the cycle of beginnings and endings that school brings.
While we are excited to celebrate members of the Cougar Chronicle staff moving on, we will miss them. Here we take a moment to honor their accomplishments and consider where they are going.
Justin Donner
Graduating with a Bachelors of science in Business Administration, with an emphasis in management and entrepreneurship, Justin Donner has been the sports editor for the Cougar Chronicle for the last year. In addition to working and writing for the paper, he has also worked for the last two years with the San Diego district attorney’s office.
This year, Justin was selected the “Outstanding Student from the Entrepreneurship department”. The prestigious honor is given to one graduating student from each of the eight Business Administration departments. The award is based on the same criteria as the College of Business Administration (CoBA) Dean’s Award.
According to CoBA, in order to be named an Outstanding Student a cougar must “Make your studies your top priority, Be an active participant in your classes, Get involved in campus life throughclubs and activities, Get involved in community service, and Use the resources available to you in theCareer Center.”
Justin began at CSUSM when transferred in 2011 as a baseball recruit. Prior to that he had played 2 years up north at Reedley College.
Laughing, Justin finds the prospect of what’s next “so hard [because] it changes on a dime!”
Planning to go to law school, he is considering many including UC Hastings, UC Davis and the University of North Carolina. Amid the stress of classes coming to end, Justin has been calculating for his future, ever applying and contacting schools of interest.
On Jan. 22, 2014 he got engaged to Leah Korthof. Wedding plans have commenced. The two have been dating for seven years and met in high school, but knew of each other in middle school.
Of his time at CSUSM, Justin has had many teachers who he would like to thank, who have all mentored him. Justin’s favorite teachers include, Dr. Bennett “Ben” Cherry, Dr. Rajnandini “Raj” Pillai, and Dr. Edward “Ed” Balian. Cherry is the Associate Professor and Department Chair of Management and Marketing, the faculty athletics representative and “an active board member of various local not-for-profits” according to his CSUSM profile. Justin knows him as the director of entrepreneurship department.
Pillai, a highly honored Professor of management, has focused on charismatic leadership, which is what Justin mentions in addition to her being “one of [his] good mentors.” Justin apparently follows in her footsteps, as Pillai has both edited and written.
In addition to mentor, Balian, lecturer in operations and supply chains management, was the advisor of Justin’s senior experience project. Balian has appeared in Writing Center videos discussing the relationship between writing and business, as well as outlining what business documents students will write in their careers.
http://www.csusm.edu/writingcenter/facultydiscusswriting/Operations%20and%20Supply%20Chain%20Management.html
A class Justin would recommend is ENTR 320(3) Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“It’s a creative thinking class” says Justin, “some of the class brings a creative element to business and discusses how to get your ideas to real life. Innovation is taking creativity and making it happen.”
His friends are excited to watch how Justin exacts his future, and know that he will go many places, due to his non-stop networking, talent, creativity and sheer perseverance in many areas.