Apr 11, 2018 By: admin
Sharon Poczter is the Chair of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at 麻豆区 in NYC as well as Associate Professor. Her research focuses on issues related to access to financing for firms, including the role of the government in promoting entrepreneurship and gender disparity in funding. Her research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals, and she is a frequent contributor and columnist for Forbes, Bloomberg, Fox News, and other media outlets. Her economic take on women in the workforce has also appeared in the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.
1. What profession did you think you would hold when you were a student?
This was constantly changing. At moments I thought I would be a physician, a music label executive, an engineer, a consultant....
2. How has your past work experience prepared you for your current position?
I have a strong background from Berkeley in empirics and learning also how to tell a story through data. Berkeley also helped me with pedagogy. Interestingly, learning how to teach kickboxing helped me learn how to teach better as well.
I also have always had a penchant for helping to build something. My position as Chair provides me the ability to do that, which is very exciting.
3. What aspect of your job with YU do you most enjoy?
Two things! One is the students. YU students are extremely inquisitive. I also find YU students to be very respectful as well.
The other is the structure. Dean Strauss provides me the environment to make real change.
4. What are some of your goals for the Sy Syms School of Business and what progress have you made?
My first goal was to help update the (formerly Management) department. The first thing I did was re-brand the department to Strategy & Entrepreneurship in order to reflect what will help our students on the job market and what they want to study. Next was to update the curriculum to reflect this change. By Fall 2018, our main introductory course will change to Principles of Strategy. We will have a variety of new electives, and the curriculum of the courses that we will offer will be updated as well. So students will have a new experience in Strategy & Entrepreneurship. In general, I would like to invigorate Entrepreneurship at YU. I am working on many other initiatives to this end that we will roll out in the coming year. Stay tuned!
5. What would your colleagues be surprised to learn about you?
Well, perhaps that I teach kickboxing for fun. This started in graduate school. As a reward to myself for passing my comprehensive exams, I learned how to teach kickboxing because I loved it. Little did I know it would also very much help me to learn how to present my research as well as teach; how to use your voice and physical presence to keep a classes attention, how to mess up and keep going, etc.
