Students in Dalton State’s Wright School of Business now have more resources readily available to help them succeed.
The finance lab, housed in Gignilliat Hall, opened this semester featuring monitors playing Bloomberg TV with stock ticker information, world clocks and individual computers for students. The space had been used for classes since the building opened in 2019 following an expansion and renovation, but the supplemental resources for finance students were completed over the summer.
“This 22-seat computer lab is the primary upper-division classroom for students majoring in the Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and Applied Economics,” said Dr. Marilyn Helms, dean of the Wright School of Business. “During the summer, three 65-inch monitors were added to the back wall of the class. They have internet access and by viewing the Bloomberg channel, students have real-time, up-to-the-minute stock figures from this popular streaming service. This will allow them to discuss and keep track of the stock market and changes going on in the financial sector with a crawler for breaking business and financial news headlines and other trending topics related to financial, economic and corporate information. The service also includes graphs of major market indices and their movement.”
The lab was included in the expansion and renovation of Gignilliat to house the Wright School of Business thanks to a $5 million gift from C. Lamar and Ann Wright, which was matched by the state of Georgia.
“Finance labs in schools of business like ours often include a student-led investment fund,” Helms said. “Senior-level finance majors work in consultation with a professional investment advisor to maximize returns and learn about portfolio diversification, asset allocation, risk management and the investment environment. This kind of hands-on experience elevates a business school, and we would welcome working with a donor who might share this interest with us.”
The lab also includes smart board technology with color annotated capabilities, the ability to save presentations to flash drives to share with students, a camera for video lectures and working with online and hybrid classes and the world clocks, which show times in various countries and time zones to facilitate trading decisions.
“These technologies ensure our finance and applied economics students have access to the critical data for decision-making they will use in their jobs supporting area business and industry,” Helms said. “We are delighted to have the latest information at their fingertips.”
The lab has a glass front so guests can observe the interactive classes and spark interest in investments, she said.
“The finance lab supports student learning at the intersection of finance theory and real-world applications,” said Dr. Christian Koch, a lecturer in finance. “The main objectives of our Principles in Finance and Investments courses are to expose students to how finance works, to get them to tie together the numbers and apply that learning to valuing public companies.”
Finance and applied economics is one of the six majors in business Wright School of Business at Dalton State College. For more information, visit daltonstate.edu/business.
