A Leap of Faith

This year Siena Heights celebrates the 40th anni-
versary of offering adult
degree-completion pro-
grams. From its humble beginnings in Southfield at a former elementary school (left), the pro-
gram now boasts more than 60 percent of all SHU graduates each year. The ultra-successful Bachelor of Applied Science degree graduated its first students (below) in the late 1970s and has made degree-completion a reality for students from all age groups and backgrounds, furthering the Siena Heights Mission in the process.

Concept of Educating Working Adults Turns into the College for Professional Studies

As the 1960s were known as a time for social experimentation in America, the 1970s had Siena Heights experiencing its own period of educational “counterculture.”

In 1970, then Siena Heights College had named its first lay president, Dr. Hugh Thompson, and was transitioning from all-female student body to a coeducational one. If that evolution wasn’t difficult enough, Thompson brought more of a business and career-focused educational approach to campus, ruffling feathers of some liberal arts-focused faculty and staff of the time.

Thompson’s vision included starting
associate’s degree programs that had a fingerprint more like a two-year technical college, not a private, Catholic, four-year institution. Yet some of these
programs not only survived, but grew and evolved. Soon, the unique Bachelor of Applied Science degree was born.
That degree became the “seed” that allowed Siena Heights to plant campuses around Michigan. First, in Southfield, then spreading to places like Benton Harbor, Battle Creek and Monroe.

Leader of Leaders

Steven West ’79 Uses His Experience to Help Others Succeed in Business

Steven West ’79 has learned by doing.

And for more than a decade, he has used his experience to help others start, manage and grow their own successful businesses.

West, co-founding partner of the San Francisco-based Emerging Company Partners LLC, has been a CEO, COO and board member at numerous high-growth, global businesses, from manufacturing to enterprise software companies. In fact, he was the CEO of Hitachi Data Systems for three years, and currently serves on the boards of billion dollar companies such as Cisco Systems and Autodesk. He has also started, built and sold companies. Now, he is guiding others on a similar path.

With more than 30 years of business experience in the technology field, he said his specialty is advising CEOs and executives of small start-up companies ($100 million or less).

“It’s a lot of mentoring,” West said of his work. “You have to have experience and be willing to work with people who don’t necessarily know what’s going on.”

Most of his days consist of travel (he operates out of what he calls a “virtual office”) and talking to people, either on the phone or in person at their business location. He said a good CEO is not born, but made.

“You really have to learn to interact with people. Listen to what they say. Pay attention,” he said of the common qualities of an effective business leader. “Those are things you get with real operating experience. It takes time and skill. It’s not something you’re born with.

Alumni Stars Mark the Start of Homecoming

Last fall’s Homecoming weekend began when the stars came out for the Alumni Awards ceremony Friday afternoon. Meet the 2014 award winners:

Recent Graduate Award

Kyle Leighton ‘13

Nominated by Zachary Orlosky ’10

A professional communications graduate of Siena’s Jackson Center, Kyle credits his Siena Heights education for igniting his success at EverLast Lighting, Inc, an energy-efficient lighting manufacturer in Jackson. As director of public relations for the firm, he has been published in numerous trade magazines and designed and launched a Michigan Energy Awareness Initiative that was adopted throughout the state; and was named an emerging leader in the electrical industry. He was recognized for “carrying the mission and spirit of SHU into a promising career in public relations and professional communication” and for being a role mode as “an advocate of energy efficiency.”