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University of Cincinnati Faculty Member Wins National Teaching Award

Photos By: Lisa Ventre, Rebecca Fondren

  

Prof. Charles Matthews

University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Business Professor Charles Matthews was honored Friday night in Austin as a winner of the Acton Foundation’s national award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education. Matthews was nominated by one of his students for the award.

“Great teachers change lives by inspiring students to recognize their gifts and to learn how to use them to pursue a worthy dream. Charles Matthews is one such great teacher,” says Acton Foundation President Rick O’Donnell.

Matthews is a professor of management and the executive director and founder of the UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research. He is an internationally recognized scholar and innovative teacher in the field of entrepreneurship. His teaching and research interests include strategic management; small, entrepreneurial and family-owned ventures; and leadership succession in family or privately held firms. Matthews has taught more than 5,000 students ranging from first-year students to doctoral students to executives, from individual instruction to classes of 540.

“Professor Matthews has always been dedicated to putting the students first in all of his teaching endeavors,” says Sid Barton, head of UC’s Management Department in the College of Business. “This award exemplifies that dedication. We are all extremely proud of his accomplishments.”

“We want to recognize outstanding teachers who inspire students to become principled entrepreneurs,” continues Acton’s O’Donnell. “Principled entrepreneurs are the ones who build great and lasting companies and non-profits that create jobs, increase wealth and improve our society.”

Matthews was one of 27 teachers from across the country to win this year’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Awards. Each winner is invited to attend a two-day seminar in Austin on entrepreneurship teaching, and receives a $1,000 award and trophy.

In addition, winners are invited to bring with them to Austin one of their top entrepreneurship students. Students each receive $1,000 toward their education costs and participate in case discussions led by Master Teachers from the Acton School of Business that put them in the shoes of a real entrepreneur.

"The best part for me was being able to give a student a $1,000 scholarship from the Acton Foundation," says Matthews.

UC student David Roth joined Matthews in Austin. Roth is a senior majoring in finance and marketing with a minor in international business.

All winners were initially nominated by students and then judged by a panel of master entrepreneurship teachers at Acton. In nominating Matthews, one student said:

“Professor Matthews has carried on a relentless effort in entrepreneurship education for the past 25 years. I am honored to recommend him for the Acton Foundation’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award for his vision in creating a prized entrepreneurship incubation environment and most of all for believing in me.”

(l-r) Roth (CoB '09), Matthews, Shuja, (COE '06, founder of Progressive Cooling Soutions)

Prof. Matthews and student Roth attended the two-day teaching awards event in Austin on February 1 and 2. Matthews took another former student with him as his guest, Ahmed Shuja. 

"Ahmed is in California these days starting his business that he wrote in my class two plus years ago, Progressive Cooling Solutions," says Matthews.

Other awards also bestowed during the event included three Master Teacher Awards (a $5,000 prize each) and Entrepreneurship Teacher of the Year (a $10,000 prize).

“This event is a celebration of teachers who are making a difference in their students’ lives,” says O’Donnell. “We are bringing students and teachers together to jointly discuss how to make business education in America even better for future entrepreneurs.”

About the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence
The Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence is a nonprofit organization established in 1997 to serve both teachers and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Foundation trains and inspires master teachers, equipping them with the courses and learning tools they need to help aspiring entrepreneurs. The Foundation’s Advising and Mentoring Guides offer teachers ways to be more intentional and effective in assisting those looking for career advice and searching for their calling. Its Stars & Steppingstones and Job Search Guides offer aspiring entrepreneurs a path to discover their calling and to live a life of meaning.

The Foundation’s case-based entrepreneurship curriculum allows both teachers and aspiring entrepreneurs to step into the shoes of real entrepreneurs and learn how to make the tough calls required for success. The curriculum is taught in its entirety at the Acton School of Business, an intensive one-year MBA program in Austin, Texas, taught exclusively by practicing entrepreneurs. The Princeton Review ranks Acton as one of the “Best MBA Classroom Experiences” in the country and, for the fourth year in a row, ranks Acton’s teachers among the top five business faculties in the nation. To learn more please visit ActonMBA.org. Visit www.actonfoundation.org for more information about the Acton Foundation.

About the UC Center for Entrepreneurship and Research
The UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research, established in 1997, seeks to create a world-class center for entrepreneurship education, research and service. The center's vision and mission are to provide a state-of-the-art entrepreneurship curriculum not only for potential entrepreneurs, but also for people in the many organizations that interact with small, entrepreneurial and family owned businesses on a daily basis. Located in the Department of Management in the College of Business, the Entrepreneurship Center seeks collaborative efforts between students from across the University.

Learn more about the E-Center.