The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has recognized Southeast Missouri State University’s Catapult Creative House as one of 35 innovations that inspire the AACSB in 2017.

The AACSB International’s purpose on its website states, “To recognize institutions that stand out as champions of change in the business education landscape, AACSB has developed the Innovations that Inspire challenge to shine a spotlight on a variety of ways that business schools are changing the face of business education.”

Catapult Creative House Operations Manager Leah Powers said there are several different aspects working together, which made this recognition possible.

“Catapult won category of engagement across disciplines and it was through our innovations that we did that, because we offer so many different resources and experiences to students where they can practice entrepreneurship here,” Powers said.

Powers said Former Dean of the Harrison College Dr. Gerald McDougall, who passed away in March, played a major role in Catapult Creative House becoming recognized by the AACSB.

“He was aware of the AACSB as an opportunity to become recognized and he was the one who proposed to our operations committee that we submit this, and he actually ended up writing the proposal to the AACSB,” Powers said.

If students are working at Catapult Creative House, there is a large variety of classes they could be taking to gain the experience they need in business.

“At Catapult we have actual businesses they can operate, we have our letterpress, our shop, our gallery, we have our coffee bar, we also have our multimedia lab, which does graphic design,” Powers said.

Powers said even though they received recognition, that was not the goal. Everyone did see it as an opportunity instead.

“The goal overall was to focus on the students giving that experiential learning service to them and that coincided with what we were already doing,” Powers said.

Powers said their recognition is due to the fact that they have eight disciplines in the building, but work with up to 12 and students are there working every day towards goals alongside the 14 faculty members, who donates their time to work with students.

Catapult Creative House Shop student worker Avery Turner said she feels recognition by the AACSB is good, but there is always room for improvement for both the school and students.

“I think it is a pretty big deal and it needs to be recognized more throughout the school and even within our program to make it known that this place has so much potential,” Turner said.