It's an opportunity of a lifetime for PSC baccalaureate students enrolled in the business management program.

Now they can earn transferable credits into WFS Master of Business Administration program.

All made possible through the PSC to you for articulation agreement.

To discuss this further, I'm happy to welcome Jerry Goldstein, professor at PSC.

And you know, he's joined by one of his prized students, Sheena Carr.

So glad to have both of you here.

Now, Jerry, we need to take everyone back to 2022.

So let's talk about the pathway that you had to actually embark upon for the articulation agreement to come into play.

Actually, it was a very collaborative agreement with, doctor, Ed Meadows, the president of Pensacola State College and now Doctor Michael Payne, who was the manager at the College of Business, and also with the then Dean, Dean fountain and assistant dean, Melissa Brode and President Martha Saunders.

It was a three year.

Yes.

It was a three year endeavor to get this done.

It's a very special program that's never been done in the state of Florida.

So it went through a lot of channels and a lot of people to thank for this incredible opportunity to think on the air, as we would know.

So let's talk about the business climate analysis course.

How many weeks is it?

It's a regular semester at Pensacola State College.

That's, 16 or 18 weeks.

Whatever the semester is.

But there are two courses of, embedded inside of that job.

4451 business climate course.

And the reason there's two courses is because these are the same two courses that all students would take entering into the MBA program at the University of West Florida.

They're identical courses.

And we'll talk more about the specifics in just a moment.

But there is someone who works at PSC who wants you to hear this special message.

Take a listen.

Everyone.

Jerry Goldstein is an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, but he's here because he loves our students.

He loves Pensacola, and he loves seeing us all thrive.

I can't say enough great things about him, and I feel blessed that we get to have him in our classroom, teaching our groups.

Sina, you just heard Doctor Payne.

Don't you love him?

I do, I absolutely loved Doctor Payne and the whole family at the business program at PSC.

We have a little bit of history I taught you for two classes in the business department.

But take us back to the first time you heard Jerry Goldstein speak.

I invited him to several of my classes.

What was your first impression?

Well, I thought that what he was selling was amazing.

To have the opportunity to go ahead and start my MBA over at UW and be 10% ahead of everyone else, and to do it at the price of PSC tuition versus tuition.

That really appealed to me.

What was really funny about my story is that I was actually about to graduate, and I already had all of my credits that I needed to have my bachelor's degree through PSC.

So I re-enrolled at PSC as an independent student, just to take his class so that I would be prepared for with astounding, because when you told me you were going to do that, I said Bravo.

The economic benefits, and then also having an opportunity to come back to PSC.

Jerry, we have to dive into this course, split in half.

So the first half, tell us what the emphasis is.

The first half is a case analysis.

The course is divided and designed, for actually identical skill sets to be utilized, but applied in a little bit different way.

So the first eight weeks of the course concentrates on, on a single case.

The second course applies the same skill sets, but it's applied to an industry analysis where you're analyzing three companies simultaneously under the same industry.

But the skill sets are identical.

I love that.

And speaking of skill sets, we had an opportunity to take a sneak peak in one of your classes recently, and the students were doing their case analysis presentations.

Chipotle.

Doesn't that make you hungry?

Well, I don't know about making me hungry, but, it is, it is part of the course where students need to learn to be able to speak in front of, a group because this is what they're actually going to be confronted with when they graduate.

Hopefully one day, whether with a master's in MBA and they're going to be presenting to, to corporate boards and to managers on very specific, problem solving or things that they need to look at.

So they need to not only know how to write, they also need to know how to present.

Absolutely.

So the second half of the course, more writing involved in that.

Correct.

Almost identical in terms of the length of pages.

It's the application of the skill sets that are being applied where you're analyzing.

Of course, in the first half, as I said, in one case.

But those skill sets now are going to be applied to an industry where you're analyzing three companies simultaneously.

Love that.

Now, Sheena, after you took the course, you transferred those two and they count as two classes, correct?

MBA program at UW F so your journey started there.

How well did Jerry prepare you for this wonderful, momentous moment in your life?

I can absolutely say that without his class, I would not have been prepared for you for the program.

There were skills that I needed to have before getting there that I was not taught there.

There's there are things that you should come into the class already knowing as an MBA level student.

And I obtain those skills from Jerry Goldstein and from his class at PSC.

Now, Jerry, you and I have worked closely together for quite some time.

There are a lot of people watching who may be interested in taking your course, and you have really allowed us to put your website up on the screen.

Your email address rather on the screen for anyone who wants to contact you personally, as well as our PSC website.

So tell us about the enthusiasm you have knowing that you have more, many, many more students who are interested in this program.

Well, first, I'm grateful for you, Doctor Larry, for promoting this program in your classroom.

And that has really jumpstarted our program here.

Being able to explain the attributes, and the opportunity that, these students have at Pensacola State College.

As I said, this doesn't exist anywhere else.

So, even if students are not sure if they want to get a masters or an MBA, this gives them a window of opportunity to see what that's going to look like, because the course is taught with the same cases, the same grading rubrics, the same rigor, the same expectations.

And oh, by the way, the same instructor that taught absolutely year at the university.

So, my job is, is not as a gatekeeper.

My job is to prepare students to be successful in the MBA program and the course has been designed because they're going to see everything I taught them downstream again.

Absolutely.

Sheena, one quick word from you.

If you had an adjective to describe Jerry Goldstein, what would that be?

Oh, wow.

Outgoing, outgoing and everything that he does.

Outgoing as a teacher, he wanted us to know every single thing that he could possibly teach us.

And as long as you're a sponge, you can soak it right up.

Many thanks to both of you.

I know I'm excited.