Walsh University 46th Annual Business and Communications Club Scholarship Luncheon Feb. 29

The DeVille School of Business will host the 46^th Annual Business and Communications Club Scholarship Luncheon on Wednesday, February 29 from 11:30 am to 1 pm, in the Barrette Business and Community Center.  The luncheon will feature Keynote Speaker Dan Mathieson, Mayor of Stratford, Ontario.  Cost is $25 per person.  Please call Carmela Bendetta at 330-490-7111 or cbendetta@walsh.edu for reservations by February 22.

Stratford, Ontario is known internationally for its annual Shakespeare Festival and as the hometown of teen pop icon Justin Bieber.  It is also recognized as an epicenter for digital technology with the Intelligent Community Forum’s (ICF) recent announcement that it will establish an ICF Institute in Stratford, Ontario. The City of Stratford was recently named one of seven municipalities in the world as a Top 7 Community by the Intelligent Communities Forum.  Luncheon guests will have the opportunity to listen firsthand to Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson as he describes exactly how Stratford re-invented itself in a way that may be duplicated right here in Stark County.

Dan Mathieson has been the Mayor of Stratford, Ontario, since 2003. Mr. Mathieson is on the advisory Board of the University of Waterloo-Stratford Campus, a Canadian Centre of Excellence for Digital Media; a founding Director of the Stratford Institute for Digital Media; Chair of the City of Stratford ICF Smart City Committee; a board member of the Festival Hydro and Rhyzome Networks, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and Kings University College at the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Mathieson is an entrepreneur in various sectors including software development and strategic planning and is a noted speaker on Smart City growth and economy for digital development.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (University of Guelph) and a Masters of Public Administration Degree (University of Western Ontario). For more information about Stratford, please visit: www.city.stratford.on.ca

About ICF: The Intelligent Community Forum is a think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21^st Century community.  Whether in industrialized or developing nations, communities are challenged to create prosperity, stability and cultural meaning in a world where jobs, investment and knowledge increasingly depend on advances in communications.  For the 21^st Century community, connectivity is a double-edged sword: threatening established ways of life on the one hand, and offering powerful new tools to build prosperous, inclusive and environmentally sustainable economies on the other.  ICF seeks to share the best practices of the world’s Intelligent Communities in adapting to the demands of the Broadband Economy, in order to help communities everywhere find sustainable renewal and growth. 

The Business and Communication Club, whose membership is comprised of students interested in pursuing career opportunities in the ever-changing business world, is the largest club on the Walsh campus.  The Business and Communication Club Annual Scholarship Luncheon is an opportunity to bring the business community to the Walsh campus to share experiences and insights into today’s business world and to raise needed scholarship dollars for deserving business and communication students.

Walsh University is an independent, co-educational Catholic liberal arts and sciences institution that promotes academic excellence and diversity and provides close faculty-student interaction. It is dedicated to teaching its nearly 3,000 students from 15 states and 24 countries to become leaders in service to others through a values-based education with an international perspective in the Judeo-Christian tradition.