Issue 1 Fall 2026 Student Edition
- Got an Idea? Pitch It! — Fall Pitch Competition, November 12
- Build Your Buffer: Students Have Saved More Than $32,000
- When the Right Decision Isn't the Easy Decision — Aaron Beam and Ethics Week
- Three November Events You Don't Want to Miss
- Faculty Spotlight : Winfield Tufts
Fall Pitch Competition — November 12
Have an idea for a business, product, service, or way to make your community better? You don't need a business plan, investors, or even a company. You just need an idea—and 90 seconds to tell us why it matters.
The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship invites MGA students to participate in the Fall Pitch Competition on November 12. Students may compete in one of two categories: Business Idea or Societal Impact. The challenge is simple: explain the problem you want to solve, describe your idea, show who would benefit from it, and convince the audience that your idea is worth pursuing.
A great pitch isn't about having every detail figured out. It is about clearly communicating a problem, a solution, and the value your idea could create. The Center can help you develop your concept, sharpen your value proposition, and turn your idea into a compelling 90-second presentation.
Whether you already have an idea or have simply thought, “Someone should do something about that,” this is your opportunity to take the next step.
Bring us your idea. Build your pitch. Take your shot.
Image Source: Image by Joe from Pixabay
For more information or to sign up Click here!
Build Your Buffer
Could you handle an unexpected $250 expense without using a credit card or borrowing money?
That simple question is behind the School of Business Build Your Buffer Savings Challenge, an initiative designed to help students develop one of the most important financial habits they can have: maintaining emergency savings.
More than 300 students have participated in the program, and participants have accumulated an estimated $10,000 in savings. Through Spring 2026, 32 students have completed the full challenge.
But Build Your Buffer isn't really about $250. It is about developing a habit.
Having even a small financial cushion can make a difference when a tire goes flat, a textbook costs more than expected, work hours are reduced, or another unexpected expense appears. Instead of immediately turning to a credit card, students have another option: their own savings.
The School of Business encourages students to think about financial wellness as a progression:
Pay Off Debt → Build a Buffer → Invest Monthly → Save With Purpose
You don't have to become financially secure overnight. Start small. Save consistently. Then build from there.
The most important step may simply be starting.
When the Right Decision Isn't the Easy Decision
Aaron Beam and Ethics Week — November 3
Making the right decision is easy when the right choice and the easy choice are the same.
Character matters when they aren't.
On November 3 at 10:00 a.m. in the Math Auditorium on the Macon Campus, MGA will welcome Aaron Beam as part of Ethics Week, November 2–8.
Beam brings a particularly powerful perspective to conversations about ethics because his story isn't theoretical. As a corporate executive, he experienced firsthand how seemingly small compromises can grow into much larger ethical failures—and how those choices can carry very real consequences.
His story raises questions that apply far beyond business.
What happens when someone in authority asks you to do something you know isn't right? What happens when speaking up could cost you an opportunity, a friendship, or even a job? And what happens when one small compromise makes the next compromise easier?
These are questions you may eventually face regardless of your major or profession.
Ethics is not simply about knowing the rules. It is about developing the judgment and character necessary to make good choices when the answer is uncomfortable.
Join us November 3 for a conversation about choices, consequences, and why character matters when decisions become difficult.
Click here for more information!
Three November Events You Don't Want to Miss
November will be a busy month at the School of Business, with three opportunities to learn something different, meet people, and get involved beyond the classroom.
November 3 — Aaron Beam: Ethics Week
10:00 a.m. | Math Auditorium | Macon Campus
What happens when pressure, ambition, and ethics collide? Aaron Beam will share a firsthand story about corporate decision-making, ethical failure, consequences, and the lessons that followed. This isn't just a business discussion—it is a conversation about character and choices that applies to every profession.
November 12 — Fall Pitch Competition
Think you have a good idea? Prove it in 90 seconds. Students can compete in either the Business Idea or Societal Impact category. You don't need a finished company or a 40-page business plan. You need a problem worth solving, an idea with value, and the ability to communicate it clearly.
November 19 — Financial Literacy Research Symposium
12:30 p.m. | 2nd Floor Library | Macon Campus
What are MGA researchers learning about student saving, investing, and financial decision-making? Join Doug Bice, Everod Davis, and Marc Miller as they share findings from the School of Business's growing financial literacy research program. This research is supported through a generous gift from the Peyton Anderson Foundation.
Three events. Three very different topics.
Character. Innovation. Financial Literacy.
Pick one—or better yet, join us for all three.
Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Winfield Tufts
Helping Students Think About Who They Are Becoming
College is designed to help students learn what they need to know for their careers. Dr. Winfield Tufts believes students should also be thinking about something else:
Tufts, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business and Director of the Center for Character Research, has made that question central to his work at Middle Georgia State University. His teaching has included courses in leadership, organizational behavior, strategic management, and principles of management, where he emphasizes leadership, self-awareness, ethical reasoning, and the application of classroom concepts to real situations.
That work now extends well beyond his own classroom.
Tufts leads MGA's Character Integration Project, a three-year initiative supported by a grant of more than $200,000 through Wake Forest University's Educating Character Initiative. The project helps faculty intentionally incorporate character development into courses across the university.
More than 30 MGA faculty members from multiple academic disciplines participated in the project's faculty workshop this fall. As those faculty incorporate character-related learning activities into their courses, the initiative has the potential to reach thousands of MGA students.
For Tufts, character education is not about telling students what to think. It is about helping them examine how they make decisions, how they respond to challenges, how they lead others, and what principles will guide them when choices become difficult.
His work reflects an important idea behind an MGA education: graduating with knowledge and professional skills matters, but so does becoming the kind of person others can trust to use those abilities well.