Nation's First Center for Professional Selling Celebrates Silver Anniversary at Baylor University

WACO, Texas, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Twenty-five years after opening the first sales center in the country, the Center for Professional Selling at Baylor University continues to lead and excel in all aspects of sales education. To commemorate the anniversary, the Center is hosting five days of events from Thursday, Sept. 16 through Monday, Sept. 20, 2010.

Baylor faculty, the Center's Advisory Board, selected students and faculty from other schools will attend the events.

The Center for Professional Selling is home to more than 800 graduates and was the first school to offer a professional sales major.

"We have a national and international reputation in academics. When talking about sales, Baylor will be one of the first schools mentioned," said Dr. Bill Weeks, professor of marketing.

The Advisory Board and faculty continually refine curricula to ensure students are receiving the education and guidance needed before entering the workforce.

"Leading up to the Anniversary, we assessed our resources and identified the changes needed to take the Center and our students to the next level," said Dr. Andrea Dixon, executive director for the Center for Professional Selling.

This includes developing and requiring new classes, creating new opportunities for internships, updating technology and facilities, and adding new opportunities to refine selling skills through extra-curricular events and additional competitions.

"We help our students develop a truly ethical and moral commitment to their conduct of business wherever they go with their careers," said Dr. Marjorie Cooper, professor of marketing. This goal has kept the Center for Professional Selling leading the field of sales education and foreshadows the advances and achievements sure to come in the following years.

As the Center celebrates its 25th anniversary, The Journal of Professional Selling and Sales Management celebrates its 30th anniversary. A joint celebration will occur through a Baylor-sponsored research symposium involving over 50 American and international scholars who will develop articles for the special anniversary issue of JPSSM in June 2011.

Other events will include a meeting with University Sales Center Alliance (USCA) members, a talk on the future of sales and the C-suite, and a celebration banquet featuring Coach Scott Drew.

Photos are available for download at http://www.baylor.edu/business/pr/index.php?id=74396.

About Baylor Business

The culture of the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University is guided by Christian commitment and champions life-long learning, highly-regarded scholarship and service to others as its highest ideals. The School seeks to produce business leaders with recognized integrity, superior theoretical knowledge and practical skills of modern global business developed through an experiential learning environment. The School engages a diverse group of undergraduate, graduate, and executive students and alumni in a curriculum that produces graduates of value to business organizations and to their communities. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business.

CONTACT: CJ Jackson of Baylor University, +1-254-710-7628, [email protected]

SOURCE Baylor University