About Simone Haruko Smith
Program/concentration and graduation year at GWU: GSB 2010. (Major in Business Administration, with a dual concentration in Marketing and International Business and a secondary field in Fine Arts)
Current affiliation and title: Head of Outreach for HubPages.com
Simone’s Testimonial about Dr. Helm
I took an international business class taught by Professor Helm in my junior year at GWU. It was one of the few classes of my college career which I will never forget, and all of its remarkable aspects can be attributed to Professor Helm’s excellence in engaging with and inspiring students.
From the start, Professor Helm made an effort to know each student by name- and make sure that each student became acquainted with his or her classmates. This created a strong community in which we constantly worked together when reviewing class materials, assignments, case studies, and group projects. The community atmosphere Professor Helm created made our group projects actually functional. For once I did not resent working with other students because my fellow group members were just as involved and engaged in the course material as I was.
Group projects and class collaboration aside, Professor Helm gave us a great deal of work and reading, but again, none of it was a chore. Professor Helm makes a great effort to make everything relevant to the current business climate and to our professional lives, hence homework is never busy work.
Furthermore, Professor Helm puts just as much work in to every assignment as her students do. Never before have I received such thoughtful and helpful feedback on so many projects, papers and presentations. I honestly do not know where Professor Helm finds the time to provide the amount of individual feedback that she does.
It was wonderful to have a professor who was so intent on keeping material fresh and truly engaging with her students.
