Press Release: Three UOG business students gain professional credentials
Press Release: Three UOG business students gain professional credentials
Press Release: Three UOG business students gain professional credentials
5/21/2020
For more information, contact:
Jonas Macapinlac
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
University of Guam
Tel: (671) 735-2944
Cell: (671) 787-1010
Email: jmac@triton.uog.edu
Three senior students in the Bachelor of Business Administration program at the University of Guam have earned professional certifications that are rare to obtain prior to graduating and being in the workforce.
Josiah Lanuza, who graduates this semester with a focus in financial planning, has passed the exam to become an Accredited Investment Fiduciary, a distinguishing marker of credibility that an investment professional will work in the client’s best interests. He is now one of 25 financial professionals in Guam with the designation, which is issued by the Fi360 Pacific foundation and accredited by the American National Standards Institute.
Lanuza needed work experience to sit for the AIF exam, which he satisfied by serving for two years as president of Triton Investments, a student organization that manages $50,000 in the stock market.
“At first when you hear people talking about investments, it’s very intimidating,” he said. “But when I joined Triton Investments, it really got me into investing and learning about all the financial statements and how you can actually do all that on your own.”
Lanuza furthered his understanding and interest in financial planning by attending seminars and trainings yearly at the Asia Pacific Association for Fiduciary Studies Pacific Region Investment Conference in Manila.
Two students become SHRM-CPs
Two other students, Iris Guinto and Jonathan Pablo, who graduated in December with concentrations in human resources, have passed the SHRM-CP exam, becoming Society for Human Resource Management certified professionals.
“This is a very difficult and major accomplishment,” said Richard S. Colfax, professor of human resource management, faculty advisor for the UOG student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management, and a SHRM senior certified professional. “And these are the first UOG students to achieve this milestone.”
The credential is accredited by The Buros Center for Testing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and signifies that a human resources professional has current, relevant, and globally applicable skills for managing a company’s or organization’s employees and establishing its HR policies.
Guinto and Pablo were the first UOG students to qualify to take the exam after Colfax was able to align UOG’s human resources coursework with the SHRM association. Students are now eligible to take the exam once they log 500 hours of experience in a human resources role and have their hours certified by a faculty member. Guinto earned her hours working for MedPharm, and Pablo earned his hours with ASC Trust Corp.
“When Dr. Colfax first told me about the certification and the alignment between UOG and SHRM and that no student had gotten it yet, I wanted to be part of that first batch,” Pablo said. “It also validates the HR program that UOG has in terms of having sufficient preparation for a certification like this.”
The Bachelor of Business Administration program at the University of Guam gives students the option to focus their degree on economics and finance; management in entrepreneurship, human resources, or international tourism and hospitality; or marketing.