A Classroom Challenger

As the owner and president of Trend HR in Rockwall, Texas, Dan Bobst credits much of his success to the faculty, staff and coaches at A&M-Commerce who mentored him and challenged him to never quit or give up on his goals.

Today, Bobst uses his education and industry knowledge to challenge current students through the Lion Apprentice Challenge. With his help and guidance, five teams of Honors College students competed to create marketing strategies to aid in Trend HR's efforts.

“The Lion Apprentice Challenge was a new and exciting way to bring academia and competition together,” Bobst said. “It took a couple years to put to put it together, but it was worth it to see the students pursue out-of-the-box thinking regarding marketing and management.”

The five teams were managed by their professors as well as their mentors and were judged on their presentation, research, overall ability to turn book knowledge into real world application, and their ability to translate their thoughts into a multimedia presentation.

The winning team consisting of Rachel Evans, Rachel Payne and Corey Ainsworth, was presented with a check for $6,000.