Summer Excel class certifies

Students from the ASC Excell class stand near a campus sculpture at Lyndon State College (now Northern Vermont University Lyndon campus) with their Professor Karen Popovich (third from right in purple shirt).

Six students studying business and accounting in the Saint Michael’s College Accelerated Summer College (ASC) traveled with their Professor Karen Popovich to Lyndon State College in Lyndon on Tuesday, June 26, to take the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Excel 2016 Core Certification.

As part of their course, BU 111 Excel and Business Applications, offered by Popovich from the St. Mike’s Department of Business Administration and Accounting (DBAA) faculty, students learned the essential skills needed to prepare for the exam.  Six of the eight class members decided to apply that learning and sit for the Professional Certification (which is tested and distributed through Certiport and Microsoft specifically).

The group earned a pass rate of over 70 percent, and Sean Winthrop ’19 even earned a perfect score, besting Professor Popovich’s score.  “I enjoyed being in the trenches with the students while they were studying for the exam and have asked Sean to consider serving as a tutor for our online class in the Fall!” Popovich said. 

Knowledge of how to use Microsoft Excel is considered a relevant and important skill in the 21st century workplace. Today, many jobs in different fields require some knowledge of Microsoft Excel. The course was designed to familiarize students with this useful tool. Obtaining this certification stands out on student resumes and adds a talking point during interviews for potential internships and positions after college, Popovich said.

In addition to learning how to assess and evaluate mobile apps, students also learned to create and manage Excel worksheets and workbooks, manage data cells and ranges, create tables, perform operations with formulas and functions, and create charts and objects. Students enrolled in this ASC course were not required to take the MOS Excel 2016 Core Certification for successful completion of the course. 

The ASC program helped support the effort to make the certification test available to interested students.  Both Kellie Campbell, Director of the ASC, and Alex Colletta, program assistant, traveled with the group in support of students. Said Campbell, “ASC is a great environment to test new ideas – I was excited to collaborate on the idea to offer this course in ASC and commend the faculty in the DBAA. This was a great option for students and I am happy to see how well they did.” 

The course will be piloted as a two-credit online course in the fall semester at Saint Michael’s, taught by business administration/accounting Professor Alaba Apesin.  The course is open to all students of all years and majors and does not have any pre-requisites.

On July 1, days after the visit, Lyndon State had a new official name – Northern Vermont University (NVU-Lyndon), after the official new merger of Johnson State with Lyndon State became official on that date.