Professor Profiles

Management Has Never Been So Much Fun
by Suzanne Higgs
News Staff Writer
February 19, 2007

Doing the Wave? Seeing a band perform? Can this really be a class?

It is if you enroll in Professor Christopher Neck’s Management 3304 Theory and Leadership Practice class.

Neck is unlike any other professor you’ll find on campus with classes of 1000 students in Burruss Auditorium in the fall, and over 500 in McBryde100 during the spring semester.

This class may be one of the most enjoyable experiences you’ll encounter on campus.

This semester he teaches one class that lasts for two hours and 25 minutes, but between the power bars thrown into the crowd and doing the wave, you won’t even notice.

“He’s really funny and gives out t-shirts and energy bars to liven up the class and elicit participation. It makes it more exciting and less like a lecture,” Kristina Ticknor, sophomore communication major, said.
 
The band? That’s true too. Neck plans on bringing in a band to demonstrate teamwork this semester.

He is also bringing real life applications to define entrepreneurship. A speaker is coming to talk about the first business he started at 10 years old.  He is now 24 and a millionaire.

“(I) try to think of creative ways to bring out the material. Some people want the same old thing. They want notes, take the test and go home, but I’m not that kind of teacher,” Neck said.

If you stick around until the end of the semester you’ll even get to see Professor Neck perform a rap about the class. A past performance can be found at http://www.chrisneck.com/video.php.

His goal as a teacher is to help students and provide them with the “tools to build bridges to their dreams, tools to succeed…its all about what they take with them from the class,” Neck said.

Luckily for Virginia Tech students, Tech offered him employment before he accepted an offer from the University of Colorado.

Neck is more interested in making a difference in students and teaching them to apply management to life than making the grade.

“Your life is not dictated by the grades you make and does not always judge your level of success,” Neck said.

After graduating from Arizona State University he wanted to make this course for anyone that has a goal. In his class you’ll learn about motivation, overcoming obstacles and teamwork.

Neck thinks that Confucius said it best when he said, “Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.” 

He had the opportunity to teach a class as a graduate assistant and found that it was something he really enjoyed.

Business, motivation and leadership have interested Neck because he’s always wondered what made successful people successful.

He was always reading and looking into motivational speakers. The book “The Little Engine That Could,” has stuck in his memory and he often uses it as an example in his class.

One of his favorite things to do is to take his children to Wal-Mart and spend a couple dollars on the claw machine.

Neck is also a runner who has completed 12 marathons, including the Boston Marathon.

Neck has been successful in writing many books, contributing to other publications such as books and various journals, but he believes his greatest success is his nomination for the Cherry Award from Vaylor University.

The award is only given to one professor in the world. He believes that success comes from his students. He wanted to include this personal statement to his students:

“I want to tell the students thank you for all the support that students have shown me since I’ve been here. I truly realize that I would not be able to teach this class (without them). I had to get permission to teach in Burruss and there was no way I would’ve gotten that without the students. I know where the source of my success is: it’s in the students. They have power over me – they have given me the freedom to teach the way I want to and where I want to – from the class in 1994 to the students I have now, thank you.”

For more information on Christopher Neck’s accomplishments and a list of his books, you can visit his website www.chrisneck.com.