Sarah Bray, is an associate professor and chair of the Business program at SUNY Jamestown Community College. Her teaching focuses on economics and entrepreneurship.
Bray has taught at JCC since 2013, and before that worked as a professional in business roles.
She earned a bachelor's in business administration from Alfred University, an MBA from St. Bonaventure University, and a graduate certificate in business economics from Harvard University Extension School.
What is your background and why did you decide to get into business?
Bray: When I was in undergraduate school, I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career, and somebody that I trusted suggested that if you really don't know what you want to do, then business is a great choice. And that's the direction that I took.
I earned an undergraduate degree in business administration and started working for a few years and eventually went on, while I was working and raising a family, to get my master's in business administration. Throughout my career, I've had an opportunity to work with small businesses in a lot of different capacities, and it's just been really helpful for me to understand the educational background and the nuts and bolts of building a business and then helping students to engage in the business world themselves.
How do you use your experience and education in business to teach students?
Bray: I have a graduate certificate in business economics from Harvard, and one of the things that I've worked really hard to do is bring economic concepts from the world around us into the classroom so that students are prepared to use the principles that they learn to understand and interpret what's happening in the world around them.
We often start class with a current event or a news story, and it's great to watch students start to form opinions and engage with economic content and policies and ultimately even make predictions about what they think is going to happen in the business and economic world.
real world economic concepts.
What is your favorite class to teach?
Bray: I teach a class called Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and I like it a lot because it's a really hands-on course where students get to engage in a creative problem-solving process. They choose a problem that is important to people that they care about, and throughout the process of solving that problem, they do interviews with people, they build a physical prototype, and they ultimately end up creating a pitch and presenting that pitch for a business idea that they create based on the solution they came up with.
It's a lot of fun, and students always blow me away with the creativity of the solutions they come up with.
What other kind of projects do you students engage in?
Bray: I love the field projects that give students hands-on experience. For example, in the Hatch Cafe at the Cattaraugus County Campus we have a student intern that is doing everything from barista work to social media marketing to analyzing and understanding the financial profitability of the cafe itself. So, anything that gets students engaging in real-life problems and applications gives them the experiences that they need to connect with employers and experiences that transfer schools are looking for.
What do you like most about teaching at JCC?
Bray: I love teaching at JCC because we are a community college. And as a small community college, we have an opportunity to really get to know our students.
They come to us at a variety of different life stages. We work with students who are fresh out of high school and just starting to get into college, or we'll see students who are in the midst of a career transition. They might be raising families at the same time.
What we get to do at a community college is really impactful because, of course, we care about the educational outcomes for our students, but we really get to know them as people and support them so that they can arrive in the classroom in the best condition to learn.
What advice would you give to high school students thinking about taking classes at JCC?
Bray: For high school students, I would tell them that one of the biggest investments they'll ever make in their lives is going to be in their own education.
And we know JCC is an affordable option in terms of cost, but it really gives you a lot of benefit in return on that investment that you're making because it's an easy place to get involved. It's an easy place to join clubs or connect with internships and really make the most of your educational experience. I think starting at JCC as a high school student is really the best place to launch your educational journey.
What does a quality education mean to you?
Bray: I think a quality education will help spark curiosity for people. All of our fields are continuing to change and evolve, so we're never going to get to the point where we know everything about a particular subject or topic.
But what we can start to do if we've had a good foundation in our education is recognize where we have gaps in our knowledge. And additionally, then we can take those gaps and figure out where we go for good information.
We're inundated with information. It's not all good. And if you've gotten the foundation of a quality education, you can figure out where you go for information and then also evaluate it to make sure it's accurate.
----
JCC offers A.S. Business Administration, A.A.S Business Administration, and A.A. Economics degree programs and an Entrepreneurship certificate.
Request more information about those and other JCC learning opportunities.