An Omaha-based company has entered a partnership with the Heider College of Business, committing to pay for an online subscription to Barron’s Stock Market and Financial News beginning fall 2018.

Aaron Schaben, Carson Group Executive Vice President and managing partner and a Creighton graduate, heard about a new initiative from Barron’s called Barron’s for Education. Through this program, financial advisory firms such as the Carson Group could select universities to partner with and pay for enterprise-level access to all online content.

Schaben contacted Creighton’s Career Center to inquire about introducing the program, and was eventually connected with the Dean of the Heider College of Business, Anthony Hendrickson.

“Barron’s is a great resource for information. We want to help Creighton students be more educated on what’s going on in the financial world, and give them a glimpse of what it would be like to be a part of that financial world,” said Ron Carson, Carson Group CEO and Founder.

Barron’s will be used as a resource in finance and accounting classes, and it is available to Heider College of Business faculty and students using their Creighton ID.

Associate Professor of Finance Lee Dunham hopes to use the subscription to supplement investment theses, pitches and presentations in his finance classes, and said he hopes students will get into the habit of staying up to date on financial news.

“Staying current in the world of finance can provide students with an advantage in terms of bridging the theory knowledge learned in the classroom to real-world practice,” Dunham said.

The Carson Group has partnered with Creighton in the past, and it is one of the many Omaha-area companies that offers internships to students through the Career Center.

“We are working to provide value to business schools, as we are doing with Creighton, in the hopes that they’ll see the branding, they’ll see the contribution that we’re making to them and they’ll consider a career. Even if it’s not with the Carson Group, we can have a hand in helping nurses, accountants, engineers, and lawyers look at our profession,” Carson said.

Carson called Creighton a “special place,” and said he believed the new partnership through Barron’s would increase the visibility of their internships available to Creighton students.

“As Dean, I feel really good about that, because it means that a strong part of this motivation is not just for them to do something nice for us, but because they want to be visible to our students, because they see the high quality in our students,” Hendrickson said.

Barron’s for Education is a nationwide program, but most of the schools and financial firms involved are clustered around the east coast. Creighton is currently the only university located in the Midwest with sponsored access to Barron’s online.

“Great thinking on Carson’s behalf to be aware of that and be included, and be thinking entrepreneurially how they could increase their visibility with our students,” Hendrickson said.  

Barron’s is accessible online for students and faculty in the Heider College of Business for the remainder of the academic year. The Carson Group will be attending the Career Fair at Creighton on Friday, Oct. 5, and students can apply for an internship interview until Oct. 3.