Assistant Professor and Director of the
Financial Information Lab
“I try to help my students realize that no one is going to hand
them anything – that they have to work hard in order to be
successful,” says John Neumann, D.B.A., Assistant Professor in St.
John’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business and Director of the
Financial Information Lab.
As the director of St. John’s new state-of-the-art financial
information lab and the only professor teaching the undergraduate
student –managed investment fund class on the Queens campus, Dr.
Neumann has his hands full, but the dedicated professor is
committed to helping students grow intellectually from the
beginning of the semester to the end.
“What I enjoy most about all of my responsibilities is that I get
to help students achieve their goals in life. It’s one of the
reasons I left my information systems career to enroll in a
doctoral program at age 32.”
Before teaching at St. John’s, Dr. Neumann was responsible for
building information systems for over a decade at several companies
including Accenture, AT&T and Robert A. Stanger & Co. He
now utilizes his programming, design, project leadership and
systems analysis experience to teach students, what he feels, is
one of the most important lessons a professor can teach - how to
think.
“One of the most effective ways to get students to think is to
constantly challenge and engage them. I try to prod critical
thinking and move students from passively receiving to actively
thinking by asking questions that prompt them to really think about
what they’re learning right at that moment or what they’ve learned
in the past. These are skills that I believe are vital to success,”
says Dr. Neumann.
Teaching in the financial information lab, Dr. Neumann says, allows
for more interactive lessons with the students and gives professors
the opportunity to illustrate class concepts by access to
real-world data right on the spot.
“If I want to show an example of stock price data or give a
specific example of a financial statement line item that may be
under discussion, I can display it all from my podium while the
students follow along on their computers. The lab can be used in so
many different ways; we have only begun to scratch the surface of
the exciting pedagogical enhancements that it offers.”
Dr. Neumann believes teaching in the lab has aided in his success
as a professor. “Success is when you set a goal for yourself and
achieve it. I wake up every morning and I feel like I’m doing
something special by helping to prepare my students for life after
college. I counsel my students when thinking about majors and
careers that if they do something they are good at and at the same
time makes them happy, they increase their chances of becoming
successful at it.”