The seeds for a late-in-life career in teaching may have been sewn decades earlier in the East Davenport home of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Kehoe.
"I grew up in a family where life-long learning was really a value," said Joe Kehoe, a longtime businessman, marketer, entrepreneur and, most recently, adjunct instructor who this year has joined the St. Ambrose College of Business fulltime as director of two new bachelor's degree programs in sales.
"My father was a pediatrician and my memory of him was that virtually every night, he was reading a medical journal while he was watching TV. My mother, while she was needlepointing, was reading. And not just reading. She was reading The Brothers Karamazov or War and Peace."
Joe Kehoe flashed back to those memories a few years ago, when he was asked to teach an undergraduate marketing class as an adjunct while serving as director of the SAU Master of Business Administration program. He was given a book with the memorable inscription, ‘To teach is to learn twice.'"
And so, Kehoe-a 71-year-old "retiree" whose winding career path has taken him across the country and back home again-finds himself back in a classroom and learning anew.
"I was thrilled to have this opportunity to teach," he said. "It's not only intellectually stimulating, but I've realized I can have an impact on students' lives by giving them encouragement and motivating them."
Nowhere in Kehoe's extensive résumé is the title of salesman. "But I have sold 100 percent of my life," he said, citing a research study that found most professional people spend 40 percent of their time selling or attempting to influence others.
Traditionally, sales professionals have come from a variety of educational disciplines-psychology, sociology, English, political science, and, for many, a strong education in business and marketing.
These days, however, sales are becoming an increasingly larger piece of the global job market, particularly for new graduates. That is why Kehoe and the St. Ambrose Colleges of Business and Health and Human Services are ready to better prepare students to sell.
"The introduction of new majors in sales-both business generally, and in healthcare, in particular-are in direct response to career opportunities," said William Lesch, PhD, dean of the College of Business. "It is not uncommon for the best sales graduates to receive three to four job offers."
Students seeking business sales degrees will take seven upper-level courses focused on developing skills in communication, influence- and relationship-building, sales technique and sales management, in addition to a very important capstone internship.
"There is a high experiential component because business is an applied science," Kehoe said. "We feel strongly about preparing people for their first job."
The healthcare sales degree will add to a robust health sciences curriculum at St. Ambrose and feed another fast-growing sales sector. "There is a body of knowledge related to medical and pharmaceutical sales that's based in science and a changing healthcare environment," Kehoe noted.
Kehoe said St. Ambrose is one of perhaps 100 colleges and universities that offer degrees in sales, a cutting-edge position to address changing industry needs.
"Selling is a lot more sophisticated today," he said. "The consumer has all the power because of the Internet and the democratization of information. We want to get people ready for these more sophisticated challenges."
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