The Chicago Journal

The Chicago Journal
The Chicago Journal

What a Decade of Monday Morning Flights Finally Taught One M&A Executive About Leadership and Why This Book Deserves to Be on Every Business Traveler’s Reading List

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

By: Fabiana Simmons

There is a particular kind of professional education that no MBA program is likely to offer and that much of the business book industry has overlooked: the education that accumulates when someone spends a decade watching how people behave in the specific pressure cooker of commercial air travel.

Brandon C. Blewett received that education the hard way, departing on Monday mornings and returning on Thursdays with the reliability of someone for whom the airport was often more familiar than his own kitchen. How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes is his account of what that education produced.

What stands out immediately about reading this book is how efficiently Blewett makes his comedy work. There is no long warm-up, no unnecessary preamble, and no gentle easing into the material. He opens with the specific and recognizable world of the frequent business traveler and begins making observations that are both funny and thoughtful before readers have had time to fully settle into the book.

That economy of prose, the ability to deliver insight with few wasted words, is not only a stylistic quality of the book. It is also a product of the professional environment Blewett inhabited for more than a decade, where the ability to communicate with precision and impact under time pressure often mattered.

The Six Habits of Highly Annoying Travelers are the book’s central contribution, and many readers may recognize their own airport experiences in the comic detail. But Blewett’s broader insight, the one that gives the book depth beneath its entertainment value, is that these habits are not only airport-specific phenomena.

They are human behaviors that can show up wherever people share limited resources under pressure, including many professional environments. The Gate Lice resemble people in an organization who jump queues and ignore shared norms. The overhead bin abusers resemble colleagues who take more than their fair share of organizational resources and seem surprised when this creates friction.

By naming these behaviors in their most comic form, Blewett makes them easier to identify in more serious organizational settings.

The career guidance he builds from those observations reflects the perspective of someone who has navigated both the literal turbulence of constant travel and the figurative turbulence of a demanding career in professional services and corporate development. His insights on leadership, resilience, and knowing when to pivot are concise, direct, and grounded in real-world experience.

How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes is a business book that can be useful partly because it is also enjoyable to read. Blewett has written something frequent business travelers may appreciate immediately, while career-focused professionals may find practical long after the humor lands.

If you are a frequent business traveler who has been accumulating observations about human behavior in airports for years and suspected there was something useful in all of it, How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes by Brandon C. Blewett is the book that confirms your suspicion and delivers it with more wit and more practical insight than you were probably expecting. Grab your copy on Amazon and find out what a decade of weekly travel, Million Miler status, and a sharp eye for human nature actually produces when someone finally sits down to write it all out.

The Million Miler Who Turned Lessons From 35,000 Feet Into an Entertaining Business Book

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

By: Santiago Miller

There is a specific kind of professional wisdom that only accumulates in the middle seat of a Tuesday morning flight from Chicago to Dallas, somewhere between the person in 14B who has been aggressively reclined since before takeoff and the person in 14D who is eating a tuna sandwich and has no apparent awareness that other human beings exist within a three-foot radius.

Brandon C. Blewett has spent more than a decade collecting that wisdom, departing on Mondays and returning on Thursdays with the regularity of a consulting career that eventually earned him Million Miler status with one major U.S. carrier and top-tier status with two others. How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes is the book that emerges from all of those miles, and it is both a funny business book and a practical one.

Reading this book produces a specific kind of recognition that frequent business travelers may feel almost immediately and that anyone who has spent time in a modern airport can appreciate. Blewett’s taxonomy of annoying traveler archetypes, from the Gate Lice who crowd the boarding area long before their zone is called to the overhead bin abusers who seem to believe the laws of physics do not apply to their rolling luggage, is sharply observed and often funny in the way things are funny when they feel true.

Readers may recognize each archetype and immediately connect it to specific faces from their own travel history, which is part of what makes the book feel grounded in close observation.

But the book’s broader achievement, beyond the comic surface, is what Blewett does with those archetypes. The Six Habits of Highly Annoying Travelers are not only a catalogue of airport grievances. They become a mirror for behaviors that can also show up in professional environments, including entitlement, disrespect for shared resources, and the tendency to treat every situation as a competition for personal advantage.

Blewett makes those connections with a light touch that keeps the book feeling engaging rather than preachy. The result is career guidance that may stick because it arrives through humor rather than through another formal framework about leadership competencies.

The reflective questions woven through the book give readers a way to apply each observation to their own professional situation rather than simply enjoying the anecdotes and moving on. The practical career strategies on leadership, resilience, and knowing when to pivot reflect the insight of someone who has spent more than a decade navigating both literal and figurative turbulence in professional services and corporate development.

How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes is a carry-on book that frequent business travelers may appreciate and a career guide that professionals interested in workplace behavior, leadership, and organizational dynamics may find useful. Blewett has written something that stands out in business literature: a book that can make readers laugh while also encouraging them to think more carefully about their own professional behavior.

If you have ever sat in a boarding gate watching the Gate Lice crowd the jetway and thought there had to be a book that makes sense of all of this, How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes by Brandon C. Blewett is exactly that book, and it is funnier and more useful than you are expecting. Grab your copy on Amazon today and discover what a decade of Monday morning flights and Million Miler status finally taught one M&A executive about leadership, resilience, and the surprisingly deep connection between airport behavior and professional success.

Caroline Taylor Has Been One of Crime Fiction’s Quiet Secrets and Bad Girl Is the Book That Should Change That

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

By: Sandra Williams

Caroline Taylor has spent more than a decade writing crime fiction that earns multiple International Firebird Book awards, builds a devoted readership among the members of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and somehow manages to remain less widely known than the quality of her work has always deserved. Bad Girl, her thirteenth novel and perhaps her most immediately gripping, feels like the book that changes that equation, a thriller so efficiently constructed and so morally interesting that it is difficult to imagine a serious crime fiction reader encountering it and not immediately looking for everything else Taylor has written.

The setup is one of those situations that sounds deceptively simple until you start following its implications. Gaby is a woman with a complicated past who, along with a man named Tony, once helped a Pakistani woman named Qudrah escape from an arranged marriage. Now dangerous men have come looking for Gaby, believing she knows where Qudrah is hiding. But the only person who knows where Gaby herself has been living is Tony, and Tony is the person who betrayed her. To protect herself and the people Tony has been exploiting, including Qudrah and other recent immigrants lured by his promises of a better life in America, Gaby is going to have to confront him directly and use every skill her particular biography has given her. That biography includes time on the streets of Baltimore, and those streets were not a gentle teacher.

What Taylor does with that setup is where her craft as a crime writer becomes most visible. She is not interested in making Gaby sympathetic in the conventional sense of the word. She is interested in making her comprehensible, in giving readers access to the specific logic of someone who has learned to navigate the world from its underside and who brings to a dangerous situation a practical intelligence that more conventionally successful people would not have developed and would not be able to access. That intelligence is what makes Gaby so compelling to follow through the book’s increasingly tense and increasingly morally charged second half.

The book’s treatment of human trafficking and immigrant exploitation gives it a contemporary resonance and a moral seriousness that distinguishes it from thrillers content to use social issues as atmospheric backdrop rather than genuine narrative substance. Taylor is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and that engagement with the crime fiction community shows in how seriously she takes the responsibility to render these dynamics with accuracy and with the appropriate weight. The villains in Bad Girl are villainous not through cartoon excess but through the specific and recognizable mechanism of ordinary greed and ordinary cruelty operating inside systems that make exploitation easy and accountability elusive.

Taylor has written something that is both a genuinely exciting thriller and a quietly serious book about survival, exploitation, loyalty, and what it costs to finally stop running and turn around to face the thing that has been chasing you. For anyone looking to discover one of crime fiction’s most consistently excellent voices, this is exactly where to start.

If you love crime fiction that takes its moral landscape as seriously as its plot mechanics and gives you a protagonist you will still be thinking about days after you finish the last page, Bad Girl by Caroline Taylor is waiting for you on Amazon. Pick up your copy today and discover the writer that serious crime fiction readers have been quietly recommending to each other for years and that this book will finally introduce to the audience she has always deserved.

Pharmabest.ca, Growth and Professional Operations of an Independent Pharmacy Network in Ontario

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

Community pharmacies in Canada have evolved over the past decade to address both traditional prescription needs and broader public health challenges. These establishments increasingly serve as access points for chronic disease management, vaccinations, and mental health support, reflecting a shift toward integrated healthcare delivery. According to the Canadian Pharmacists Association, there were over 8,400 community pharmacies across the country in 2022, with Ontario alone accounting for roughly 2,500 of these locations. This growth in the sector has been accompanied by increasing demands for services beyond dispensing medications, including online prescription refills, harm reduction programs, and addiction treatment support. Within this context, networks of independently owned pharmacies have sought to expand their operations while maintaining local engagement with patients and communities.

Pharmabest.ca operates at this juncture of conventional pharmacy services and other healthcare requirements in the province of Ontario. Over the past decade, community pharmacies in Canada began transforming from just dispensing medications for consumers to connecting them with care for chronic conditions, immunizations, and counseling for mental healthcare, aiming for a more comprehensive model of healthcare delivery. In 2022, over 8,400 community pharmacies existed in Canada, with 2,500 of those found in Ontario. This rapid expansion also raises a series of demands for other healthcare needs, including electronic refilling, harm-reduction strategies, and support for those with addictions, in an independent expansion without sacrificing the local community perspective.

The company was founded by Joseph Saad, a pharmacy owner with a BSc in Pharmacy from Cairo University, who later pursued a course in International Pharmacy Graduates at the University of Toronto. Saad relocated to Canada in 2011, where he utilized his knowledge to establish a network of independent pharmacies. Operating in 2025, Pharmabest.ca started from one store but has now expanded to ten different pharmacy stores that are situated in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, and Orillia.

Pharmabest.ca runs as a chain of independently owned pharmacies that remain independent and localized while benefiting from centralized support in management, training, and coordinating various health services. Every pharmacy site also networks with medical facilities and physicians in providing patient care for chronic diseases, as well as patient consultations, that merge healthcare and pharmacy services in order to reach those who lack access to conventional healthcare.

Core services offered include dispensing, over-the-counter medications, and medication therapy management. The network also provides services for opioid use disorder, harm reduction, as well as strategies such as blister packaging for compliance. Online refill and home delivery of medications expands access, particularly for seniors with mobility issues, as well as in areas with low access. Immunizations, as well as health screening, are also offered. This aligns with broader community public health objectives in the province of Ontario.

Pharmabest.ca has expanded to other locations, including Health Care Mart Pharmacy (Toronto), Bloordale Pharmacy (Toronto), Sheppard Medical Pharmacy (North York), Abell Pharmacy (Toronto), Birchcliff Pharmacy (Scarborough), Wellington Pharmacy (Hamilton), Orillia Downtown Pharmacy (Orillia), and Apex Pharmacy (North York), between 2021 and 2025. This reflects a plan to cover different communities in Ontario with a consistent standard of care, including those in metropolitan and suburban areas.

The company has received a number of awards for its professional endeavors. In 2024, it received Small Business of the Year (Up to 10 Employees) in the CanadianSME Business Awards, organized by Google and RBC, for its innovation in business operations, availability of health care, and development after the pandemic. The company has also received the Gold Stevie Award in the International Business Awards and the Global Recognition Award in 2024, which recognize its authenticity in the healthcare and business sectors.

The Pharmabest.ca administration involves professional support and management. The administration of this organization is headed by founder Joseph Saad, who remains in charge with the professional backing of his wife, Germine Matta. Other key administration members are Ashish Hadvani, Director of Business Development and Sales Optimization, and several pharmacy and operations partners who run various outlets.

Digital healthcare services are integrated into this practice, as telemedicine and online prescription refilling make it easy for patients to access pharmacists and healthcare teams remotely. This underscores the growing trend in Canadian community pharmacy of providing care that is accessible and convenient.

Pharmabest.ca further pursues community healthcare aims in their opioid use disorder support, harm reduction, and chronic illness management education. With their integration with healthcare clinics, pharmacists can now work in partnership with physicians for both acute and chronic care, in line with contemporary strategies for using community pharmacies as a point of access in a comprehensive healthcare system. To date, in 2025, in Ontario, a ten-site network operates with further expansion in development. The focus remains on providing independent professional service with emphasis upon standardization rather than upon marketing.

In a nutshell, Pharmabest.ca represents a case study in how independent pharmacies in the province of Ontario are growing, including professional development, expanding services, and further integration of their practices with all of healthcare. Joseph Saad’s pharmacy group has reached ten sites, providing all manner of pharmacy care, including prescription dispensing and opioid use disorder management, as well as telehealth access. Recent honors, such as Small Business of the Year in 2024, as well as Gold Stevie and Global Recognition Awards, support their inclusion. Their model of shared care, in conjunction with telehealth, offers a lot in shaping how community pharmacies in Canada are developing.

Connor Bedard Signs $75 Million Blackhawks Extension, Lobbies for Patrick Kane Reunion

The Chicago Journal Staff 2 on July 23, 2026

Connor Bedard has committed to the Chicago Blackhawks through 2031 on a five-year, $75 million contract extension, and he used his first media appearance since left shoulder surgery to make a direct pitch for Patrick Kane to return to the franchise. The deal carries a $15 million average annual value, making Bedard the NHL’s third-highest-paid player behind Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson ($18 million) and Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov ($17 million).

Key Takeaways

  • Connor Bedard signed a five-year, $75 million extension with the Chicago Blackhawks, locking him in through the 2030-31 season at $15 million AAV.
  • Bedard publicly lobbied for Patrick Kane to return to Chicago during his first media availability since shoulder surgery on July 8.
  • Patrick Kane, 37, is reportedly choosing between the Blackhawks and the Buffalo Sabres for the 2026-27 season.
  • Bedard posted career highs of 30 goals, 45 assists, and 75 points in 69 games in 2025-26 but will miss the start of next season recovering from surgery.

What Does Connor Bedard’s New Contract Mean for the Blackhawks’ Rebuild?

The Chicago Blackhawks announced the extension on Saturday, July 18 — one day after Bedard turned 21. General manager Kyle Davidson framed it as a validation of Bedard’s rapid ascent from No. 1 overall pick in 2023 to the franchise’s undeniable centerpiece. Bedard posted career highs across the board during the 2025-26 season: 30 goals, 45 assists, and 75 points in 69 games. He led all Chicago Blackhawks skaters in assists, points, and game-winning goals (five) while finishing second on the club in goals, according to the Chicago Blackhawks’ official release.

Bedard became just the third Chicago Blackhawks player to record a 30-goal season at age 20 or younger, joining Jonathan Toews (34 goals in 2008-09) and Eric Daze (30 in 1995-96). He also reached the 200-career-point milestone on April 6 against San Jose, becoming the first player in Chicago Blackhawks history to hit that mark at age 20 or younger and just the 13th player in NHL history to do so. His 203 career points (75 goals, 128 assists) across 219 games make the extension look less like a gamble on potential and more like a payment for production already delivered.

The contract will run through the 2030-31 season, after which Bedard will become an unrestricted free agent at just 25. That timeline matters for the Chicago Blackhawks’ front office. It gives Davidson a defined window — five years — to surround Bedard with enough talent to make the franchise relevant again after a 29-39-14 record in 2025-26.

Why Is Connor Bedard Recruiting Patrick Kane?

On Monday, July 20, Bedard addressed reporters via Zoom in his first media availability since undergoing left shoulder surgery on July 8. The conversation covered his recovery timeline, the weight of the new contract, and the Chicago Blackhawks’ ambitions for the coming season. But the moment that drew attention was his response when asked about Hall of Famer Chris Chelios’ recent comments on 670 The Score, where Chelios stated that Patrick Kane has narrowed his free-agent decision to two teams: the Chicago Blackhawks and his hometown Buffalo Sabres.

Bedard did not hedge. As Chicago Hockey Now reported, Bedard said he hopes Kane returns and that every member of the organization would welcome the three-time Stanley Cup champion. Bedard added that Kane’s presence would strengthen the Chicago Blackhawks not only as a playmaker but as a leadership figure for a young locker room. He was direct in acknowledging that bringing Kane back would make Chicago a notably stronger team.

The pitch was not purely sentimental. Bedard led the Chicago Blackhawks with 75 points last season, finishing 17 points ahead of the next-closest teammate, Tyler Bertuzzi. Patrick Kane, despite turning 37 in November, posted 16 goals and 41 assists in 67 games for the Detroit Red Wings in 2025-26. His playmaking vision and power-play instincts could fill a gap on a Chicago Blackhawks roster that ranked 30th in team offense last season. And with Bedard likely sidelined until November due to shoulder rehab, Kane could anchor the top line during the early weeks of the 2026-27 season.

What Is Connor Bedard’s Shoulder Recovery Timeline?

Bedard sustained the shoulder injury during an offseason training session on July 2 and underwent surgery six days later. The official recovery timeline is approximately four months, which would project a return sometime in November and potentially cost the Chicago Blackhawks’ franchise center roughly a dozen games. Bedard expressed optimism about beating that timeline but acknowledged the uncertainty. He described his daily focus as doing “everything I can day-to-day” to accelerate the process.

The shoulder concern is not entirely new. Bedard missed 12 games during the 2025-26 season with an upper-body injury, raising questions about durability that his otherwise dominant statistical output has so far overshadowed. For a player earning $15 million annually, sustained health will be as important as sustained production.

What Would a Patrick Kane Return Mean for the 2026-27 Chicago Blackhawks?

Patrick Kane spent 16 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks (2007-2023), winning three Stanley Cups and earning one Hart Trophy. The franchise traded Kane to the New York Rangers in February 2023 as part of its rebuild — the same rebuild that produced the No. 1 overall pick used to select Bedard months later. Kane then spent three seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.

A reunion would carry unmistakable emotional weight. Bedard himself acknowledged that Kane’s first game back at the United Center would be a significant moment for the franchise and its fans. But the case rests on more than nostalgia. Kane’s 57 points in 67 games last season demonstrated that he remains a productive offensive player. Slotting him alongside or near Bedard — once both are healthy — would give the Chicago Blackhawks a top-six combination that did not exist on last season’s roster. Kane’s contract would need to fit within Chicago’s cap structure, but a short-term deal aligned with the team’s competitive window could serve both sides.

The Chicago Blackhawks have made their intentions for 2026-27 clear. Bedard stated plainly that the team’s goal is to be a playoff contender. Whether Kane chooses Chicago or Buffalo, the fact that the franchise’s 21-year-old cornerstone is publicly campaigning for reinforcements signals that the rebuild phase, in Bedard’s mind, is over.

 

FAQs

How much is Connor Bedard’s new contract worth?

Connor Bedard signed a five-year, $75 million contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks. The deal carries a $15 million average annual value and runs through the 2030-31 season, making Bedard the NHL’s third-highest-paid player behind Leo Carlsson ($18 million) and Kirill Kaprizov ($17 million).

When will Connor Bedard return from shoulder surgery?

Connor Bedard underwent left shoulder surgery on July 8, 2026, with an official recovery timeline of approximately four months. That projects a return sometime in November 2026, meaning Bedard will likely miss roughly a dozen games at the start of the 2026-27 NHL season.

Will Patrick Kane return to the Chicago Blackhawks?

Patrick Kane is an unrestricted free agent reportedly deciding between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Buffalo Sabres. Hall of Famer Chris Chelios stated on 670 The Score that Kane has narrowed his list to those two teams. No decision has been announced as of July 22, 2026.

What were Connor Bedard’s stats in 2025-26?

Connor Bedard posted career highs of 30 goals, 45 assists, and 75 points in 69 games during the 2025-26 season. He led all Chicago Blackhawks skaters in assists, points, and game-winning goals. Bedard has totaled 203 points (75 goals, 128 assists) in 219 career NHL games.

Twenty-One Voices From Across the Globe Explore the Question: What Am I Really Here For?

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

By: Irene Yang

There is a question that sits at the center of most serious human lives, surfacing during the quiet moments that busy schedules are partly designed to prevent, arriving most persistently during the transitions and disruptions and unexpected reversals that strip away the comfortable routines and force a more honest reckoning with how time is actually being spent. What am I really here for? Wings of Purpose is the book that M. Teresa Lawrence, accomplished attorney, publisher, educator, entrepreneur, and President and Executive Director of The Trueness Project, has assembled to help readers not just ask that question but begin genuinely answering it, through the lived experience of twenty-one visionary contributors from across the globe who have each faced that question themselves and found their way through to the kind of clarity that changes everything.

Reading this book produces a quality of accumulated inspiration that is qualitatively different from the kind that individual motivational resources typically generate. Each chapter is the story of a real person navigating a real version of the universal human challenge of finding and living one’s purpose, and the diversity of those people, their backgrounds, their industries, their cultures, their specific stumbling blocks and specific breakthroughs, gives the book a range and a richness that no single author’s story could have produced. A filmmaker who discovered that healing could travel through a camera lens. A South African entrepreneur who chose integrity over self-preservation and walked straight into the fire. Leaders and healers and coaches and changemakers who have each found their way to the same essential truth from completely different directions. That variety of approach to a shared destination is one of the book’s most significant and most moving qualities.

What M. Teresa Lawrence has achieved in curating this anthology goes well beyond the selection of compelling contributors. She has organized their stories into a coherent journey that moves the reader from the question of purpose to the practice of it, from the initial courage required to ask what you are really here for to the specific and actionable understandings of how vision and intention actually work as forces for transformation in a real life under real conditions. The contributors were selected not to instruct the reader but to help them identify, to recognize their own experience in someone else’s story, and to find through that recognition the specific insights and the specific courage they need to move forward on their own path.

The Trueness Project’s mission, empowering individuals and communities to discover their inner truth and live with authenticity, integrity, and purpose, is present on every page of the anthology in the quality of honesty and vulnerability the contributors bring to their chapters. These are not polished success stories with the difficulty edited out. They are genuine accounts of what it actually costs and what it actually produces to live in alignment with your deepest values and your most authentic sense of who you are and what you are here to do. That honesty is what makes them genuinely useful rather than merely inspiring.

Wings of Purpose is a book that gives readers both the permission and the practical framework to take the question of their own purpose seriously, which turns out to be both more generous and more transformative than most books in this space manage to be. With ninety-five percent of proceeds benefiting The Trueness Project, it is also an act of genuine purpose in itself.

If you have been carrying the question of what you are really here for without quite finding the courage or the clarity to begin answering it, Wings of Purpose by M. Teresa Lawrence and her twenty-one co-authors is the book that finally makes both the courage and the clarity available to you. Grab your copy on Amazon today and step into a conversation that has the power to change everything about how you understand your own life and what you are building with it.

What Happens When Twenty-One People From Across the Globe Decide to Tell the Complete Truth About How They Found Their Purpose

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

By: Mary Woolf

The most valuable thing that Wings of Purpose offers its readers is not a framework for finding purpose, though the framework is there, and not a collection of inspiring success stories, though those are there too. The most valuable thing it offers is the specific and durable quality of genuine human testimony, the accounts of real people who have sat with the question of what they are really here for long enough to find a genuine answer and who have chosen to share that experience with a level of honesty and vulnerability that makes the account actually useful rather than simply motivating.

M. Teresa Lawrence assembled these twenty-one contributors with the specific intention of helping readers identify with their stories rather than simply admire them, and that distinction in curatorial intent produces a collection that reads very differently from the standard anthology of expert perspectives. The filmmaker who discovered healing through a camera lens is not presenting herself as someone who always knew what she was here for. She is describing a discovery made from a place of considerable difficulty, and the specificity of that difficulty is what makes the discovery meaningful rather than formulaic. The South African entrepreneur who walked into the fire by choosing integrity over self-preservation is not presenting himself as someone for whom virtue came without cost. He is describing what it actually feels like to make that choice and what it actually produces in a real life with real stakes.

That quality of specific honesty, replicated across twenty-one chapters from twenty-one genuinely different people navigating genuinely different versions of the same essential human challenge, accumulates into something considerably more powerful than any single story could have generated. You find yourself reading chapter after chapter not because the material is uniformly relevant to your own specific situation but because the human truth underneath the specific stories is universal enough to keep producing moments of genuine recognition across the full range of contributors.

The Trueness Project’s mission of empowering individuals and communities to discover their inner truth and live with authenticity, integrity, and purpose gives the anthology a foundation that holds all of these diverse stories together without flattening them. Lawrence has found contributors who share a commitment to that mission while approaching it from genuinely different directions, and the result is a book that feels both unified and genuinely diverse in the best possible sense of both words.

Wings of Purpose is an anthology that takes its readers seriously, offers them genuine honesty rather than comfortable inspiration, and trusts them to find in that honesty the specific courage and the specific clarity they need for their own particular version of the journey it describes.

If genuine human testimony about the actual experience of living purposefully sounds more useful to you than abstract frameworks about what purpose is supposed to feel like, Wings of Purpose by M. Teresa Lawrence is the anthology that delivers exactly that kind of testimony from twenty-one contributors who chose honesty over polish and specificity over inspiration. Grab your copy on Amazon today and find in their complete truth the specific courage and clarity you need for your own journey.

Amberton University Fills a Critical Gap in Dealership and Aftermarket Education with New Dealership Management & Operations Certificate

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 23, 2026

By: Jade Robinson

The retail dealership sector drives billions in revenue annually and offers a range of executive career paths. Yet structured academic training for this specific industry remains incredibly rare. Amberton University has launched new undergraduate and graduate certificates to solve this exact problem. The Dealership Management and Operations Certificate provides specialized leadership preparation. It targets professionals in automotive, powersports, recreational vehicles, marine, and farm implement sectors.

Many employees enter the retail auto business through sales positions or technical roles. However, moving up to executive roles requires an operational view of the entire enterprise. General business degrees often miss the specific functions of retail dealerships. This new certificate bridges that educational gap directly. It prepares working adults to pursue professional advancement.

Breaking Down Industry Silos

Automotive and recreational dealerships are unique corporate environments. A single dealership actually contains multiple distinct business segments working under one roof. These segments include new sales, used sales, financing, parts, and service operations. Managers frequently remain isolated inside their specific departments. They understand their own tasks well but miss the broader financial picture.

Dr. Cathy Scott authored and leads the new certificate program at Amberton University. She brings 25 years of hands-on automotive industry experience to the classroom. Dr. Scott notes that dealership roles can offer strong professional growth. However, professionals must look past their single departments to grow.

Dr. Scott states that the program helps employees “look at the dealership from a bigger perspective” rather than remaining departmentalized. Sales managers frequently want to become general managers. Technical specialists often want to move into service director positions. Technicians also find that physical labor becomes difficult over time. Their bodies tell them they cannot continue heavy mechanical labor forever. They need a clean professional path to stay inside their chosen industry. This program provides that specific structural pathway.

Independent used vehicle dealers can also gain a better business perspective through this training. The curriculum helps them run their small businesses more efficiently and effectively. The program fits well with applied technical degrees. For example, local community colleges offer specialized programs for technical professionals. These include recreational vehicle technician and diesel technician paths. Technical graduates can use the Amberton certificate to advance into franchise dealership management teams.

Curriculum Aligned with Real-World Demands

The program consists of four specialized courses totaling 12 credit hours. The curriculum focuses strictly on practical industry applications rather than abstract academic theories. Students complete targeted courses that mirror daily operational realities. They solve actual business problems in a safe classroom environment.

The required curriculum includes three foundational management blocks:

● Dealership Management and Marketing: This block covers vehicle sales, fleet programs, and finance operations. It integrates modern tools like artificial intelligence for lead management and inventory control.

● Dealership Service, Parts, and Body Shop Management: This block emphasizes profitable fixed operations. Students study warranty procedures, retail strategies, and wholesale methods. Safety compliance and profit optimization remain central themes.

● Dealership Legal and Regulatory Compliance: This course covers state and federal laws. It emphasizes consumer protection regulations and ethical sales practices. It prepares students directly for professional industry credentialing.

Modern technology forms a major part of the curriculum. Dealerships increasingly rely on data analytics to manage large inventories. Amberton integrates these digital competencies directly into the management training courses. Students learn to use modern analytical tools to improve daily corporate performance.

Preparing for Professional Credentialing

Regulatory compliance is a constant concern for retail dealership owners. Errors in the finance and insurance office can cause serious legal liabilities. Therefore, dealership groups prioritize certified professionals who understand state and federal regulations.

The Amberton certificate is fully aligned with the standards of the Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals (AFIP), the recognized industry benchmark for ethical practices in retail automotive finance and insurance. Students complete the compliance coursework as part of their studies. They are fully prepared to sit for the official AFIP exam upon completion.

Dr. Scott emphasizes that legal knowledge protects the entire business organization. Even general executives who do not work in finance need this specialized regulatory education. They must supervise staff members who handle consumer transactions daily. Lenders and manufacturers also benefit when dealership employees maintain these high professional standards. This specialized training builds long-term institutional security.

Built for the Realities of the Workforce

Working adults face major scheduling barriers when returning to higher education. Dealership operations demand long hours outside the typical office schedule. Traditional night classes or rigid campus schedules do not work for these busy professionals.

Dr. Scott understands these scheduling challenges well from her extensive professional background. She points out that dealership roles are rarely standard daytime jobs. Dr. Scott notes that “the dealership business… is not an eight-to-five job”. Therefore, it is hard for these professionals to adhere to a traditional college campus schedule.

To solve this operational issue, Amberton delivers the entire certificate 100% online. The virtual learning platform remains active twenty-four hours a day. Students from any state can access their assignments at any time. This structure offers total educational freedom for non-traditional learners. They can continue working full-time while earning a valuable corporate credential.

An Affordable, Stackable Academic Journey

Amberton University focuses heavily on providing affordable higher education. The university charges a transparent tuition rate of $325 per credit hour. The total tuition cost for the certificate is $3,900. This financial model allows working adults to avoid heavy student loan debt.

The university has also kept tuition rates steady, with no increases for the 2026/2027 academic year. This initiative helps students budget their education predictably. The certificate also serves as a stackable pathway toward larger degrees.

Students can apply their earned credits in several ways:

● Undergraduate Degree Progress: Undergraduate students can apply the 12 credits toward a bachelor’s degree. These degrees include the Bachelor of Business Administration or the Bachelor of Science in Applied Studies.

● Graduate Degree Progress: Graduate students can use the earned hours directly inside a master’s degree program. Two examples of eligible degrees include the Master of Business Administration in Management or Strategic Leadership.

This flexible academic structure matches Amberton’s historic mission. The university is currently celebrating its 55th year of serving working professionals. While other institutions are cutting budgets, Amberton continues to expand its practical curriculum. The school is also upgrading its campus infrastructure to better support its student community.

The new Dealership Management and Operations Certificate provides immediate value to the modern workforce. It gives professionals the specific skills they need to lead successful businesses.

About Amberton University

Founded in 1971, Amberton University specializes in affordable, flexible degree programs for working adults. Programs are offered online and on campus, taught by practitioner-faculty, and anchored in career relevance and service excellence.