7 minute read
Pathway to a Bright Future
Reese Dunne gets pointers on a project from Dr. Melissa Moore.
Photo by Logan Kirkland
Pathway to a Bright Future
By Kirsten Shaw
The College of Business has introduced an elite four-year program for exceptional incoming freshmen. Acceptance is based on several factors, but the most unexpected is that they not be business majors.
The MBA Venture Pathway (MVP) program offers a unique track for students majoring in fields other than business. It is designed to meet the undergraduate prerequisite requirements needed to enter a Master of Business Administration program.
While this concept is not original to Mississippi State, Oswald – the primary architect of the program – has added a focus not seen in other programs: entrepreneurship. Through the MBA Venture Pathway, students can not only prepare for a graduate degree in business, they can also lay the groundwork to launch their own enterprises.
Sophomore Reese Dunne, a mechanical engineering major, is part of the inaugural MVP class. When he was in high school looking toward his collegiate future, he was thrilled to learn of the program. “When I was thinking about my major, I couldn’t decide between engineering and business because I’m passionate about both,” he says. “This gave me the opportunity to do both – I can study mechanical engineering but also work toward an MBA. My main goal is to have an engineering and business education, to best set myself up for the future.”
He anticipates the “venture” aspects of the MVP program may also help with an avocational interest. An avid pianist, Dunne launched a service organization in high school for fellow musicians to play for retirement home residents. He hopes to build Nonnie’s Notes – named for his grandmother – into a nonprofit and extend it to other locations.
The MVP program is a four-year track beginning in a participant’s first freshman semester. This commitment level, along with the rigor of the program, dictates that the selection process focus on students who are academically accomplished and goal-oriented.
“Many high achieving students apply to Mississippi State every year, but that’s not the only thing distinguishing ‘MVPs,’” notes Kelsey Waters, COB Assistant Director for Recruiting and Events. “MVP students also crave a creative, entrepreneurial opportunity and hope to launch themselves into ventures like administration or even starting their own companies. Since we have to be on the lookout for more than what a basic application can tell us, we request an application essay that allows the potential MVP student to tell us how they think adding an MBA to their college experience would impact their futures.”
Students learn of the program in various ways. In her recruiting travels, Waters shares it as one of many COB opportunities, and she often meets with students who may have a particular interest in MVP – many of whom have science, technology, engineering and math backgrounds. She promotes it as well at events like MSU Preview Days and Scholar Recognition Days, college fairs and students’ campus visits. Recommendations also come from MSU admissions counselors, alumni and high school teachers or counselors.
“Students are considered based on their ACT or SAT scores, their GPAs and their essays,” says Waters. “The MVP admissions committee considers every student to make sure that we welcome a diverse class with different backgrounds, different academic achievement and different future plans. The hope is that each year, this collaborative group of students will work toward innovative thinking and exciting new ventures across every discipline.”
While completion of the MVP program does not provide automatic acceptance into MSU’s MBA program – students must meet GPA requirements and achieve competitive GMAT or GRE scores – their preparation and diversity of interests will make them strong candidates who could enhance the graduate program.
MVP is now in its second year. Students take one business course each semester and may add an optional online summer branding course. During year three of MVP, participants will prep for and take the GMAT or GRE. For those with specific business ideas, the program offers optional participation in the E-Center’s VentureCatalyst TM program – a comprehensive co-curricular program for MSU students and faculty interested in starting successful investor-backed companies.
Courses are taught by some of the College’s leading faculty members. Dean Sharon Oswald will once again teach the Strategic Thinking course for second semester freshmen, and she plans to teach the leadership course in year four. This past semester, freshmen have been enrolled in the Ideation class under the instruction of Dr. Robert Moore, Professor of Marketing, and Eric Hill, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach (E-Center). Sophomores have taken Tactical and Strategic Analysis taught by Dr. Melissa Moore, Department Head for Marketing, Quantitative Analysis and Business Law. Other courses will focus on business data, accounting fundamentals, brand management, innovation law and entrepreneurial finance.
The classes were developed specifically for MVP, to provide participants the business background they will need to succeed in an MBA program, as well as meet required prerequisites. Faculty are also tailoring the courses to meet participants “where they live,” presenting business material in creative ways that the students can relate to their majors. “One thing I do in my class is bring in examples of entrepreneurial enterprises,” says Oswald. “I get out and search for cases relevant to this group of students, and we talk about what [the companies] did right or wrong. I also have them read the book Blue Ocean Strategy, which helps them learn to think outside the box.”
In their Ideation course, Management 1001, Dr. Robert Moore and Eric Hill engage students in learning a skill needed by all business professionals and particularly entrepreneurs – creative problem solving.
In September, new MVP students took a tour of the E-Center, led by Director Eric Hill.
Photo by Logan Kirkland
“In the class, we encourage students to identify problems, both big and small, and suggest solutions for these problems,” says Moore. “Throughout the semester, students keep an ‘Idea Journal,’ in which they record problems or issues and their proposed solutions. Each week during class time, we discuss the various steps in the process of moving a solution from an idea to a prototype. The class is fastpaced and interactive with lots of discussions – as one student recently commented, ‘It’s the fastest 50 minutes of the week!’ It culminates in a ‘Prototype Showcase,’ in which teams present a prototype solution to a problem they decided to solve.”
While MVP is an elite program with a serious purpose, there’s also a real sense of pleasure. In discussing the experience, students and faculty alike invariably bring up how much they are enjoying it. “What’s been fun is that they’re really engaged,” Oswald observes of the participants. “They ask a lot of questions, and they really want to learn. My favorite is when an engineering student tells me, ‘This is the class I look forward to every week.’”
“Students absolutely love this program, and the faculty does, too,” comments Renata Roberts, the MVP Advisor and a Lecturer of Management. “It gives the students variety in their studies – a break from their primary focus. They see how business works with other subjects, and it gives them a more well-rounded education.”
A connectedness develops among participants that comes from being members of a small group sharing a unique experience that spans their undergraduate careers. Bringing a range of knowledge gleaned in their major studies, they learn from one another, and while they represent a variety of fields, they find they have much in common.
“I love how this group really excelled in high school and that we have a common goal in mind – to pursue our majors along with business,” says Dunne. “Our class has a lot of engineering majors, but there are others, too, like kinesiology and communications.”
Roberts works to build camaraderie among MVP participants from the start. Early in the semester, the new students were invited to tour the E-Center then to meet their sophomore counterparts at a social. She is looking toward pairing them in a mentoring program.
“When you have a relationship with a peer who’s going through the same program and is just a little further along, it can be encouraging,” she observes.
Oswald sums up, “The primary goal is for students to get the background needed to enter the MBA program. The MBA Venture Pathway enables them to get their prerequisites done in a unique way, and if they’re interested in starting a business, we want to help with that, too.” “It’s important to have a diverse education, especially for someone like me who’s passionate about more than one area,” adds Dunne. “This can open many more doors. I’ll have a much greater breadth of options after college, and that’s exciting!”
