Seth Myers is interviewed at KRUI. A.J. Honore, Tippie MBA student, blogger and KRUI general manager, is on far left.
At the Tippie School of Management, opportunities for hungry young M.B.A. candidates abound with regard to potential leadership roles. Net Impact, the M.B.A.A., and Academy groups, along with other organizations, are ready for leaders and cater exclusively to the Tippie M.B.A. community of full-time students. These are not the only student organizations one can be a part of, however.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am lucky enough to serve as the General Manager of KRUI-FM, the student-run radio station here on the beautiful University of Iowa campus. And while I certainly didn’t have that in mind when I applied to Tippie, it has been one of the more fulfilling parts of my overall experience here at Iowa. Having done similar work in my undergraduate days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Go Badgers!), as well as working in media during my tenure in New York City, it was a (mostly) smooth transition. Leading the second largest student organization on campus is not without its challenges, but this is where being an M.B.A. candidate comes in particularly handy.
The majority of the lessons taught in class, whether they be communicated in the “Leadership” module of LEAP, Strategic Management of Change, Operations Management, and so on and so forth, are readily applicable to a student organization. (It also helps to be calling the shots in the student org, but this probably goes without saying.)
Applying these lessons in a volunteer context is altogether very exciting and this variety of experience will no doubt serve student leaders well as they transition to employee/employer relationships. And while all of the academies at Tippie offer leadership guidance, it is my personal opinion that the Strategic Innovation academy is particularly well suited to the needs of a manager of a volunteer organization, whether here at the University of Iowa or in the Great Beyond. (But then again, I am probably biased on this account.)
I would highly encourage anyone interested in pursing an M.B.A. at Iowa to look into the myriad student orgs, the vast majority of which are open to graduate and undergraduate students alike. KRUI would love to have you, of that much I can be certain.
Editor’s note: We contemplated deleting the “Go Badgers” comment, but in the interest of free speech, refrained.
