Two MBA Students Intern in South Africa

Alex Kieslich and Jason Wu are interning this summer in South Africa. Alex is a 2011 graduate of the Walton MBA and Jason will graduate in 2012. To learn more, visit http://newswire.uark.edu/article.aspx?id=16374.

Internship opportunities like this is one way that Walton truly differentiates itself from the competition. MBA students have interned at Walmart, Tyson, Dannon, Hershey, Kellogg, Dial, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, just to name a few. We are very fortunate to have many corporate partners.

The Walton Career Center begins working with our MBA students prior to their arrival, assisting them with their resume so that they are prepared to begin the internship search. These opportunities contribute significantly to the excellent placement of Walton MBA students.

Application deadline for the next class to begin in January is September 15. Visit http://gsb.uark.edu/admissions.asp for a complete list of requirements. Those with a GMAT of 620+, 2 years of work experience, and a GPA of 3.2+ will be most competitive.

Check out Nhiem's blog

He is updating cycleWood's status on the competition circuit as well as in the "real world." Nhiem is concentrating all of his efforts in getting this start-up up and running.

Walton has had several successful start-ups come from the small-business plan competitions. Here are a few and their websites:

cycleWood - cyclewood.com
Silicon Solar Solutions - siliconsolarsolutions.com
BiologicsMD - biologicsmd.com
Merchant View - mvretail.com
TiFiber - tifiber.com

I had a great week off last week. This week I have been catching up on email and working on the new MBA brochure. Next week I will focus on my annual report and getting files ready for Integrated MAcc committee review. These files will go to the Department either Friday, July 8 or Monday, July 11.

Yippee for vacation

It is late Friday afternoon and I am off next week. Can you tell I am excited? One would think that things slow down in a university office during the summer and one would be wrong. We have been very busy. This summer I am working on redoing our brochures. Four to be exact. The goal is to have them done by September 1. I am not alone; my Assistant Dean, Marion, is in this mess with me.

My other "must do" this summer is to finish the MMBA class. Orientation is August 11-14. By August 5, I need 15 more students. Files are pouring in and these must be processed and taken to committee.

You may wonder what my plans are for next week. I hate to disappoint, but I am staying home, for the most part. Next Wednesday, June 22, is my 20th wedding anniversary. We are planning a big to-do. Afterwards, my kids will visit friends and family in Oklahoma while mom and dad enjoy a little alone time. I'll head over to pick them up on the 25th.

I have one more meeting today before I can officially be "off." This is a little humorous, or not depending on how you look at it, but I am never very far away or disconnected; if I didn't keep caught up with my email, I'd go stark raving mad when I got back.

I'll try to do something entertaining so that I have a great story to recount. More when I return.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth

I know it's been awhile. I had a family emergency last week and was out of the office. This time off wasn't planned and I have been playing catch up this week. It has been very busy.

We are hosting an MBA Open House this Friday, June 10th at 5:30 in 403 Willard J. Walker Hall. This is an ideal opportunity to learn more about our full and part-time MBA programs.

Applications are being accepted for the part-time MBA (MMBA) through July 31. A complete list of requirements can be found at http://gsb.uark.edu/admissions.asp. Orientation for this program is August 11-14 and it is mandatory.

Deadline for the full-time program is September 15. This program only starts in January and is three semesters long.

New Blogger

Meet our new blogger, Kellen Utecht. Kellen is from North Dakota. He has worked with Small Business Development Centers and volunteered in the Peace Corps. Kellen is now completing the dual program - MBA and MPS. For those of you who don't know what the MPS is, it is the Master of Public Service offered by the Clinton School in Little Rock. Visit them at http://www.clintonschool.uasys.edu/. The link to Kellen's blog is located on the right of this page. Be sure to follow his journey as he pursues this dual program.

Commencement was last Saturday. I have great pictures to share of the graduation party and commencement. I'll post them on Monday. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Wrapping up the semester

Finals began on Saturday and will end Friday, May 13th. Hopefully our students are not overly superstitious. The University Commencement will be held Saturday, May 14. Walton Commencement is that afternoon, at 12:30. This is a busy week for our students. The Graduate School of Business hosts a graduation party on Friday, May 13th. I enjoy these end of year festivities. The students are giddy with excitement and their families are pretty happy too.

In other news, our two teams competing in small business plan competitions this semester are featured in the May 23 issue of Fortune magazine. cycleWood finished 4th at the Rice University competition and TiFiber finished 6th. A record 510 plans were submitted this year. Forty two are then selected to compete. Two Walton teams finished in the top 6!

Walton MBA #1 in the nation

The Walton MBA is number one in the nation in placement at graduation. For the full story, visit

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/04/25/best-b-schools-for-getting-a-job/.

Pay particularly close attention to the comments at the bottom comparing our cost of living to that of New York.