MBA News Bites
Stacy Blackman’s Weekly Roundup of B-School Intelligence
MBA can help women in any business — Kellogg School of Management‘s Women’s Leadership Workshop, held April 24-25, encourages women from ”˜nontraditional’ backgrounds to consider business school. “You may not want to go into finance, but understanding how decisions impact your bottom line is going to help you be successful in any business,” says Jennifer Stoltz, senior associate director of admissions at Kellogg and one of the event organizers.
Courting women and minority candidates — Business schools, traditionally a bastion for white males, are working hard to make their classrooms reflect the real world””the world employers recognize, too, U.S. News reports. Women and underrepresented minorities do not apply to business programs as often as their counterparts do, so as a result, diversity and parity efforts rely heavily on outreach.
Building leadership skills for a good cause — Twelve UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School students raised more than $33,500 in less than two days as part of a new Leadership Immersion course that tests and builds leadership skills. In this unique course, students spend an entire quarter of their second year as MBAs, working solely on their leadership skills. The money will fund a trip to Walt Disney World for six children with life-threatening medical conditions through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Stern opens new Volatility Institute — NYU Stern School of Business recently announced the launch of a new research center, the Volatility Institute. Particularly unique is the innovation of the Institute’s Volatility Lab, called Vlab for short, which measures and forecasts financial volatility and correlations in real time for a wide spectrum of assets including equities, exchange rates, commodities and bonds.
Confidence finally on the rise — According to the latest Leadership Pulse study conducted by Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D., a research professor at the USC Marshall School of Business, the confidence of global business leaders is on the rise. Says Welbourne, “The economic downturn has created a strong sense of urgency among leaders, similar to what one sees in the military when combat units exhibit greater closeness and a stronger focus when facing a formidable enemy. External threats ignite an inner drive to win.”
Babson opts for federal loan program — Babson College, ranked by U.S. News & World Report magazine this week as the number-one MBA program for entrepreneurship for the 16th year in a row, will offer its students federal loans through “Direct Lending” starting with the 2009-10 academic year. Loans will be made directly through the federal government rather than through commercial lenders. in order to assure that federal education loans will be available to every qualified student.
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