Like the World Needs Another MBA…

I’m very happy to announce that after being almost five years in the works, I’m officially graduating from the University of North Dakota with my Masters of Business Administration on Friday, August 3rd.

When I first started my MBA classes back in 2002, it had been just over a year since I graduated from UND with my undergraduate degree. The thought of going back to school wasn’t all that exciting to me, but thanks to some complexities in how my employer was organized, I technically worked for NDSU. This meant I was eligible to take up to three classes per year for free from any college or university in North Dakota’s higher education system. This benefit seemed too good to pass up, so I took advantage of it as soon as possible.

A couple of years into the program, I found myself really digging my classes, and I started working harder than I ever did during my undergrad program. Suddenly, it became much more than the hoops I needed to jump through to get another degree to hang on the wall. I became genuinely interested in learning, and found myself devouring all sorts of business books in my spare time. I even took Intermediate Accounting I & II for fun — something particularly funny to me after I vowed to never again take an accounting class after finishing my intro classes back in 1999.

I actually took my last MBA class during the summer of 2005. Since then, I’ve been working on my final project, the so called Independent Study, off and on. This summer, I finally decided it was time to finish it up, and devoted several hours of research and writing time each night until I had a polished 28-page paper. I turned that in on Wednesday last week, and got my official approval on Thursday. As you can imagine, I’m ecstatic.

I absolutely loved being a student, but it’s great to have this chapter of my life wrapped up. Who knows — someday might I go back to college for another degree, but for now, I’m looking forward to spending more time with Casey and the boys, catching up on my reading, and hopefully playing lots of that Nintendo Wii I just earned myself!