Collaborative MBA Archives - EMU News

Collaborative MBA program graduates third cohort

Lauren Jefferson — Mon, 07 May 2018 14:26:31 +0000

Seven students in the received their degrees during the May 6 Commencement ceremonies at ��ݮ��.

Administration of the joint 22-month program, including residency weeks, rotates between four universities — EMU, Goshen (Indiana) College, Bluffton University and Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg.

For much of the program, the students participated in live video conference classes. But they came together for a face-to-face session at EMU in August 2016 and then midway through for an experiential learning trip to Costa Rica. Given their choice of locations for concluding presentations and graduation, the group decided to return to EMU, said , program director and chair of the division of business studies at Bluffton University.

A guiding principle of the program is “leadership for the common good.” The program focuses on personal formation, competency in business and economic skills, and building relationships.

One reason that Aubrey Bauman-Kreider, vice president of marketing at AMERIgreen Energy, enrolled in the Collaborative MBA program two years ago was for “the opportunity to learn with professors and classmates from across the country and the world.”

That certainly happened: Gathering together for graduation meant air travel for most of the cohort, who hail from four states — Pennsylvania, Kansas, Michigan and Minnesota — and two different countries, Brazil and Mexico.

Ruben Dyck is pastor of youth in the Blumenau Mennonite Church in Chihuahua, Mexico, where he also helps with various organizational and administrative aspects of the church. The online format fit his full-time work schedule, but he also appreciated the emphasis on leadership, common good in the global context, sustainability and the “integration of faith into business,” he said.

As many members of his congregation are businessmen, Dyck says the knowledge and skills he has acquired through the Collaborative MBA program will allow him to “better connect and provide advice” in a challenging economic environment.

Matt Lehman Weins’ final presentation linked his coursework to specific projects he developed as director of donor relations at Mennonite Mission Network.

“There was direct applicability of coursework to many challenges I face in my working environment,” he said, adding that classes allowed him to focus new skills on those challenges. Especially beneficial, Wiens said, were discussions about leadership, which included time to explore his own leadership style and the concept of servant leadership.

“I think this program teaches you how to be a better person, which can benefit you in all aspects of life, whether it’s business leadership or relationships,” said Melissa Stoner, leadership and planned gifts officer for American Friends Service Committee. “And the understanding that the concept of sustainability for an organization goes beyond environmental conception is important.”

The next cohort meets on the Goshen College campus Aug. 9–12 for the opening residency and to get started on MBA 522 Leadership & Management for the Common Good.

Graduates

Emma J. Brewster, New Buffalo, Mich.;
Jesse Aaron Aiah Johnson, Minneapolis, Minn.;
Aubrey L.B. Kreider, Lancaster, Pa.
Priscilla Magliari Saade, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Ruben Jacob Dyck Stoesz, Chihuahua, Mexico;
Melissa A. Stoner, Philadephia, Pa.;
Matthew R. Lehman Weins, Wichita, Kan.

More Commencement coverage:

Canadian Mennonite University joins as the fourth partner in the Collaborative MBA program

Lauren Jefferson — Fri, 15 May 2015 19:22:31 +0000

Strengthening a curricular emphasis on global and intercultural connectivity, a fourth partner from Canada has joined ��ݮ�� (EMU), Bluffton University and Goshen College in the (MBA) program. Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, will accept graduate students into the program this fall.

“We are delighted to partner with a business program with similar interests and motivations, especially sharing a unique perspective on how business can be successfully carried out with a value-based sensitivity and outlook that considers more than just dollars and cents,” says Gordon Zerbe, CMU academic vice president. “Future leaders, more than ever, will be expected to direct entrepreneurial spirit, but also with a heightened appreciation for social responsibility, sustainability, and stewardship.”

The Collaborative MBA is an accredited online program based on the concept of “,” emphasizing six values – spiritual growth, honoring community, leading as service, upholding justice, planning for sustainability and global citizenship.

“Leadership for the common good is a concept that pays attention to the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits,” said , program director and dean of graduate and professional studies at EMU. “The common good is established each time a person, organization or community reaches beyond individual self-interest for the sake of the greater whole.”

The addition of CMU’s faculty of business experts expands both the vision and resources of the program, Smucker added.

Students are organized in cohorts – – and move together through 12 courses that are typically completed in 22-24 months. Nine core courses are augmented by three courses directly related to one of the eight concentration areas: health care management, leadership, accounting and financial management, leading non-profits, conflict transformation, sustainable organizations and intercultural leadership.

Most courses are offered through interactive video conferencing and practical projects. Synchronous interactions delivered through video are complemented by asynchronous learning, in which students contribute and interact on their own time. A one-week international residency provides students with a global perspective and emphasizes interdependency and mutual accountability, values at the heart of today’s global economy. This approach accommodates different styles of learning, as well as demands of employment and family.

New Collaborative MBA program opens with intellectually provocative author

Steve Shenk — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:31:35 +0000

A one-week residency featuring a nationally-known author-speaker will kick off the new started by three Mennonite colleges.

The first cohort of about a dozen students will gather for their start-of-the-semester residency at in Ohio, Aug. 11-15, 2014. They will participate in an orientation to the program and take a class on “Leadership for the Common Good” with George Lehman, PhD, of Bluffton. He is the Howard Reid professor of business, chair of the business studies division and director of graduate programs in business.

Joining the class for one day will be , author of Sharing the Rock: Shaping Our Future through Leadership for the Common Good. Published in 2011, the book sums up 25 years of study on how businesses and other organizations develop leaders.

“We want the residency at the beginning of each semester to be intellectually provocative,” said , PhD, director of the Collaborative MBA and dean of the in Harrisonburg, Va. “We also want to build a strong sense of community.”

Grace’s wife panned his first book draft as too theoretical. “Talk about your personal experiences and tell more stories,” she said. So he did. “The rock” in the title refers to a place near Jerusalem that Grace encountered as a backpacking student from the United States. It is supposedly the spot where Abraham almost sacrificed his son. The rock is sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and they have fought over it for centuries.

Sharing the Rock introduces seven practices focused on advancing the common good through business, politics, government, education, health care and community service organizations. “The book teaches aspiring leaders how to choose their personal values, embrace the wisdom of the margins, craft a vision, create gracious space, claim their voice, receive hope and act with courage,” said Grace.

Grace worked for 15 years in higher education before launching the in 1991. Later he founded Common Good Works, which takes him throughout the United States for seminars on leadership development.

The Collaborative MBA offers most of its courses through interactive video conferencing and projects in which students talk with their professors, either via technology or in person. The curriculum is based on the concept of “leadership for the common good,” emphasizing six values – spirituality, community, leading as service, justice, sustainability and global citizenship.

The three sponsoring schools are Bluffton, EMU and in Indiana.

Unique Collaborative MBA program launched from platform of three Mennonite institutions

Bonnie Price Lofton — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:11:42 +0000

Business and organizational personnel who want to develop their leadership skills, enhance productivity, and increase profits while contributing to the “common good” now have the chance to enroll in an MBA program that is like no other.

Three institutions affiliated with the – in Ohio, ��ݮ�� in Virginia, and in Indiana – have joined forces to launch “” to shape “transformative leaders.”

“We’re interested in developing authentic leaders who understand that personal, business, organizational, and community existence and success are tied to the sustainability of local and global systems,” said George Lehman, director of the graduate programs in business at Bluffton.

The 36-hour program will focus on “skills in entrepreneurship, shared vision development, mutual accountability, financial integrity, continuous innovation, empowerment of people and teams, and systems thinking,” said Michelle Horning, chair of the business department at Goshen.

The program director of The Collaborative MBA is , formerly president of the and board chair of the .

For Smucker, a unique aspect of the new program is addressing “leaders’ needs for personal and spiritual growth. Almost all of the other MBA programs focus mainly on the usual topics of budgeting, strategic planning, marketing and such.”

The Collaborative MBA will cover these topics too, said Smucker, who will also continue to be graduate dean at ��ݮ��. In addition, however, “our program will have an explicit orientation toward the well-being of people, community, and planet. We will situate making profits within the context of ethical practices and contribution to the common good.”

Professors at the three partner schools possess a wide range of expertise, permitting Collaborative MBA students to choose among eight concentrations:

Leadership
Health Care Management
Accounting and Financial Management
Conflict Transformation
Sustainability
Intercultural Leadership
Self-designed

Students will move through the program in cohorts that begin with one week of residential courses at one of the three sponsoring schools and include a week of residency in an international setting, doing practice-based learning. In the other months, coursework will be partly synchronous – with distance learners joining students and professors via interactive video conferencing – and partly asynchronous, whereby students will pursue projects and interact with professors on a mutually convenient schedule.

While organizers expect to enroll a broad range of students from a variety of backgrounds, including international, Horning said “a key target student” is someone holding a full-time job in a small- to medium-sized business or organization, perhaps with family responsibilities, who needs to be able to pursue graduate studies in a flexible manner.

The curriculum is based on the concept of “leadership for the common good” which includes values of spirituality, community, leading as service, justice, sustainability, and global citizenship.

“In keeping with our Anabaptist-Christian roots,” said Lehman, “all of us involved in this program have a holistic view on how all of our decisions and actions affect other people, the community, and the world.”

Prospective students can enter the program through the doorway of any of the three sponsoring schools, Bluffton, EMU or Goshen.

For more information on The Collaborative MBA, visit .