博彩平台网址大全的MBA课程 鼓励学生之间的网络关系, 但最近的八名毕业生将“社区”提升到了一个新的水平, creating a close-knit group of friends and colleagues that went well beyond the classroom. 该集团, 最终绰号为“MB8”,” assembled naturally as members got to know — and like — each other in Concordia classes.
“我不认为我能预见到这一点,爱德华·詹克说, a manager at a local 工程师ing company who enrolled in 博彩平台网址大全的MBA课程 at the same time as his now-wife, 塔拉. “到第二或第三节课时，我们开始聚集这个合成队列. 随着课程的进行, one of us would get into another group and introduce them to people we thought were cool, 在你意识到之前, MB8诞生了. After that, we were making sure to ask each other, ‘What class are you going to take next?’”
塔拉·杨克(塔拉 Janke)曾梦想有一天能拿到MBA学位, 当她的事业陷入低谷时, 艾德建议他们一起申请, 尽管他已经获得了两个学士学位和一个工程硕士学位.
“I was nervous because it had been about ten years since I was in school,” 塔拉 admits. “说实话，我进去的时候有点拖沓. 我想，‘我能做到吗? 我们会没有生命吗? 这会影响我现在的工作吗?“我不知道会发生什么.”
然后艾德和塔拉开始和同学见面，比如艾斯特·崔， 迈克尔•西蒙斯, 格雷格LeFever, 克里斯·索莫斯, 威廉和杰米·布达他们似乎立刻就和他打成一片.
的 MB8 coalescence 'happened organically, we learned immensely from each other.'
“的 relationships enhanced all our conversations and the schoolwork,威廉说。 Buda. “当我们以不同的方式从事项目时，我们相互补充. 这让我们走得更近了，互相交换想法也很有趣, 克服挫折. 我非常惊讶事情会这样发生，但我很高兴它发生了.”
克里斯·索莫斯, Excel包装总裁, 一家生产宠物和人类食品软包装的家族企业, 参加康科迪亚的项目以获得商业经验. 的 MB8 coalescence “happened organically, we learned immensely from each other,” he says. “除了课堂之外，还有很多协同作用和学习. 这真的很特别. 当你有这样的团队时，你不会被困在自己的车道上. 你被迫以不同的方式思考. 人们会说，‘你想过这个吗?’我会说，‘我绝不会想到这一点，但我喜欢它.’”
格雷格LeFever, 51, was the senior member of the unofficial cohort and gained others’ respect with his extensive entrepreneurial experience and real-world wisdom. LeFever has enjoyed careers at places as varied as Land Rover/Jaguar North America, 以及在健身和企业健康空间的初创企业. 他想要一个工商管理硕士学位，以使他的教育水平达到他的经验水平.
I did expect it to be practical and real-business-related, which is why I chose Concordia. 我喜欢那些在商界工作的教授来授课.
“MB8”在“老鹰登陆”喝咖啡
“I did expect it to be practical and real-business-related, which is why I chose Concordia,” he says. “我喜欢那些在商界工作的教授来授课. 但我不是在找新朋友. 我有事情要做. 我的东西是实际应用知识. 恋爱不是我关注的重点，也不是我的本意. 我只是想进去把我自己的事弄清楚.”
第一天，他和艾德和塔拉搭档, 很快就遇到了MB8的其他五位成员.
“It turned out to be a great group of people, a highly intelligent group,” LeFever says. “Amongst us we had the skill sets to collectively start a business — administrative, 工程师, 承包, 处理, 沟通, 等. Everybody brought something different and there was constructive dialogue and respect. 性格上的差异足以让它奏效. 这是其中一个“It因子”. 所有的东西都对齐了.”
小组中的许多人也有共同的信仰和基督教观点.
“I am a Christian, that’s another reason I wanted to go to Concordia,” says 迈克尔•西蒙斯. “我从来没有上过基督教学校. 之前, I always had my guard up about what was right and not right about what my professor just told me. 所以我真的很喜欢和志同道合的教授和学生在一起. 我们可以讨论一下.”
这个小组开始在家里开会进行项目和学习——有一次, LeFever convinced 塔拉 to stay in the program when life and work responsibilities threatened to derail her.
“工作太有挑战性了，我不知所措, 我很累，在计划我们的婚礼,塔拉说。. “You naturally hit a point where it’s really hard and you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, 所以我有了一个激动的时刻. 我正准备在课间休息时走出去，再也不回来. 爱德华抓住了格雷格，我称格雷格为MB8的教父, 一个了不起的人说, “我知道她现在会听你说的.格雷格给我打气，挽救了我的经历.”
职业重入正轨前
Jaime布达, 威廉的妻子, says they both came to Concordia determined to reset their careers and find jobs they liked. Jaime’s exhaustive-spreadsheet approach to finding an MBA program kept bringing them back to Concordia, 哪个检查了他们所有的盒子.
这群朋友真的起了作用. 每个人都知道你的名字，所以你很有动力去做这项工作.
“我们有一次奇妙的经历，”杰米说. “这群朋友真的很重要. 每个人都知道你的名字，所以你很有动力去做这项工作 so you don’t look stupid and let your group down. 这有利于谈话, the ability to get to know your classmates instead of sitting next to them and not speaking.”
“詹姆和我都是康科迪亚的忠实拥护者，”威廉说. “直到今天，我们都对它赞不绝口.”
另一个MB8成员, 以斯帖崔, 报名参加这个项目是专门为了网络, 发现了比她想要的更多的东西.
“我们都是雄心勃勃的人，”崔说. “这是一个很好的团队，可以互相鼓舞和激励.”
这也意味着互相挑战.
“比起在工作中，你更愿意在课堂上得到反馈，”埃斯特说.
的ir shared academic experience culminated in the last core class which turned out to be, 偶然发现的, 只有八个人.
“我们当时就想，‘哇，这太酷了，’”塔拉回忆道. “We had fun because we had a rapport already and were able to challenge each other without getting offended because we knew each other so well.”
杰米说，友谊促进了他们的教育.
“当你和某人成为朋友时，会有一种感觉, 你不害怕问他们问题和挑战他们, 一切都是为了学习的兴趣,她说。. “尤其是最后那堂只有我们八个人的核心课, 我们开始讨论，格雷格会说, 我们这样做, 这, 这.’威廉会说:‘为什么? 如果你想要创造这种文化，这又有什么意义呢?讨论会更深入，我们会学到更多. 这个团体的发展方式是独特而不可思议的.”
每位成员都参加了2018年12月的毕业典礼. At some point the term “MB8” was used as a joke in a group email — and the name stuck.
塔拉说:“我们当时就想，‘哦，我的天哪，这太棒了.
的 piece that struck me as amazing about Concordia was how they were able to foster 这 kind of group relationship. 我们遇到的人是这种情况下最令人敬畏的人.
Ed reflects that “the piece that struck me as amazing about Concordia was how they were able to foster 这 kind of group relationship. 我们遇到的人是这种情况下最令人敬畏的人. 这是惊人的. 这个小组分享了一些人正在上的不同课程的知识. I never 太k new venture financing, but I know concepts from it because a few of our members did. 我们汇集了[我们所学到的]元素.”
一位MB8成员甚至雇佣了另一位成员. 迈克尔•西蒙斯 was the director of finance at a pizza chain who chose to attend Concordia for the networking possibilities. 他没有想到的是，建立关系网会如此迅速. 毕业后他一直在找工作, 克里斯的软包装公司需要一位财务副总裁.
“第一个跳入我脑海的人是迈克尔，”克里斯说. “Everybody at the company loved him and now he’s been here since January, doing a great job. We work side by side and I believe he’s going to help me take the company to the next level.”
迈克尔说，他进入MBA课程是希望建立一些关系, 但“我没想到它会达到这样的深度, to where 塔拉 was giving me advice on ways to save money and still make my wedding look really nice, 和艾德谈论单板滑雪,迈克尔说. “我们相处得很好，可以互相提问. 我们让它变得有趣. 这是最重要的部分. 你在看书，参加考试，做项目. 当你和你喜欢的人一起做这件事时，它会变得很有趣.”
毕业典礼上的“MB8”
A number of MB8s have enjoyed promotions or better jobs since enrolling and graduating. 威廉得到了晋升，他认为MBA加速了他的晋升. 塔拉说，MBA改善了她的工作生活和收入.
她说:“我就是一个很好的例子，说明MBA对你的职业生涯有多大好处。. “我一毕业就更新了我的linkedin，有人就联系我了. 我几乎立刻就得到了一份工作. 他们对我的MBA学位非常感兴趣，我的薪水也大幅上涨. 我离开的时候非常兴奋，因为它打开了一扇门.”
Jaime was promoted and gained significantly greater confidence in her own abilities at work as the business development manager for a consulting firm that helps cities and counties pursue opportunities for federal partnerships.
“我不太质疑自己，”杰米说. “我觉得我有一个坚实的基础.”
甚至在毕业之前, Esther updated her Linked In information and a potential employer ran a keyword search that turned up her name.
“我命中了100%的分数，”埃斯特说. “招聘经理很高兴我参加了这个项目. 这也是他们雇用我的原因之一.”
I want our story to encourage prospective students to talk to the person next to them. 事情就是这样开始的. 和你的邻居聊聊天，多做些努力去建立联系.
Esther is now the corporate compliance manager for a high-performance plastics company that supplies to medical device and aerospace companies.
在这两年里，生活发生了很多变化. “教父”格雷格离开了他原来的公司, 继续经营自己的健康公司, 成立营利性有限责任公司, 然后把它交给了一个非营利组织——所有这些都是在CUI的项目中进行的. 艾德和塔拉订婚并结婚了. Esther, Michael and Chris also were engaged (not to each other) during or soon after the program.
今天, 这种关系通过电话继续着, 集团短信, 烧烤, 咖啡约会和聚会来庆祝婚礼和生日.
“如果我遇到了什么问题，我可以联系我的团队, 以及康考迪亚大学的教职员工, 太,威廉说。, 谁是办公座椅制造商的市场经理.
塔拉称自己是“高等教育和康考迪亚最大的倡导者”. 我无法用言语形容这段经历的美妙之处. 我得到的好处是无价的.”
超过一个学位, the MB8 members “feel how special 这 experience was for us and how special our group is,塔拉说。. “我希望我们能为其他人树立榜样, 因为它真的能帮助你完成项目. I want our story to encourage prospective students to talk to the person next to them. 事情就是这样开始的. 和你的邻居聊聊天，多做些努力去建立联系.”