Dawgs on Top: The Georgia MBA

In this episode, which is a recording of a virtual event, we talk with 4 of our current MBA students who served or are serving in the US military, all second-year students: Kayla Vickers, Jason Hedrick, Mason Strain, and Allan Wiltshire. They are coming to the end of their time here in the program and had a lot to share about their experiences. Listen in to hear more about what they did before the program and what they will be doing post-MBA (and how they got there!). Kayla Vickers was serving as Clinical Director of Optometry at Fort Hood’s Carl T. Darnall Army Medical Center before joining the program. She interned in Operations with Cox Communications and after graduation, she will be posted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio as a Healthcare Administrator. Pre-MBA Jason Hedrick was an Army Aviation Officer. He interned at Bank of America and will be joining them as a Global Technology & Operations Rotational Associate after he graduates. Mason Strain served as a U.S Army Infantry Officer and his last position before joining the program was as a Platoon Leader at Arlington National Cemetery. Post-MBA, he will be working in Walmart’s Operations Leadership Development Program. Before the program, Allan Wiltshire served as a Special Operations Team Commander with the US Marine Corps. Post-MBA, he will be working for Merrill Lynch as a Wealth Management Advisor.You can learn more about the veteran experience in our program by following the Georgia MBA Veterans Club on LinkedIn. Other resources include the Student Veterans Resource Center and the Military page of our website. We are a Yellow Ribbon program and all U.S. military personnel are eligible for application fee and test score waivers. If you have suggestions for future topics, please let us know! You can always reach us at georgiamba at uga dot edu. If you want to learn more about the program, you can always visit terry.uga.edu/mba/fulltime. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. We also have a YouTube playlist and that link is in the show notes. Thank you to our producer Scott Duvall of jawavifilms. Stay safe, everyone. We look forward to hearing from you, and…GO DAWGS!

In this episode, we talk with Chad Mandala, Ph.D candidate and director of the University’s Pride Center about his work supporting queer and trans students, Pride Center history, and what the Pride Center offers today. What many people don’t know is that UGA holds an important place in gay history. Fifty years ago this November, UGA was home to the first student organization in the university system supporting gay students – The Committee on Gay Education (CGE). In the spring of 1972, they sued the institution for the right to hold a dance, the first gay dance at a southern public institution. And they won. That organization lives on today as the Pride Alliance. The Pride Center was founded in 1995 and was the first within the University system.The UGA Special Collections Library has more detailed information about CGE and GLOBES, UGA’s faculty staff LGBTQ organization, through their Making Space: Fighting for Inclusion, Building Community at UGA digital archive. You can also view a digital pop-up about the Pride Center created for it's 20th anniversary.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist or our playlist of recorded events. And lastly, a big shout out to our producer, Scott Duvall of Jawavi Films!  

In this episode, we are sharing the recording of a recent live event with 4 of our international students: Franklin Nwachukwu, MBA ’23; Priscilla Miuiane MBA ’23; Aakash Khadka, MBA ’23; and Vishakha Tiwari, MBA ’22. We had a lively and candid conversation about their experiences as students in the program. Listen in to learn more about how the curriculum prepares them for their internships, how the MBA/MSBA STEM track will prepare them for careers in the US, and what it’s like living in Athens.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist or our playlist of recorded events. And lastly, a big shout out to our producer, Scott Duvall of Jawavi Films!

In this episode, we are sharing the recording of a recent live event with 4 of our students of color and members of the Black MBA student group: Nick Collins MBA ’22; Gbenga Enoch, MBA ’22; Priscilla Miuiane MBA ’23; and Kayla Vickers MBA ’22. We had a lively and candid conversation about their experiences as students in the program and as students of color at a predominantly white institution. For more information about the history of Black students at UGA, check out this digital archive from the Special Collections Library: Making Space: Fighting for Inclusion, Building Community at UGA.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist or our playlist of recorded events. And lastly, a big shout out to our producer, Scott Duvall of Jawavi Films! 

In this episode, I am sharing the recording of a recent live event with 3 of our female students and members of the Graduate Women’s Business Association: Colleen Kelleher MBA ’22; Gayatri Belhekar, MBA ’23; and Callie Weir, MBA ’23. They were very candid in sharing about their experiences in the program to date and how they overcame the challenges they have faced so far. Listen in to hear about their journeys.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist. Produced by Jawavifilms. Kaltura playlist of our live recordings.  

Welcome back to Dawgs on Top! With Season 4, we want to broaden the scope while also focusing on a theme. Diversity is top of mind to many of us and a critical piece of any MBA program. In the Full-Time MBA program, we know we are responsible for offering the best possible experience to all of our students and we will not succeed at that unless we continually strive to expand our efforts to be more diverse, more inclusive, more equitable and better attuned to creating a welcoming environment for everyone. I named this season Perspectives for those reasons and want this season to present the stories of people who are 100% committed to protecting and expanding the diversity of life experience that matters most to them. I will be sharing some recorded live events with our students, interviewing some of our faculty at the Terry College about their research, and interviewing some more Athens leaders who have found their passion and placed a flag in their corner of the universe that they want to make better for everyone. You can always reach us at georgiamba at uga dot edu. If you want to learn more about the program, you can always visit terry.uga.edu/mba/fulltime. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We also have a YouTube playlist and that link is also I the show notes. Thanks again for joining us. Stay safe. We look forward to hearing from you, and…GO DAWGS!

In this episode, we talk with two staff members with UGA’s University Health Center: Kristin Groft, Senior Communications Coordinator, and Liana Natochy, their Alcohol and Other Drugs Education Coordinator. The UHC has about 300 staff serving the University’s 37,000 and 10,000 staff and has been serving the University for over 100 years. They provide a wide range of services and programming, from primary care to virtual yoga, all aimed at keeping the University community healthy. As you might expect, they have been a critical resource during COVID-19. Listen in and learn more about how they serve the community. And just a note about the audio quality for this episode. We did have a recording snafu, so the audio is not as good as usual, but the content is still interesting and useful so we are publishing it anyways!

In this final episode of the season, we talked with Jake Mosley, Director of Student Engagement and two second year students, Emylee Connally and Lily Waldron, about our Leadership Fellows program. Leadership development is an integral part of our MBA program, especially since students are getting an MBA to become better managers and leaders. We’ve had a leadership development program for many years now, and it has evolved over time to meet the needs of the market and our students. Like the rest of our curriculum, the leadership fellows programs offers students the flexibility to choose the academic and co-curricular activities that best fit their individual leadership journeys.View to the slides and audio together for this episode and all of our live events from this fall.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist. 

In this episode, we talked with Jiwon Park, MBA Career Training & Development Specialist, and Siddhant Agarwal, MBA Class of 2021, about what Athens, UGA and the program offer our international students. International applicants are often making the decision of where to apply and attend without the opportunity to visit the program and meet people in person. This adds additional stress and uncertainty to an important life decision. Athens is a great place to live and UGA is an impressive institution by any measure. We hope what we discuss in this episode provides a better picture of what it means to be an MBA student at the University of Georgia. Listen to the slides and audio together.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

In this episode, we talked with Jake Mosley, Director of Student Engagement and Travis Hawkins, a second year student, about our curriculum and concentration offerings and how those align with career paths. With 9 concentrations and 3 areas of focus, our students choose from a menu of required and elective courses to design their individual programs of study. This flexibility of elective offerings allows our students to mindfully customize their academic experience so that they can position themselves competitively in the job market. Program staff give students the tools to make this program what they need it to be. Our job is to curate the best possible experience for them. Faculty and staff here at Terry are dedicated to the success of our students. In particular, career management staff provide personalized support to each of our students. One size does not fit all here at Terry and we help all our students find their place in business.Listen to the slides and audio together.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.  

In this episode, we talked with Jake Mosley, Director of Student Engagement and 2 of our current students, John Davis and Alex Foye, both Class of 2021, about the applied learning opportunities in the program. Besides our Leadership Fellows and Non Profit Board Fellows programs, our students engage on real world projects with Atlanta- and Athens-area corporations, small businesses and local non-profits. In the last 3 years, they have completed about 70+ projects. In addition, students complete at least 50 hours of community service while in the program. Applied learning opportunities are an essential component of the curriculum because students apply what they have learned and gain experience that positions them competitively for internships and full-time jobs. And in some cases, they are a way our students give back to the local community. Listen to the slides and audio together.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

In this episode, our Admissions Director talked with Emily Nicholos, Associate Director of Corporate Relations and 2 of our current students, Ashlee Azziz, MBA '22, and Alex Meier, MBA '21, about how COVID has changed networking and recruiting and how the program and our students have adapted. These changes have also impacted companies and recruiters, so we are all learning as we go and we are all in this together. COVID has presented all of us with many challenges, but MBA students are designed for resiliency and adaptability. Finding new ways to put a human touch on our virtual lives is just the latest business challenge to overcome. You can also watch the slides with the audio from this episode.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

In this episode, the Admissions Director and two of our first year students, Ashlee Azziz and Luke Rabun, talk about how to prepare for the admissions interview and how similar they are to job interviews. The interview is an important step in the MBA Admissions process, and in the time of COVID, there are new things to think about and plan for. We share our experiences and pro tips on what to do and what not to do. You can also watch the slides with the audio from this episode.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

In this episode, Cara Sonnier, Associate Director of MBA Admissions, talked with 3 of our current students, Matt White, Ashlee Azziz, and Stephen Eppling, about living in Athens. Athens is consistently rated as one of the U.S.’ best college towns with great food, great music, and great people! It is only an hour from Atlanta, one of the largest business hubs in the U.S., so there is easy access to a major city and the benefits of a smaller town like lower cost of living and less traffic. Also known as the “Classic City,” Athens is unique and rich in cultural heritage but also modern, diverse, and progressive. We really have something for everyone here from our legendary music scene, amazing restaurants, thriving arts community, and plenty of parks and green space.The Athens area is also home to more than 300 non-profits, 31 private foundations, and a thriving start-up community that employs over 250 people and generates 250 million dollars in revenue annually. Several large corporations also call the Athens area home, including Carrier, Hitachi, Caterpillar, Evo-Shield, and Eaton. All of our students are expected to give back to this community by completing community service hours. They can do this in a variety of ways including sitting on the board of directors for a local nonprofit through our Non-Profit Board Fellows, by completing social impact projects through Leadership Fellows, or by working on a B-Corp certification project with a local business. In recent years, our students have logged thousands of service hours at over 80 volunteer organizations. Listen in and learn more!You can also watch the slides with the audio from this episode.Connect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

The Fall 2021 application is live, we are 4 weeks into the semester, and first year students are prepping for this week's virtual National Black MBA Association Conference and Career Fair. It's a busy time in the program and also a good time to share information about the application. In this episode, Cara Sonnier, Associate Director of MBA Admissions, and two first year students, Gbenga Enoch and Luke Rabun, join Deirdre Kane, Director of MBA Admissions, to talk about their experience so far as students, the admissions process, and how to put together a strong application. So if you are preparing your application now or thinking about starting one, listen in to hear some helpful advice!Slides: Program Overview & Application TipsConnect with Admissions by signing up for a 1-on-1 appointment, register for any of our virtual events or reach out to an MBA Ambassador directly to learn more about the student experience. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

Summer for an MBA student is synonymous with completing an internship, especially for those making career transitions. An internship is a 10-week job interview for both the student and the employer and a great opportunity to apply new skills and knowledge in a real world setting. In this episode, we talk with Emily Nicholos from Career Management and three of our second year students about their internships in marketing, finance, and private equity. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.

This podcast started at the beginning of the pandemic as an effort to bring stories about the Georgia MBA program and Athens to incoming students and prospective applicants. Then on May 25th with the murder of George Floyd, the nation added civil unrest to a horrible pandemic. This country is experiencing an imperfect storm of pain and suffering. As a program and as individuals, we often feel overwhelmed. Every day feels like stepping into a void where so much is uncertain and so much needs to change. Since we know many others are struggling with all of this as well, we invited a member of the Terry faculty who over the course of her career has unfailingly tackled the difficult issues of diversity, equity and inclusion with the words of a scholar, the humor of a stand up comedian, and the heart of a social justice warrior. Dr. Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander has been with UGA and the Terry College since 1988 and is a tenured associate professor of Employment Law & Legal Studies. During her time at Terry, she has earned more than 50 awards for teaching and service, including the 2019 Minority Services & Programs Honored Trailblazer tribute, 2017 award for UGA’s best Diversity & Inclusion program, 2016 Women’s Studies Professor of the Year and one of UGA Student Government Association’s ten Outstanding Professors of the Year, and the 2015 national $25,000 Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman award for excellence in teaching. In 2015, Dr. Bennett-Alexander delivered a TED Talk on Practical Diversity that now has over 124,000 views and she is the 2011 recipient of the University of Georgia’s highest award for diversity, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Building Bridges award.  Her website, Practical Diversity,  is a way for each of us to start doing the "heart work" needed to create real change.

This podcast started back in May when working virtually became a way of life for the MBA program staff.  In season one, we talked about football, going to South Africa, the student veterans experience, our non profit board fellows program and the support provided by our career management staff. In season two, we learned more about Athens’ creative economy, philanthropic community, and talked with some business leaders. Since August is here, it's time to get ready to go back to school! Growing up, going back to school was an exciting time. New classes, new friends, new teachers. New things to learn and do. Going back to graduate school is a more complex process. Going back to graduate school during a pandemic adds a whole other layer of complexity and difficulty. So in this episode, we're talking with two MBA program staff, Jake Mosley with student engagement and Emily Nicholos with career management, and one of second year students, Emylee Connally, who is also VP of marketing with our graduate business association, about the moving to Athens right now, re-opening plans, what to expect in the fall, and orientation. 

In this last episode of Season Two, Town & Gown, we interviewed the owners of The Rook and Pawn, Athens’ downtown gameboard café, Tim and Carrie Kelly. They came to Georgia to attend the University, loved Athens and decided to stay. The Rook and Pawn grew out of their passion for board games and has become a community hotspot. They share the challenges of running a business while juggling careers, children, and COVID-19. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist. 

Jittery Joe's Coffee opened in 1994 on Washington St. near the 40 Watt Club and was open 24 hours a day to serve everyone: students, townies, and artists. Since then, it has grown into a roaster on Barber Street and 14 locations where everyone can get their fix. It is also a community fixture and institution, lending its support to causes, events, and organizations as part of its mission. Charlie Mustard, Head Roaster Extraordinaire and one of 3 owners, has perfected his craft while growing the business. In this episode, Charlie recounts his journey in the Tasting Room next to the Roaster in between batches of coffee. Learn more about the Georgia MBA and find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot, and check out our YouTube playlist.