Another Saturday almost done

Aaron Lykken, Program Manager

Ah, TMMBA Saturdays. As I begin this post I can’t help but to look longingly at the sunny weather outside my office window. The Summer quarter is now at about the half-way point and this is the 3rd of 5 Saturdays scheduled. During a typical quarter (10 weeks), students enrolled in the program attend 10 weekday evenings (6-930) and every other Saturday (8:30 AM – 4:30 PM). Today was a nice combination of Marketing and Negotiations, two very different disciplines. A lot of the students have a good time in these courses as they are very interactive. A couple examples of this is the product taste testing in Marketing (to show how advertising can create an image for the product) and in Negotiations, case/interactive scenarios where teams are assigned roles and backgrounds on simulated negotiations scenarios and they get to practice negotiating an agreement and using the tools they acquire in class. It’s always refreshing when Faculty take a different approach to teach material and I see it constantly throughout the program. The students work hard and take each of the deliverables seriously but they also have a good time as they learn together. One thing we like to remind students when they start the program, this is a different environment than the workplace where you have to worry about inter-office politics, what you say/challenge, etc. In the classroom, it’s okay to try new things, challenge each other and ideas, and think about things in a different way, that’s a big part about going back to school, so it’s wonderful to see the students engaged in the material being covered.