The unique opportunity to join the Phoenix Project, studying non-profit leadership and social entrepreneurship, gave Josey a chance to work with 4 non-profits as a consultant, gaining a deeper understanding of these organizations their needs and requirements to be successful.

Below is an essay Josey wrote recently summarizing his experiences with the Phoenix Project.  

 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” one of the more notable quotes from the famous fictional book “A tale of two cities”. Coincidently, my summer experience in Petersburg, Virginia draws multiple parallels with Charles Dickens famous novel; not only the title, since Petersburg forms part of the tri-cities of Virginia, but more profoundly in an experiential sort of way.

Working with close to thirty of the top undergraduate and graduate students from Virginia’s universities, and in collaboration with about twenty nonprofit organizations, can only be described as the “best of times “. The nonprofit leadership and social entrepreneurship training was conducted by the Phoenix Project, a nonprofit organization based in Virginia, with the goal of “preparing university students as the nations next generation of social entrepreneurs”. As I reflect over this significant part of my life I feel that mere words cannot do justice to my experience.

The economic crisis (“the worst of times”) has and continues to have a significant impact on Petersburg; the effects of the recession have dealt a hard blow in this already financially distressed city.  Fortunately there is a bright future for Petersburg, a resurrection of sorts. The BRAC expansion of Fort Lee, the new Rolls Royce plant, and the collateral benefit of such initiatives on the local economy, have provided a strategic opportunity for businesses and the nonprofit community.

I worked in a team with four nonprofits and had the fortunate opportunity to lead a team of four students. Our project was to conduct a feasibility study and develop a business plan based on the results. The nonprofit organization (name withheld for privacy reasons) was interested in starting a “for profit” business that would provide operational income for program delivery to disabled members and would also provide jobs for their members. After five weeks of intense work, the team delivered a presentation to the executive director recommending an implementation map in preparation of the business startup. Throughout the project the team was lucky to have an exceptional mentor who had years of experience in the business world.

The training offered a unique experience by providing an opportunity to integrate business skills with nonprofit work. I personally feel that this was a perfect fit matching my skills, work experience and personal objectives; developing a form of sustainable competitive advantage as I get out into the business world.

A truly successful MBA applicant is a person who is confident and sure of their plans, whatever they may be in business.  To get that sense of direction applicants need to ask themselves probing questions about their motivation in returning to school and enhancing or redirecting their career paths following their MBA studies. 

Probing Questions:

1. Where do I see myself working? (type of company, rank, industry, location)

2. Who is in XYZ position that I aspire to have, how did they get there and what can I learn from their example?

3. How does the Virginia Tech MBA connect me with this career goal?

The answers to these and other questions should give an applicant great material for their application package.  The bottomline is to ensure your success as an applicant you should have focused goals.  Ultimately the MBA application is a tool designed to help the admissions committee gain useful insight about a candidate’s abilities AND ambition that might help us all determine if candidate “A” is a good fit for our program.

Applications to the program were received from 23 countries and represented an increase of over 50 percent from the prior year with applications doubling over the past two years. Thirty-seven percent of those students were admitted with a final class of 54 students being achieved. The female to male ratio is 33% - 67% which is slightly above the national average for MBA programs. The mean age of the class is 26 and the mean GMAT score is 627. Eighty percent of the class has at least one full year of work experience with the mean years worked at 3.18. Members of the class will represent the following countries: China, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Taiwan, and the United States.  With another orientation starting, Skripak is pleased to share “We're excited to have attracted such an outstanding class, and we believe that the outlook for our program is exceptionally bright.”  

Monday / Wednesday
October 19 - November 16
6:00PM - 9:00PM
Virginia Tech Roanoke Center

To register or obtain additional information, visit http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gmat/index.html

The Virginia Tech MBA admissions team will be at the October 19 and November 16 sessions to answer any questions you may have about the VT MBA program.

At the beginning of September you will receive an email from the Financial Times asking you to complete an online questionnaire about the MBA program you studied at Virginia Tech. The data will be used to compile the Financial Times’ MBA rankings which will be published on January 25, 2010.

For a school to be ranked, the Financial Times needs at least 20 percent of the alumni from your class to respond or a minimum of 20 completed questionnaires if the class size is less than 100.

If you use a spam filter, please note that emails will be sent from Business.Education@ftmail.ft.com or mba@ft.com with the subject header “Financial Times Global MBA Survey 2010.”

The Financial Times guarantees absolutely that all personal details will be held in strictest confidence and that the email addresses will only be used for the purposes of this survey.  Please be assured that no details will be passed to third parties.

Sincerely,

Stephen Skripak

Associate Dean for Graduate Programs

According to Melanie Johnston, Associate Director for Marketing and Recruiting, visitors to mba.vt.edu will experience a website with a more vibrant design featuring web 2.0 tools and deeper content organized by audience.  “This new design will connect an expanded population of visitors with the information and resources they need while keeping the experience dynamic and fun.  We want to engage the site’s traffic, turning visitors into site ‘users’” says Johnston.

Content Deeper and More Accessible

The site is organized to provide quick and direct access to all of the resources prospective, current students and alumni want, in addition to excellent resources these audiences need such as expanded academic details for current student planning and alumni chapter contacts for alumni.

Other expanded selections include the application section which took content from 1 page on the previous design and expanded it to more than 13 separate pages organized by sub-topics related to the application process.  In this new design current and prospective students are connected to career planning tools tailored to their uniquely different needs and desire for data on career paths and placement data.  One such career planning tool for the prospective student audience details career possibilities for the each academic concentration offered in the MBA program, demonstrating the diverse career possibilities available in the Virginia Tech MBA program.

RSS feeds have also been added to the site which will help expand the availability of information on the MBA program to a larger online audience.