MBA Student Activities

The MBA Student Association (MBASA)
The MBA Student Association is a student led body whose purpose is to provide educational, social, and career advancement outlets for MBA students. Its secondary function is to act as a social body formed by MBA students of all levels and business faculty. MBASA meetings will be held twice a month, with one meeting being devoted to the MBA Roundtable with lectures given by local entrepreneurs, business people and faculty; and the other meeting being split between social gatherings and on-campus (community) service.

Study Abroad
MBA students Justin Bank and Austin Hundley are spending six months in Rennes, France participating in an MBA program with students from more than 30 different countries. They're also living in an apartment with six people from around the world. They are taking business courses, learning French, and learning about French culture.

Their study abroad experience has forever changed their views about other cultures and has made them more interested in working in a business environment that is more diverse or global. The challenge of living abroad has made them more self confident and more open to new situations It has also made them value the ability to speak other languages.

Of his experience, Austin said, “It's refreshing. It renews you. It breaks your routines and habits and forces you to change how you act, work, see things, and live.” Justin adds, “The more cultures you're exposed to, the greater empathy and awareness you have to other people and their needs."

TTU is a part of The Network of International Business Schools (NIBS), a group of business schools from around the world that have recognized that contemporary business education is incomplete without a strong international component. NIBS consists of more than 55 business schools from 18 countries. Members of NIBS allow credit transfers, place a high value on collaboration, and encourage participation in faculty and student exchanges, and joint teaching and research programs.

TVA and Heidtke Investment Challenge Courses
In 1998, the Tennessee Valley Authority distributed $100,000 each to 19 colleges and universities in its service area to invest on behalf of TVA. In 2003 the portfolio was increased to $500,000. TVA created the program from a trust fund that will be needed in 20 years to start closing nuclear power plants. TVA estimates the fund, now at $850 million, will need a 9 percent annual growth rate to reach the needed $2 billion by 2017, when TVA's first nuclear power plant is schedule to end its useful life. During the first three years, Tech students in Dr. Deryl Martin's finance class had a total return of 46 percent on investments, resulting in the second best three-year total return of the 19 institutions. During the same three year period, the S&P 500 index returned a negative three percent.

Dean Niebuhr, Dr. Martin, Mr. Heidtke, Dr. Bell, and Pat Quillen receiving the donation for the portfolio

In 2003 Buzz Heidtke, president of Nashville's Heidtke & Co., made a $100,000 donation to the College of Business to be placed in a fund made up of small and microcap value stocks to be managed by a team of 10 – 15 undergraduate and graduate students. Heidtke donated the money because he takes an interest in helping young people learn to be effective money managers. The Heidtke portfolio differs from the TVA portfolio in that it is made up of microcap value stocks, which are companies valued at less than $200 million.  

The Investment Challenge class is open to both undergraduate and graduate students interested in portfolio management. Each student is put in charge of a sector of stocks, allowing each to become an expert in 30-40 different stocks. Students research big-name companies and little-known companies. The class is also an exercise in collaboration where final investment decisions are made by consensus. If a clear consensus on an investment selection isn't reached on a vote, students shore up their choices with more research or make a new selection. Dr. Martin impresses upon students that numbers are only half the game, that a vision of what Americans will buy tomorrow is equally important.

Associates in the BusinessMedia Center

Kevin Liska and the BusinessMedia Center staff

The BusinessMedia Center, under the direction of Director Kevin Liska (MBA '87) and the Distance MBA Operations Center under the direction of Jenny Carter (MBA '95), staffed by MBA graduate assistants and other student workers. Working in the center enhances MBA student careers by providing opportunities for students to excel in using innovative business technologies to solve traditional business challenges. Graduate assistants become experts in the use and development of multimedia technology. They conduct multimedia and digital video training, develop web sites, and prepare promotional CD-ROMs for counties, state and federal agencies for use in economic development.

The BusinessMedia Center has created CD-ROM presentations to boost tourism and industry for about 25 Tennessee counties. The Distance MBA Operations Center creates the CD-ROMs used in Tennessee Tech's Distance MBA Program and the university's Admissions Office. In 2001, the Center was awarded the prestigious Academic Excellence and Quality Award from the Tennessee Board of Regents Committee on Academic Policies and Programs. The program was recognized for its leadership in combining technology, student involvement, community partnerships, and innovative educational approaches to impact economic development in Tennessee's rural counties. By working with the county governments and individual entrepreneurs in those counties, the BusinessMedia Center has been able to put emerging technologies at the disposal of rural counties and boost community economic development.

Mayberry Chair of Excellence Assistants
Each year two graduate assistants are selected to serve as Mayberry Chair of Excellence Assistants. These graduate assistants serve on the Tennessee Quality Award (TQA) Board of Examiners, prepare the Mayberry Newsletter, teach the Tennessee Quality Award process to MBA and undergraduate classes, develop and maintain web sites for the Mayberry Chair and the Tennessee Quality Award, and organize the Mayberry Board meetings.

The mission of the W.E. Mayberry Chair of Excellence is to increase awareness and enhance the development of quality and quality-related practices in business and education on a local, state, and national level. This is achieved by conducting and disseminating research, implementing quality-related projects and activities, conducting workshops for practitioners, and instructing students in undergraduate and graduate classes.   Dr. Curt W. Reimann , first director of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, serves as the chairholder.    

Rural Economic Development Conference

Speaker at Rural Development Conference

MBA students assist with the annual Rural Economic Development Conference. The state-wide conference is co-sponsored by Tennessee Tech University's College of Business Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and USDA Rural Development. The conference provides a forum for sharing best practices in rural counties, and workshops are presented that detail techniques to enrich smaller communities as well as outline ways to run a better business, build a stronger community, and promote strong leadership. The conference is attended by approximately 500 federal, state and city officials, community leaders, consultants, and businesspeople.