This year’s field of candidates was, like the Roundtable, international in scope and participation. There were five finalists:

• The University of Auckland
• The University at Buffalo School of Management
• Fayetteville State University
• The Monterey Institute of International Studies
• Rice University

The winner, announced in January, 2013, was The University at Buffalo School of Management, for their LeaderCORE Program, which was designed to answer the educational question, “What is at the core of every great leader?”

FSU was a finalist for its Integrated Distance Learning and Online MBA program, which uses video conferencing technology and remote teaching centers to better meet the needs of the area’s significant military and health care communities. The addition of these capabilities and facilities have produced stellar results, with increased enrollment (+37%), increased student satisfaction, and decreased costs for students pursuing their MBA degrees, while maintaining quality consistent with AACSB accreditation.

“The finalists for the MBA Innovator Award were an extremely impressive group. It is enormously encouraging to see MBA schools continue to challenge the way MBA programs and curriculum are taught and reinforced with the students,” said Casey Rasata, a member of the selection committee and the global university relations manager for Eaton Corporation.

That outdoor setting was in the woods around Carver’s Fall, Fayetteville, at the facilities of Zipquest Waterfall and Treetop Adventure (zipquest.com), a training and outdoor experience created by Eason Bryan.  Zipquest offers a tree canopy zipline tour and a swing shot over an 80-foot drop.  Dr. Dent’s class participated in Zipquest’s Teamquest – Teambuilding tour, where participants are placed in a variety of outdoor situations where leadership exercises offer opportunities for personal and team-building growth.

The Alligator Pit

In this exercise, the students were required to move everyone on the team, plus their materials, from one side of the simulated “alligator pit,” to the other – of course, without being eaten by an alligator! This challenge required leadership, teamwork, and ingenuity. Several attempts were made, and the ‘alligators’ exacted their pound of flesh before a perfect solution was reached—-everyone getting to the other side.

The Trust Walk

Next, the students engaged in a “trust” walk, where the entire class had to move from one part of the woods to the other, with some individuals designated as leaders. The twist was that many of the participants were “blind” (blind-folded), while others were unable to use an arm(s) or a leg(s) or their voice.  This was no walk in the park as the terrain was rugged and filled with challenges, but with a lot of cooperation, the entire class made it to their destination, learning along the way how to lead, how to follow and how to reach a group goal—- regardless of the obstacles.

The Disc Exercise

We’ve all heard the expression of “keeping a million balls in the area simultaneously” and this exercise gave new meaning to the expression. The team was asked to go across a field covered with discs and the team had to keep each disc covered as they progressed. To simulate the changing dynamics of organizations, rules and variables were changed in the middle of the exercise. This kept all on their toes—-and taught the importance of teamwork.

The Track

The next challenge required a considerable amount of coordination as a team had to be led through the creation of a track so that a ball could roll safely from one end to the other. However, the pieces of the track were irregular in width and depth of the channel.  The incline had to be just right so the ball wouldn’t roll too fast or too slow.

After each activity, two Zipquest staff members led the students through a de-briefing exercise in which they were asked to relate their course learnings to the activities they just experienced.  Hands-on, practical learning provides another form of learning, one that often “sinks in” better than just reading about experiences in a textbook.  Moreover, the beautiful setting of Zipquest on a beautiful fall day made the experience an aesthetically beautiful one too.

A fairly recent change in teaching leadership in higher education is a movement to more practical learning. Years ago, a student would learn leadership solely by sitting behind a desk, learning a number of leadership theories, and regurgitating this learning back to the professor on a test.  Today’s best practice for leadership education is to have a developmental component, where students are challenged to consider what type of leader they presently are, require them to participate in a leadership activity, and use the leadership theories to frame their learning, allowing them to become a better leader. MGMT 605, “Leadership and Communication,” taught by Dr. Eric B. Dent, has incorporated this best practice.

Examples in the course included student leadership activities like developing employees who were subordinates of students who worked full-time as managers, improving coordination between the product lines of an electrical engineering unit, and planning for the opening of an ice cream store.
Several of the leadership projects in Dr. Dent’s course also incorporated service learning, as the following examples illustrate:
Olewukemi Olakunle (oolakunl@broncos.uncfsu.edu) took the course online from Vilsack, Germany. For her leadership activities, she organized church members into four cause-oriented teams – Support for Seniors, Help Needy Children, Collect Food and Feed the Hungry, and Provide Blankets and Clothing for the Homeless. The Support for Seniors team gave practical support to boost the independence of less privileged seniors living at home, including friendly visits to pray with and give words of comfort and homemaking assistance (which include house chores such cleaning of dishes and yards, vacuuming of carpets, running of errands etc.). The Needy Children team collected 71 books, 35 pairs of shoes, and 38 toys. The Feed the Hungry team distributed 122 cans, 79 boxes and 42 bags of food. The Help the Homeless team procurred 126 articles of clothing and 27 blankets.

Quenetta Johnson (qjohnso7@broncos.uncfsu.edu) worked to prevent childhood obesity in children between the ages of two and five in the N.C. counties of Nash and Edgecombe.

Henry McMillan (hmcmill1@broncos.uncfsu.edu) planned and established a community garden in Spring Lake, N.C.

Ingrid Meza (icmeza01@broncos.uncfsu.edu) helped undocumented students at East Montgomery High School (N.C.) apply to college and find merit-based funding based on the students’ academic achievements.

Dwan Wright (dwright8@broncos.uncfsu.edu) assembled a youth football team and coached, mentored, and influenced kids and their parents throughout a winning season.

Derek Scott (dscott@broncos.uncfsu.edu)n organized a group that set a fund-raising record for the Patriot Foundation, which provides children of fallen soldiers needed financial help while attending college.

Nikki Blue (nblue3@broncos.uncfsu.edu) helped nine other ladies to become leaders themselves in an effort to reach out to others about the dangers of tanning and excessive sunlight exposure. Each of these ladies then reached out to ten other individuals in the months of October and November.  Finally, this group raised money for the Skin Cancer Foundation.

A final example is Deneshia Patterson’s (dpatte12@broncos.uncfsu.edu) leadership project, where she worked with the Sandhill Cyclones, a local (Fayetteville, N.C. area) girls’ basketball team. Deneshia led the young girl team members in giving back to their community by uplifting and honoring the older generation who made many things possible for the generations today. Deneisha organized these young students to volunteer their time visiting the residents of Autumn Care of Raeford.

Figure 1.  The Sandhill Cyclones at Autumn Care of Raeford

These are only a few of the dozens of examples of Fayetteville State students who combined leadership education with a practical, real-world project that made the world a better place and made them better leaders.

Meena
2010 MBA, NC Community Development Initiative, Senior Program Officer

Regardless of whether you decide to get your MBA with us straight from your BA/BS or if it’s been a while since you finished undergraduate school, we can accommodate your needs. It’s not easy, and you’ll have to master the rigorous coursework, but there are all kinds of ways to get your MBA with us. Some take limited courses to see if they can manage it, some jump in with maximum loads, others flight their classes to fit their work and family obligations. But whether you wade into your MBA or jump off into the deep water, you’ll be a different person on the other side.

Stacie
Projected 2013, Senior Services/Energy Savings Coordinator, Nash County, NC

FSU’s MBA Program welcomes all students who are balancing their educational pursuits with full-time employment.

Jon
2011 MBA, Project Leader in CRO organization

Accreditation is a big deal. In fact, in NC, FSU’s MBA Program is one of only four schools in the state so honored. What does that mean? It means that the school has to pass a rigorous regimen of academic and outcomes-based requirements both for their curriculum, their academic standards within that curriculum and the professors that teach it. It means, most importantly, that your FSU MBA is worth something – both in terms of the things your learn and the court of practical application – as measured by the places where FSU graduates make careers.

Patrick
2011 MBA, US Air Force to private firm IT specialist

Learn while you’re working – whether it’s on-campus, at a satellite location or online, at home. We’ve got three off-campus sites where students can participate in real time with students on campus and the other satellite locations. Talk to professors, discuss with fellow students and interact. And if you can’t make it to class in real time, time shift to meet your schedule. All our classes are recorded and available to students at their choosing.

Chanavia
2011 MBA, 1996 BA (FSU), Non-profits to law firm

Worried about what you majored in for your undergraduate degree and how it will prepare you for getting your MBA? Don’t worry. At FSU, we’re more into how you think and how you solve problems than what you specifically know. If you can learn, we can teach you.

Anthony
2012 MBA, US Army logistics to private firm logistics

At FSU, we understand that a large portion of what students learn they learn from their classmates. And since most of our students bring considerable real-world experience with them, we tap into that resource as part of the way we teach. We have students who work in the private sector – for profit and not-for-profit, government, medicine and a large contingent from the military. We embrace the experiential diversity our students bring to the classroom and it adds immeasurably to the education you will receive here. It makes us smarter, too, and makes us better teachers.