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From left to right: Jesús Salinas (Latin MBAA VP for Finance), Alejandra de Caso (MBAA VP for Marketing and Out at Kelley President),
Cesar Sanchez (Latin MBAA President), and Miguel Cruz (Kelley Soccer Club President and Latin MBAA VP for Communications) |
By Miguel A. Cruz, MBA’17
Leadership is the power of an individual to guide, advise, and influence others and it is one of the most important skills that is expected from an MBA student and graduate.
In the Kelley School of Business, you are challenged to find your style of leadership and develop your leadership capabilities right from the beginning. For Latino students, the Institute for Global Organizational Effectiveness (IGOE) Fellowship is an enabler that allows us to fulfill our goals and experience great leadership opportunities.
One of the first things students encounter during the MBA program is Me Inc., where you not only start building your personal brand but also test your leadership ability by learning how to influence your team during the Core.
During the beginning of the second semester, students also participate in a great challenge, the Academy Projects. This is a team-based consulting project for real companies and real situations that help students understand what a summer internship project looks like. In this opportunity, students not only face the challenge of coming up with a solution to a real-world problem but are also paired with other first years in different stages of their internship search. At this point, students are familiarized with their group work responsibilities and know that they are accountable to their peers and projects.
Also in the first seven weeks of the second semester, each class is responsible for choosing the new MBA Association officers. This is an organization that takes on the challenge of organizing all the student-led activities. As an IGOE fellow, I am proud to share that during the past five years IGOEs have participated in the winning slate. In addition, during the last seven weeks of the first year students have the opportunity to elect their peers as a President or a VP of a Kelley club or association. These organizations exist to help and support a wide variety of student activities, including: professional (Marketing, Finance, Consulting, etc.), cultural and support (Partners, Women, Latin, Asian, and Black) and finally developing skills and sports (e.g., tech, Toastmasters, soccer, golf).
Finally, at the beginning of the second year, students get amazing opportunities to help first years directly through the Leadership Academy as they become a Personal or a Core Team Coach or by leading a Globase consulting project to solve a real business problem for a company in different markets around the world.
Because of the number of opportunities that the Kelley MBA Program and the Institute of Global Organizational Effectiveness make available, students get to pick where and how they exercise and put to test their leadership; and these challenges are not short of the experience that the real world will present to our future alumni.