Mays Impacts

Class II participants of the Mays Executive MBA Program are preparing to wrap up their first year by attending The Washington Campus in May. Held in Washington D.C., the program is part of the MBA curriculum and provides insight into public affairs and public policy and how they impact organizations’ operations.

The Washington Campus provides the opportunity for participants of the Mays Executive MBA Program to interact with members of Congress and their staff, including senior administration officials, lobbyists, journalists, noted scholars and corporate executives. With an intimate knowledge of the Washington scene, these speakers provide an unparalleled view of the U.S. government at work. Mays participants will attend seminars and simulations to discuss topics, such as business and the public policy process, health care, and public policy and the global business environment.

As part of a consortium of 17 distinguished business schools, The Washington Campus has been providing public policy education for over 20 years.

The Mays College will be represented well at Fish Camp this summer and not just by incoming freshmen business students. Several Mays faculty members have been selected as namesakes for the annual camp. Namesakes chosen this year include management faculty members Michael Abelson, Rick Larson, Peter Rodriguez and Keith Swim and accounting faculty Mary Stasny and Carlton Stolle.

Each year students nominate faculty, staff and administrators to be namesakes for one of the 36 individual freshmen orientation camps, which are held over six sessions throughout the month of August.

“It seems that most people get into retail accidentally and that very few people plan to get into it,” said R. Bruce Bryant, senior vice president for Western Store Operations for Walgreen Co. during a recent visit to the Mays College.

While that may be true for some, students in the Mays College are preparing now for careers in the retailing field. And, through the Center for Retailing Studies’ (CRS) Executive-in-Residence Program, students have the opportunity to interact with business leaders, such as Bryant, who are shaping the retail industry.

During his guest session, Bryant recounted his experiences in the field, particularly the opportunities and challenges he’s witnessed during his 30-year career with Walgreen. Like many Mays students, Bryant was mesmerized by the industry and wanted to make it his career. “My dad had a wholesale grocery business that I worked at when I was in high school,” said Bryant, who serves on the CRS Advisory Board. “I loved it and went to college knowing that I wanted to go into retail.”

The interactive session also provided time for students to volunteer suggestions on how Bryant could help improve Walgreen’s retail efforts, ranging from offering more drive-through window services and removing clutter from storefronts.

For more than 15 years, the CRS has been bringing retailing executives to campus from numerous companies, including Payless ShoeSource, JCPenny, Hastings Entertainment, Zale Corporation, Pizza Hut, Walgreen and Mary Kay, among others.

To learn more, visit the Center for Retailing Studies online.

Two Mays undergraduate business students have been selected to participate in a twelve-month work/study program in Germany. Jason Bourland, a senior information and operations management major, and Ashli Simpson, a senior finance major, are among two of the 60 U.S. students selected to participate in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals program.

The yearlong program, which begins in late July, includes two months of intensive German language training; four months of professional training in a specific career field; and a five-month internship with a German company or organization. The students will also experience the country’s culture first hand, as they will live with a German family.

Bourland and Simpson will return to Texas A&M following this yearlong program to complete their programs of study.

Five students in the college recently encountered a taste of real-world consulting. The team advanced to a national competition in late February in St. Charles, Illinois after winning Arthur Andersen’s Business Consulting Case Competition at Texas A&M.

The team was composed of junior marketing major Arati Bhattacharya, graduate finance major Bonnie Miller, junior accounting major Ty Popplewell, junior finance major Gran Potter and junior agricultural business major Kristin Ware.

Advancing to the national competition was a feat Bhattacharya credits to the preparation the team received from the business school as well as their own teamwork. “Our business classes prepared us to pull from each of our strengths to solve the problem,” Bhattacharya says. “For us, the secret to getting to nationals was all about cooperation and team dynamics.”