Hello Everybody!
Welcome to the University of Tennessee Full-Time MBA blog!
My name is Nathan Basler and I am a first-year student in the Full-Time MBA
program here at UT with a concentration in supply chain management. I’m also a
Graduate Assistant with the program, serving as the Special Events Coordinator.
One task I have the pleasure of doing is communicating with prospective
students (aka YOU!) through this blog. Every week, I’ll share with you a
variety of topics about the ins and outs of being a part of this great program.
First off, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I grew
up in Kingston, TN, a small town outside Knoxville. I graduated from Tennessee
Technological University in May 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical
Engineering. After graduation, I worked for one year at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory as a Systems Engineer. In March 2013, I was accepted into the UTK
Full-Time MBA program. Obtaining an MBA has always been an academic goal of
mine because I feel having a broad skill set in two different career paths
(engineering and business) will help me with future career advancement. The
University of Tennessee’s MBA Program really attracted me with its accelerated
pace, team-based learning style, and career services opportunities. I will
highlight each of these in depth later on in the semester.
For this first blog entry, I want to highlight some tasks
I’ve completed in order to get ready for the start of the program. The program
begins with LEAP week (Learn. Engage. Assess. Present). Looking at the
schedule, this week is full of exciting events, and I cannot wait to start! It
will be great to meet all my classmates and get to know them before we start
classes. We’re going to spend the next 17 months together, so the importance of
this week, in part, is building friendships! During the summer, I’ve had
several assignments to complete. The program’s career management team had us
send them first drafts of our resumes so they can critique them before we get
to school. There is a job fair coming up in September, so they are giving us a
head start on the preparation. Also, I just completed a StrengthsFinder
assessment where I found out my top 5 strengths (Belief, Discipline, Context,
Harmony, Relator). It’s great to learn my biggest strengths. I can use these as
I work with others throughout the program. Now that I have completed all the
assignments, I’m really excited to start next week. Check back in to find out
about some of the experiences from LEAP week. I’m sure it will be a blast and I
will have plenty of stories to share!
