#msod

[lifeaccordingtokevin]

Sunday night outlining! #capstone #msod #gradschoollife

[lathaitexan]

Dear friends and family, thank you very much for your unconditional love and support! After two years in the making, I, KATE SURIYATIP, AM OFFICIALLY NOW A MASTER!!! As of last Thursday, December 8, 2016, I successfully completed my capstone and passed with distinction (aka an A!!!) I now have a Master in Organizational Development from Abilene Christian University. I want to thank my support systems: my family, my Hollywood Church of Christ family, my care cell Bible study family, my friends, my fantastic work colleagues at Pepperdine, and every person who has prayed for me from afar. Lastly, I thank and praise our Awesome God for providing me with these amazing support systems, as well as renewed energy in times where I have fallen short in many ways. This is a photo of two students at Pepperdine, Mia and Milah, who surprised me and made their version of my degree certificate and certified it with their signatures titled "biggest fan" (lol!) My actual degree should arrive in about one to two months. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart! #MasterKateSuriyatip #MasterDegree #abilenechristianuniversity #ACU #MSOD #Thankful

[doxiepowder]

I worked so many days in a row my queue ran out. 6 in a row is a bitch.

[momentous-moments]

The Interconnectivity of Education

I am a Full-Time MBA student. I am constantly surrounded by other Full-Time MBA students. In the first semester, there was some overlap with the MS Applied Finance and MS Global Business programs. As we go deeper into our separate focused educations, the classes together become fewer, and in a year, they'll be gone.

This semester, I began 2 unique classes that allowed my interactions with other programs to broaden even further. I am taking a Mandarin class at the West Los Angeles campus, a class populated by BS Management and Fully-Employed MBA and Executive MBA students. In addition, in my Mediation Theory & Practice class at the Straus Institute (via the Pepperdine Law School), my classmates now include Masters in Dispute Resolution, Law Students, 2nd Year MBAs I didn't know before, and even some working lawyers from the community exploring the Dispute Resolution Certificate.

For the Consulting Club, I am in the process of putting together a panel populated with primarily MS Organizational Development alumni and I'm hoping to reach out to that program. Where Graziadio both excels and fails in its broad program offerings and yet, not fully capitalizing on this potential.

The alumni networks are often not connected and available to club board members. The career services offices function separately. And most of the time, we're not even made aware of all the panels, discussions and offerings in these other programs. The small school mentality pushes forward, wanting to keep it that way, for each program to seem unique, get special attention, and excel in their bubble. But I challenge the idea that this is correct. From day one, they say "networking is key" and yet, our own networks are kept at arms length, either due to a lack of incorporation or infrastructure.

I have been lucky this semester to have my horizons broadened and I'm excited by the possibilities. The ability to seek out more and to bring them into my bubble. Why should I, as a Full-Time student, have better access to club panels and informational seminars? It feels like eventually this will change, but first the issue needs to be brought to the surface.

My favorite classes have been those where I've had the chance to interact, and I plead with all current students. Seek out these classes! Seek out these other programs! Look at their calendars, their agendas, try out a dispute resolution course at Straus. Take a class at West LA just for the heck of it. Or Westlake or Irvine (ok, maybe not Irvine, that's far, sorry guys). If you are a club leader, look at the breadth of opportunity awaiting you in the other programs and push for that connectivity. It's important and will give you a perspective you maybe weren't expecting.