Does it feel crazy to anyone else that October is already over?! It does to me as I now only have two more months of my fellowship and my first two MBA classes of the year are done. This month I continued to learn more about myself and how I am as a leader, in addition to foreign subjects in the classroom. October was another one for the books.
In terms of fellowship content, the original path that I created with the Stevens Point Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (SPACVB) has changed once again. While we initially made a plan of having three big projects that were very specific, it is now looking different. We did however stick to the plan with the bylaws project. I even presented my findings and changes to the board of directors this month – which was crazy cool! While some people may look at that and say that it wasn’t a big deal, it was big to me. I never thought I’d be doing something like that at this stage of life, so it was an incredible experience to have.
Back to the topic of changing my plans. While the bylaws were a really cool portion of my fellowship, most of my fellowship has been about content creation. With the big piece being the outdoor recreation pieces (which are for sure going live in November), I have also created a lot of other content that is new to the website. A new page I created just launched for all the murals in the area. Some other examples are the partner pages that launched earlier in my fellowship journey, or the three other pages that I’m currently working on. Those pieces may not be as big as the outdoor recreation project, they still are adding something new to the organization that may have not been done or may have been pushed off.
In regards to my first two MBA classes this semester, boy were they a learning experience. Both classes dealt with economics (something that I did not thrive at in undergrad) as well as finances (also more of a foreign land to me). But, she prevailed! The biggest thing I learned from those classes is that I shouldn’t put subjects like that out of my mind so quickly or feel defeated right away. While I have to take the extra time to really understand those subjects, getting the outcomes that I did was incredibly rewarding. Now I’m onto my next class which deals with economic development and just after one class period, I’m extremely excited about this class. The subject matter the instructor brought up were all topics I enjoy engaging in and can’t wait to see what discussions come out of that class.
Now, I want to talk a little about leadership – which is obviously something the MBA at UW-Stevens Point focuses on. This year I have taken on the role of being president of the women’s club volleyball team at UWSP. I have been playing club volleyball since my freshman year and I was giddy to take this role when I got the offer. I have had many leadership positions in the past during high school and had been working all through college to one day “run” the club volleyball team.
While I love being busy with club, figuring everything out, running all the behind the scenes stuff, the position has come with some hard decisions and conversations. We are a competitive club and hold tryouts for the teams every year where we have a 1s team and a 2s team. This year we had A TON of girls try out, it was incredible to see. But, that meant we had to make cuts. There were some very tough decisions and conversations that I had to go through. While I luckily have a great support team of other officers, at the end of the day I am the president and have to tell people the hard truth. And that is where my MBA courses and past experience came in handy.
The fact that I am already seeing results from some of the MBA courses is super rewarding. Taking my MBA at the same time that I’m in this new leadership role is aligning really well and I’m excited to see how much overall growth I see just from this year.
Baily Kruzan is majoring in business administration and marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point while also enrolled in the MBA program as a 4+1 student. Baily is serving as an MBA Fellow for Stevens Point Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, assisting with market research, recruitment and on-boarding, and organizational framework of SPACVB.