{"id":10498,"date":"2020-09-15T13:57:23","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T18:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=10498"},"modified":"2021-03-30T09:02:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T14:02:37","slug":"side-effects-of-learning-and-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2020\/09\/15\/side-effects-of-learning-and-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Side Effects of Learning and Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Kevin<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been over a year since I sat in my first MBA course<\/a> at UW-Stevens Point. There I sat wide-eyed and ready to soak up whatever information I could possibly take in from the dozens of strangers sharing a room with me; strangers I now call colleagues, mentors and friends. Although we shared very different backgrounds, areas of expertise, and motivations<\/a>, we all wanted two very simple things that I can uncontroversially say that we have innately within us all: we wanted to learn and we wanted to be better at what we did and who we were. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extent and span of each of those desires included a great degree of variability, but for all intents and purposes, we simply wanted more knowledge, direction and credibility. Stepping into a life- and career-changing program, I think every one of us expected just that\u2013change. I can\u2019t speak for other current and former (it\u2019s so weird to say \u201cformer,\u201d it feels like yesterday I was sitting in front of Prof. Kevin Bahr<\/a> listening to him lecture on the long-lasting effects of the 2008 financial crisis) UWSP MBA students, but I went to each class, went through each course, and engaged in each conversation with the intention of walking away knowing more than I had previously. It\u2019s only now\u2013or as of recent\u2013that I realize the learning that was taking place wasn\u2019t the learning I thought I would take with me following my time in the program necessarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I took much away from Prof. Nik Butz<\/a> and the usefulness of data analytics as well as the nuances and depth to communication in business from Prof. Reed Stratton<\/a>. These courses and others have proved useful as I establish my career in banking. And to be frank, I think I expected that! I think we all expected to learn what was taught, but there was so much taught through learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat does that even mean?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Good question. An example: Growing up, I loved playing baseball. When I was finally old enough to play Little League, I could hardly contain my excitement. I would sleep with my uniform on, I would practice in my backyard on days we didn\u2019t have practice or a game, and I would watch highlights on my family\u2019s computer for as long as my parents would let me. I watched highlights because they were entertaining of course, but also because I wanted to learn how to be a better hitter, how to be a better fielder and how to play the game with the intention of winning. As I studied and played the game as a kid, I learned<\/em> the game of baseball as I expected I would. What I didn\u2019t expect to be taught was patience. I didn\u2019t expect to be taught how to respect something bigger than myself. Integrity, responsibility and dealing with pressure were all intangibles that I learned from the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we only learned what we expected to learn, life would be \u2026 boring. And predictable. And straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relating back to the UWSP MBA program, it\u2019s as if now, following the program, I feel like I\u2019ve taken almost as much from the experience and the trials of working through the program, as I have from the actual courses. Feeling the need to serve others, worrying about more than the bottom line, and lining up each action we take as professionals with our greater intentions are just a few takeaways I took from one course, two courses or several courses combined. By putting each MBA candidate into a situation where we were unfamiliar or a touch uncomfortable, we were forced to rely on more than the content shared between professor and student; we had to pull, add to, build on and maneuver through information in order to find successes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This encouraged us to build on skills that we hadn\u2019t necessarily made a concerted effort to work on before. These traits and this unchoreographed style of knowledge collection separates conventional learning from dynamic learning. Unlike conventional learning, growth in these instances wasn\u2019t measurable. However, as we move through each of our careers and lives, the extent of our advancements in our communities and workplaces can and will be measured. How will you measure up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kevin<\/figure>
\n

After earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration, Kevin Ile ’19, MBA ’20 served as a graduate assistant for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point MBA program<\/a>. Since completing the program, Kevin has advanced into a commercial lender role with Peoples State Bank in Wausau, Wisconsin. He can be contacted at\u00a0kevin.ile@bankpeoples.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been over a year since I sat in my first MBA course at UW-Stevens Point. There I sat wide-eyed and ready to soak up whatever information I could possibly take in from the dozens of strangers sharing a room with me; strangers I now call colleagues, mentors and friends. Although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":10501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12,544,552,509,545,23],"tags":[504,305,342,343,344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10498"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10507,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10498\/revisions\/10507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}