Renae and the MBA

For various reasons I’ve been pretty disconnected from the internet for three days. This post was meant to be posted on Saturday, but I didn’t have internet access to do so.

This morning was long anticipated. Before I even moved to Michigan Renae spent a great deal of time preparing for the GMAT. In the fall of 2004 she began the journey to her MBA—one class at a time.

To be honest, I was a bit surprised at what a really good student she is. She would get the syllabus ahead of time and be reading ahead in the textbook. She began papers right away, and she was the one prodding along delinquent group project members. Often she would be frustrated because she would have completed an assignment on the syllabus only for other students to complain near the end of the semester and the prof would cut out the assignment.

She took a year off for her three foot surgeries and then picked up her studies again. When she considered not finishing the program, her younger son said that she had to finish what she started and encouraged to go on. She’s been a great visual to her sons about working hard for good grades. (Maybe they aren’t visual learners???)

Last May she decided to do both sessions of summer school and take two classes in the fall to knock out the degree faster and to have only one class left this spring. Little did she know that she would be let go in December and have to pay for that last class personally; otherwise the company paid for her MBA.

I told her she could take the summer off and then we could start Ph.Ds in the fall together. That was almost the end of our friendship.

Renae, I’m really proud of you! You’re a great student. So while today marks the end of your classroom learning, it’s the first day of the rest of your life of learning.