Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/61389
BabsonMBA "The Babson program changes the way you analyze and make decisions almost instantly. Even when you have a lot of experience, it rapidly expands your overall business perspec- tive. Thanks to the integrated and incremental approach, I was able to apply what I learned early on. The program is changing my life." — Rik Kerstens Marketing Manager, PANalytical Inc. F.W. OLIN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BABSON COLLEGE Wellesley, MA The Fast Track MBA 27 Months to a Part-Time MBA Babson's Fast Track MBA accelerates working students through a powerful hybrid learning experience that combines face-to-face and distance learning models. Key features of the Fast Track MBA include: • Integrated, modular format for core courses. • Monthly classroom meetings complemented by Web-based instruction, allowing students to continue to earn their full-time salary and benefits. • Strong team-based learning that promotes student interaction and exchange of ideas. • Shorter completion time—just 27 months to an MBA, much faster than typical part-time MBA programs. • Up-to-date virtual technologies and projects extend the learning experience To learn about this innovative program, visit www3.babson.edu/mba/programs/fast-track-mba/ exploring then? How many know that Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk, or that his precepts in genetics also set the laws for probabilities that are used in Las Vegas today? Or that those precepts came via Lucas Pacioli, a 15th-century mathematician? Silos will be out the door in a decade or so, but a new sys- tem has yet to be learned. This is why we set up the Semco Foundation, to construct a new system of education for the new century. In fact, you're deeply involved in the creation of a school in São Paulo that celebrates freedom and flexi- bility. Has the school opened yet? Who will attend? The school is in place and has started enrolling two- to ten- year-olds.We want to change things at the starting point. At this school, our kids determine the rules and make decisions every week at a school meeting.We don't want to holler and point fingers at kids. They are perfectly able to settle dis- putes and regulations alone. We do sit in to facilitate, when they want. We also split the teacher's role into two parts: tutor and master. The tutor has ten to 12 kids under his or her wing, but is responsible for transmitting wisdom, support, and guidance, not facts. The masters, who must be experts in something and passionate about it, transmit the accumulat- ed knowledge of humankind.We have some 40 kids and 97 masters. op a mosaic technology to teach free children effectively, something that the educational world knows nothing about. Since our kids are obliged to be in school but not in class, it behooves us to interest them—and we do. Children are already staying 1.84 times longer at our school, out of free will, than at other schools in the system.We plan to take over a public school in February. At the Lumlar Institute, which runs the school, we devel- Even once they're out of grade school and business school, people can benefit from lifelong learning. Are managers at Semco encouraged to continue with their educations, and if so, via what model? People at Semco, by setting their own timetables and work- loads, are more apt to take time out for learning. But we also have sabbaticals, and a system whereby people can diminish and increase their workweeks by arrangement with their teams. We also have Retire-A-Little, where people can take a day, or half-day, off every week, to do what they would when they retire. What piece of advice would you like to give business students as they graduate from school and prepare to enter the working world? They should use the tools and skills that they mastered with care. Those are hammers and screwdrivers they've been given, and people are made of delicate skins. ■ z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004 21