As a staffer at a small local nonprofit agency, Tamu Brown-Hutchinson saw earning an M.B.A. as an investment in her potential as an employee. Brown-Hutchinson joined the Center for Youth Services Inc. seven years ago, working her way up from a temporary position to a valued member of the team. The Center provides a variety of services, including counseling, prevention education, street outreach and emergency shelter to some 23,000 children and teens each year.
In 2005, as a member of the Center’s development department, Brown-Hutchinson knew that some advanced leadership skills would go a long way toward furthering her own goals as well as boost the Center’s return on investment. But the challenge of balancing work, school and a personal life seemed daunting.
“I was considering enrolling in a full-time program, while continuing to work,” she says. “I knew that would be a real test of my personal perseverance.”
After looking at other programs in the area, Brown-Hutchinson attended a general information session at the Simon Graduate School of Business.
At the session, a Simon counselor mentioned the Executive M.B.A. program to her as an option to traditional full-time study. One of the benefits of the Simon School’s E.M.B.A. Program is that it is designed for working professionals. Students in the program meet on Friday and Saturday every other week, reducing the number of workdays lost by students and their employers. The standard program length is 22 months.
“I wasn’t a high-level executive, though,” Brown-Hutchinson says. “I didn’t think I would fit in.
“But I did.”
Brown-Hutchinson began her E.M.B.A. studies in fall 2005, with the help of the Greater Rochester Enterprise’s scholarship program. The program targets managers of small- to mid-size local firms and nonprofit organizations who can benefit from a business education by offering 50 percent tuition grants to 15 qualified individuals who live and work in the greater Rochester area.
Her Simon School experience helped broaden her skills in ways she hadn’t expected, she says. Her classes in statistics helped her better understand the capability of the Center’s databases and from that created a strong interest in information technology. And she was surprised at how she actually enjoyed studying finance (due to the exceptional professors.)
But, the best part of the experience is what she learned from her fellow students. In the program, students work in teams of four. Each member of the team comes from a different career background. “Our interactions really helped propel me forward,” she says. “I learned so much listening to how people from different professions solved problems. And I could bring their approaches back to my job to give us all a different perspective.”
Brown-Hutchinson was awarded her M.B.A. in spring 2007. As a staff member of a nonprofit, she knows will never likely command huge salary gains like many grads in the private sector will. “But my work environment is very important to me. And this is a place where I feel comfortable and I can fit in.”
To honor her new degree, the Center’s management created a new position for her: Director of Information Technology and Resource Management. In that capacity, Brown-Hutchinson is using her Simon education to help advance herself on the nonprofit career ladder, while also advancing the mission of the nonprofit and the services it offers.
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