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The 15-month program has nearly 120 students for the spring semester, giving working business executives a chance to earn their master’s degrees by tailoring the coursework around their schedules, on Friday afternoons and Saturdays.

“It has been extremely successful,” says Sanjay Varshney, dean of the College of Business Administration. All the participants are working professionals, with an average age of 36 and 14 to 16 years work experience, Varshney says.

It’s not unusual for an executive to wait a while before pursuing an MBA, Varshney says. The degree is about more than curriculum; it’s also about personality development and teaching participants how to make strategic decisions and analyze various situations, he adds. “And you can’t do those things unless you have some experience and know what the workplace is about,” he says.

The program’s effectiveness is illustrated by its first round of graduates, such as Earl King, vice president and branch manager of Fidelity Investments’ Sacramento office. “It makes you much more marketable whether you’re looking inside or outside a firm,” he says, adding the program armed him with the knowledge and strategies he needed to tackle different projects within his company.

In addition to scheduling coursework at times more convenient for working professionals, the program also rotates among different sites in the greater Sacramento area, which allows students to study closer to home or work. It has been held at Intel in Folsom, at the PRIDE Industries campus in Roseville, at Sacramento Municipal Utilities District headquarters and at the Metro Chamber.

The program will cost a student $30,000, which includes tuition, textbooks and other course materials. Courses are taught by Sac State faculty and established, successful executives from the local business community. When King approached his supervisors about taking the course, they threw their support behind him and covered a large share of the cost, he says.

That’s not unusual, Varshney says, noting that 65 to 70 percent of the students get financial support from their employers. And the applicants have to be recommended by their employers.

“We rely very heavily on what the employer has to say about them,” Varshney says.

The employers are great salespeople for the program, as well. Donna Harmon, vice president and director of operations for Polycomp Administrative Services in Roseville, was encouraged to apply for admission by company vice president and human resources director Evelyn Fallon.

Fallon was on the College of Business Advisory Council when the program was developed. “As soon as it became available, I felt it was the right program for Donna,” Fallon says. As Harmon went through the course, Fallon says she saw an immediate application of knowledge as Harmon learned more about in-depth business issues. “It was very obvious in her questions and analysis of issues,” Fallon says.

Harmon agrees. “I feel like I’m much more capable of adding value, asking the right questions and coming up with new ideas,” she says.

As a global commodity manager for Hewlett Packard, Otuko John-Teye enrolled in the program to learn new skills and improve her decision-making process. “Learning these new skills set the stage for me to gain an increased level of credibility in my job, become more marketable and better manage my career overall,” she says.

John-Teye was particularly pleased to learn there are always several options to solving a particular problem. A team of program participants might come up with 15 different decisions for any one scenario, she says. When you have those kinds of alternatives, John- Teye says, your problem doesn’t seem insurmountable.

Teamwork was one of the program’s highlights mentioned by all three of these participants. Because everyone wanted to be there, all group members fully participated in the team projects, Harmon says.

“You have a new group of people to talk with about issues and questions and to bounce ideas off of,” King adds.

The three acknowledged that taking the course in addition to working a full-time job does take its toll on your personal life. How did they handle the juggling act?

John-Teye was asked the same question by her father and she told him not to ask her because then she would have to think about it and she didn’t want to do that. “You don’t think about it, you just do it,” she says.

“It was challenging,” adds King, “but it was fun and challenging.”

And Harmon says she preferred getting her MBA in a concentrated manner over 15 months rather than spreading it out over two or three years.

For those just starting or thinking about taking the program, King advises making use of all the resources it has to offer. “Just jump in with both feet and take advantage of the teachers, instructors and your classmates,” he says. “There are some great instructors in the program. It’s like having your own consulting firm there.”

This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity, John-Teye says, adding that new students will appreciate the contacts they make in their teams and larger class work. “Don’t lose those contacts because all those will come in handy,” she says.

As a bonus, the students also have the opportunity for optional travel to major centers of global commerce, including China and India.

Knowledge, skills, contacts–the program provides participants with the tools to succeed. But there is also a valuable intangible the students come away with: greater self-assurance in the workplace.

“Overall, I gained a lot of confidence,” Harmon says.

“The bottom line for me—it develops your confidence,” echoes John-Teye.

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