School of Business

Students from Italian and Slovenian campuses come to Lawrence to finish their degrees

Simone Bigolin attentively watched as Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki blasted a grand slam that sealed the victory over the Kansas City Royals July 18. Bigolin and about 35 other business students attended the baseball game while completing the four-week final session toward their MBA degrees. The Consortium International Master of Business Administration (CIMBA) part-time and full-time students moved from the international campuses in Asolo, Italy, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, to the Lawrence campus to complete their degrees, graduating on July 26.

CIMBA's part-time program requires two years and consists of weekend classes. Most part-time students have full-time jobs. The full-time program is anintensive, seven-days-a-week program for a full year. Part-time students can attend the Asolo or Ljubljana campuses, but the full-time students must attend the Asolo campus.

All students who finish the Consortium's international program receive an ann accredited master of business administration degree from the University through the School of Business. The consortium is composed of 34 accredited universities across the United States.
Bigolin, part-time student at the Asolo campus, finished all but his final course at KU last year. Because of his full-time job, he could not make the trip to Lawrence until this year. "Last year my company bought another company. So my boss asked me, 'Can you wait a year? Because if you leave now, we'll have some problems.'" It was a difficult decision, but Bigolin decided to stay and help the company. As a native of Asolo, he was eager to experience the American way of life. Besides the Royals' baseball game, he attended an American wedding on July 4, which earned him a photo appearance in the Lawrence Journal-World, and listened to local live music. But Bigolin said the most impressive visits were to the local Target and Best Buy stores, which are unlike the boutiques in Italy. "They are so huge. I would say, 'Now I am going to stay here a half a day or a day.' They have a lot of products, and they are all so cheap." Read More

Student investors fare better than Wall Street

Kent McCarthy

Real money is at stake in the School of Business' Applied Portfolio Management (APM) class, thanks to a $250,000 gift back in 1988 from alumnus Kent McCarthy, b'80, g'91. And the class has done very well with its portfolio. In fact, students have done better lately than NASDAQ or SP500.

"The APM portfolio returned 40 percent in the second quarter and 73 percent over the past 12 months," according to Catherine Shenoy, b'79, g'84,PhD'92, associate professor and director of APM. "To put these numbers in perspective: the SP500 returns were 13 percent and -2 percent over the same period."

Catherine Shenoy

"In the July 7 Wall Street Journal Mutual Fund Report, the APM portfolio would have ranked 5th for the quarter and in the top 10 for the year of all funds. Almost 6,000 funds are ranked."

If that isn't good enough, since June 30 the portfolio is up another 11.6 percent and is valued at $469,783. Read More

For more information visit the School of Business website.