Meet Indiana Kelley’s MBA Class Of 2026

Full-time MBA FTMBA students attended the Me, Inc. session led by Gale Nichols on August 8, 2023

P&Q: What types of programs do you offer to sharpen your students’ soft skills? What areas do you emphasize and how do you instill these skills in your students?

Hill: “Soft skills development begins even before classes start as part of our Me, Inc. programming around career goals and personal brand development. Once in the classroom, students take a course in Business Communication throughout the Fall semester as part of the required Core.

Our required experiential learning sequence, known as Academies, includes spring industry projects which require students to work with clients to define a business problem and effectively communicate a solution. One of our most popular programs is GLOBASE, in which students support small businesses in developing countries. This provides an opportunity to learn how to communicate cross-culturally.”

P&Q: What types of programming – through classroom instruction, extracurriculars, and treks – does your school offer to expose students to country-specific and global business practices? What have students told you were the most educational and fun aspects of these activities?

Hill: “One of our most popular programs is GLOBASE, in which students support small businesses in developing countries. Each spring, teams led by second-year MBA students work with clients in South America, Africa, Asia, and/or Europe. In the lead-up to the project, students learn about the business environment in their client’s country and then spend a week on location with the client. In addition to the opportunity to travel to a country they have not previously visited, students value the opportunity to make a substantial and immediate impact for these companies simply by applying tools they have learned in the MBA program.”   

Kelley’s Me, Inc., develops an in-depth understanding of first year MBA students’ personal story and how it connects to the next steps in their career. The “Life Story” exercise took place on August 7, 2017.

P&Q: What are the most exciting new courses that your school is offering to MBAs this school year? What makes them so unique and valuable?

Hill: “This year, we offered a new course in “People Analytics” as part of a new certificate in Human Capital. One of the unique things about the course is the combination of Analytics, which is seen generally as a hard skill, and the softer nuanced elements associated with management of people.  Goals of the course include analyzing and interpreting human resources data to diagnose employee-related issues and interventions; explaining and designing best practice human resource procedures that meet legal requirements; maximizing employee productivity and well-being; and understanding how human resource management can establish a competitive advantage. Technical skills developed in the course include programming skills, simulation development and the use of AI.”

P&Q: Who are two new professors who’ve joined your faculty in the past year? What do they teach and how will they be difference-makers in your MBA program?

Hill: “Krista Li, associate professor of marketing and the Blanche “Peg” Philpott Professor, joined our Core Faculty team this past year.  She teaches the marketing portion of the Core curriculum. She has an amazing research record in analytics and brings this background into the classroom.

Julia Kalish, clinical assistant professor of operations and decision technologies, has joined the ranks of our Academy Directors this year. She brings a wealth of industry experience in operations and is leading the transition of our Supply Chain and Digital Enterprise Academy to the newly-named Business Operations and Innovation Academy. Her industry connections will expand the opportunities of students interested in Operations to career opportunities beyond Supply Chain.”

P&Q: What types of support does your career center and alumni provide to MBA students? How have these services and relationship made your graduates more competitive in the marketplace?

Hill: “Our graduate career center works directly with our students through our pre-program Me, Inc. curriculum, aligns with our Academies to provide industry and function specific career support, and meets with our program office on a bi-weekly basis to track each individual student’s progress. The career service office also leads a required, for-credit course preparing first-year students for the internship search. They also work to identify new recruiting companies, often through connections with our alumni.

Our alumni support our students in a number of ways as well. They return to campus in the fall to help students with mock interviews and networking practice. They participate in networking nights, representing their current employers. They are available for informational interviews to support students who are preparing for interviews.  Each spring as we work to support the last few students looking for internships or full-time positions, it is the alumni network that we rely on to identify opportunities for those students.”

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