Mark Calendine

Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

“Air Force veteran interested in corporate strategy, entrepreneurship, defense tech, and intercultural communication.”

Age: 38

Hometown: Montville, Ohio

Fun fact about yourself: I worked at McDonald’s for six years during high school and college and believe that retail or restaurant experience is one of the best management and organizational behavior practicums available.     

Undergraduate School and Degree:
B.A. in Political Science — American University
M.A in International Relations — American University

Where are you currently working? Startup Founder, Squadron Jobs

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Prior to my MBA, I was an Air Force officer and flew F-15Es as a Weapon Systems Officer during 150 combat missions.

Why did you choose this school’s online MBA program? As a non-traditional student, I wanted to attend a school that was academically top-ranked and would open potential doors for on-campus recruiting. After narrowing down the list and talking to current OMBA students, I was drawn to the collaborative culture of the program and the range of opportunities provided by being part of the University of Michigan community.

What was your favorite part of being in an online MBA program? The flexibility. I started my Ross OMBA journey while working as a full-time flight instructor in Doha, Qatar. While it wasn’t always fun waking up at 3:00 AM to join class live from the digital teaching studio in Ann Arbor, I was able to enjoy a unique work assignment and travel considerably. I took my accounting final in Tokyo, did group project work in Muscat, and joined OMBA Council meetings from Warsaw, among others.

When it was time to return to the States and support my partner during their residential B-School experience, this same program flexibility allowed me to study at a full-time rate, start my own business with resources from the school, and travel more to Ann Arbor for social events and experiential learning like the Leadership Crisis Challenge.

How did your online MBA experience compare with your in-the-classroom experience as an undergraduate student? While undergraduate core courses are often taught by adjunct faculty and lecturers, what amazed me throughout the program was the star quality of the faculty for every single course.

Unsurprisingly, the nature of the experience is very different because the undergraduate experience is largely with other students fresh out of high school. In comparison, the online MBA experience was filled with far more applied and peer learning from our diverse student population that includes folks in their mid-20s to executives and professionals in their 40s.

What is your best piece of advice to an applicant for thriving in an online MBA program? The definition of “thriving” is much different in an online MBA program compared to a full-time residential program where folks generally have the same goals to secure internships and are going through a common experience. Applicants need to define their success criteria, whether that’s how they’ll balance their online MBA with their family life or, for most students, being a working professional.

In all cases, thriving is much easier with a good mutual support network. It starts with taking extra time in the group projects to get to know others and then expanding those relations to more Slack chats and meetups, virtual and in-person.

How has your online MBA education helped you in your current job? Interestingly, my startup was born out of a class assignment during our Innovation Residency, my time meeting other Ross OMBAs as part of a week-long class in Italy. Overall, I found that every class I took taught me something new about running my business but for a new firm, I especially found value in two classes: Digital Marketing with Dr. Marcus Collins and Advertising Management with Dr. Katherine Burson.

Lastly, as a veteran making the switch to the private sector, I’m thankful for the overall rigor of the program because it gave me the confidence that I have a robust business toolkit that is generally applicable.

Did you earn a promotion while in the program or immediately after graduation? While I left my flight instruction job to start my business (and even ran it in lieu of a traditional summer internship, based on our runway), I decided to participate in on-campus full-time recruiting.

After a positive experience as an MBA student consultant during the Ross Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) and my academic interest in Dr. Brian Wu’s Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Development class and Strategies for Growth with Dr. Aneel Karnani, I pursued consulting offers and will be an incoming consultant this summer at Bain & Company.

Why did you pursue an online MBA program instead of a full-time residential or executive MBA program? Interestingly, I was talking about my full-time residential application when an Air Force colleague told me about an interesting teaching opportunity abroad.

After some research and seeing that several top schools offered online MBA programs that could span from nearly fully online to taking classes on-campus full-time, I decided to take the part-time online path because it was most compatible with living abroad while preserving the option to move back after a year and immerse myself on-campus. Lastly, I didn’t want to delay getting an MBA any longer; waiting to attend full-time would have likely added another 2-3 years to my career pivot.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Michigan Ross benefits from the excellence of the Computer Science and Engineering division at the University of Michigan in terms of collaboration and events. Most practically, our data analytics classes included modules on machine learning (ML) that gave me the foundational knowledge to better understand the discourse in the business press and what’s happening in Silicon Valley, where I’m based.

I think where the integration of AI is most apparent in our curriculum is seeing how the rapid changes in Generative AI and low-code tools since I started the program have shaped the innovation and entrepreneurial courses, where students now aren’t just making wireframes or mockups but actually developing their MVPs.

Number of Hours Per Week Spent on an Online MBA: Around 5 to 10 hours per course; usually a combination of live class (1.5 hours), group work (1-2 hours), and asynchronous study and homework (3 to 6 hours) depending on the class.

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? From my time in the Air Force and at Michigan Ross, I really enjoy working with high-trust, high-performing teams. Working with great people while being able to shape and lead a large organization would be my preferred day job. Beyond that, I would like to engage in a more sustained and focused way of mentoring others, particularly from the veteran community.

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