For a group of twenty students participating in the MBA program, this Friday was a day for giving back.
The group gathered in Pullen Park to complete a service project for the park. The project was the brainchild of Ben Mathew, Bob Flynn, Meghan Howard and Zach Tinkler.
“The whole idea behind this was just to start a service project with some first year MBA students and help volunteer,” Mathew said.
Pullen Park has been undergoing renovation work for the past year and a half. Since funding is low, some of the work is dependent on volunteers. The MBA students involved painted railings in the park to help with the renovations.
“A group of students were talking about how we want to get more involved and give back,” Mathew said.
The main goal of this project was to give back to the community, according to Matthew. The students worked with Pullen Park officials to pull the project together. This volunteer opportunity was done with the help of the MBA Student Association.
“We took some initiative and spoke to the current president, and they were thrilled to have involvement. Our big goal is to get the name of the MBA program out there in a positive way,” Mathew said.
This project will likely not be the last of its kind, according to Mathew. Tentative plans for a new project next month are already in the works.
“We are trying to coordinate something for next month, although I don’t know what that is yet. We talked about maybe working on the Rose garden,” Mathew said.
The students worked for three hours and finished all of the painting on the bridge railings. Food was provided for the students as they worked.
“I think we actually got more done than they were expecting us to,” Mathew said.
According to Matthew, members of the MBASA seem to be very conscious of giving back to the community.
The initiative to start this project was purely student driven, Matthew said. Pullen Park officials are constantly looking for volunteers to help with the renovation, and the MBASA seems to want to give them just that.
“It’s a good way to get to know the community and to give back. We want to start building this program in a big way and volunteering is a good way for us to do that,” Mathew said.
Twenty students participated in the volunteer project. There are a total of 405 part time and full time students currently participating in the MBA program at the University.
“Our program isn’t as well known or recognized as some other programs at the University, so we kind of want to change that. We want to establish a relationship with the local business community because it’s important that they recognize who we are,” Mathew said.
