BYU MBA Program 2008

It has been a while but I have a good excuse, I just had my first child. Yup, on December 8th our son was born, Kaylor Takeshi Hopkins. Pretty crazy huh, but things worked out. As you know I go to school at the BYU MBA program in Utah and my wife works for Microsoft in Reno, NV. I had planned to visit her on the weekend she was due, and luckily enough the night I got there her water broke so I was able to be there for the birth. A pretty interesting and sometimes nasty experience, but I was glad I was there. With a child in our lives my wife will be moving out to Utah with me for my last semester of my MBA program, so it will be "Life without the Wife" no more. It will be weird though, I am used to living by myself, doing what I want like eating Lucky Charms for dinner and staying up till 3am playing HALO online with kids from China, and now I will be living with my wife and a child to boot, so things will change. 

It was pretty nuts that my child was born during finals, and in another state none the less, but BYU was great in helping me out. My professors were super supportive and worked around my schedule. I was able to change my final times so I was able to be there for my wife and not get my grade hurt by it. If there is one thing that is awesome about the BYU MBA program is they are very family friendly, and they will always be willing to put your family first and help you out, even during finals. 

It is crazy I will be entering my last semester of my MBA Program. Time has flown by (expect for that first semester, that was murderous), and I have really enjoyed my experience and the lifelong friends I have made. It is really worth it going full time for your MBA, you meet tons of really cool people who help you grow, and you just get that great college experience you can't get anywhere else.

Usually your last semester of your MBA program is a time to kick back and take some easy classes ( I am taking karate and basketball and tennis ) but because I am minoring in both strategy and International business I will have a full load. BYU has some really cool field studies for us as well. Last year I was able to do one with Sam's club. This year I am doing one with Maxwell videos in South America. It will be good to get some good experience doing some marketing for videos down in South America. I am glad BYU gives us the oppurtunity for some real life experience in other countries. 

Another good thing about your last semester is that you usually have your job lined up so that stress is gone. I am still trying to decide between US Airways and Northwest Airlines. The airline industry sounds pretty interesting and fun, and the perks of free airfare will be great. It is a hard decision, with US Airways in Phoenix, Arizona and Northwest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it. I have to make a decision by December 31st, so soon enough I will know exactally what the future holds for me.

I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas, and if you are in school you are taking that needed break before starting up again. I just hope that whatever company I go with they will let me come back to BYU and recruit because one, I believe BYU has great students, and two I want to see how cool that extension to the business building will be. It looks like it is going to be awesome and a great asset to all the classes that come after us to study at BYU. I just hope all those classes will remember the class of 2008, the class that had to put up with the construction and never saw the awesome end product.