Carnegie Mellon / Tepper MBA News

Stephen Rakas has been in career services with the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon for the past 10 years and in his current role as executive director of the Career Opportunities Center (COC) since 2011. His previous experience includes four years in career services with the University of Pittsburgh and an additional decade of experience in general management and sales in industries ranging from healthcare to high-end retail. “I discovered earlier in my career that serving as a conduit between the academic and business environments was a strong match with my skills and interests,” he told us. “I’m passionate about higher education, and the opportunity to help students transition their academic achievements into the world of work is very rewarding.” Check out the interview below, in which he describes the comprehensive Base Camp Orientation all Tepper students undergo before classes even begin, explains why all the members of the COC team devote time both to counseling students and to maintaining relationships with employers and more. Read more

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)’s Tepper School of Business will debut a new online MBA offering next fall, and prospective applicants from across the United States – as well as Europe and Asia – have shown interest and/or submitted applications, the school reports. FlexMBA – a new online MBA offering that will offer the same curriculum, faculty and access to services to online students that they would receive on campus as part of the traditional MBA program – differs from the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) model by creating small class sections of roughly 20 students and maximizing interaction between students and faculty, Tepper notes. Students will take part in weekly live online classes with Tepper professors and attend approximately five “access weekends” each year in which all FlexMBA students will travel to a CMU campus for intense classwork and professional development programs. Read more

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)’s Tepper School of Business and School of Computer Science will partner to establish a new, joint Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) in an effort to help transform university research and projects into commercial enterprises, the university announced last month. The new CIE will combine Tepper’s Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship and the School of Computer Science’s Project Olympus, continuing the successful programs of each while also growing an extensive network of alumni entrepreneurs. Read more