Julie Hope graduated Magna Cum Laude with a double major in physiology and health and Maharishi Vedic Science^SM and received the Outstanding Student Award from both departments at the 2019 awards ceremony.

Julie hails from Nebraska, where she raised two children and worked in her family’s trucking business for 20 years. She heard about MUM during a lecture on Ayurveda, which she was exploring to improve her health. She had not attended college before, and the idea of going to a nearby college to study Ayurveda intrigued her. She came to a Visitors Weekend, liked the block system, the vegetarian dining, and the programs the university offered, so she decided to apply.

“Physiology and health was my first choice but when I was reading about Maharishi Vedic Science, it really piqued my interest to learn about consciousness and myself,” she said. “I couldn’t choose — they seemed equally important. So I decided to double major.”

Julie approached her studies with extreme focus, and she discovered that the practice of the TM^® and TM-Sidhi^®programs helped her become organized and create a healthy routine. “It was important to me when I started my college career to do it with the utmost excellence that I was capable of,” she said. “I credit the TM-Sidhi program for helping me through my four years of college experience at MUM.”

During her studies in Maharishi AyurVeda^®, she enjoyed giving wellness consultations and helping people improve their health with easy lifestyle recommendations. She has experienced great improvements in her life following an ayurvedic routine, and in the future she wants to share her knowledge with others. Starting in the fall, Julie is continuing her studies at MUM in the online masters degree program in Maharishi AyurVeda and Integrative Medicine.

Three student teams from MUM’s MBA program recently participated in the Capsim Capstone online business simulation, a leading Chicago-based provider of business games. One of the teams achieved results better than 94 percent of the 1150 graduate-level teams worldwide. Team members included Tsion Woge, Molla Mekonnen, and Daniel Ayalew Belay, all from Ethiopia, and Haofang Dong from China.

According to Dr. Andrew Bargerstock, who uses the Capstone Simulation in his Enterprise Performance Management course, MUM’s MBA teams have participated in this online simulation since 2010. In all 20 incidents of MUM’s participation at least one MUM team has finished in the top 10th percentile.

During the course, students learn about Maharishi’s Five Qualities of the Executive Mind: comprehension, creativity, initiative, vigilance, and foresight. “Students are asked to select two specific activities from the simulation for each quality and describe how those activities have cultivated each of the five qualities,” said Dr. Bargerstock. “Students report their findings in an essay, which is a valuable reflection of their growing maturity in decision making.”

“From this simulation, I learned that creativity is a key skill in business,” said Haofang Dong. “All the groups start on an equal footing. What you do to run the business will make a different story. All aspects of running a business need creativity.”

“During the simulation I developed my level of vigilance,” said Molla Mekonnen. “As a team member, I was watchful about the competitors’ actions. Therefore, I was identifying our strengths and weaknesses in each round in each product segment and the opportunities and threats we would face in the coming rounds.”

Learning to work effectively in a team is also an essential skill the simulation cultivates. “We had to adopt certain principles such as: respect for one another, focusing on ideas not people, and data should lead the way,” said Daniel Ayalew Belay. “For example, the executive team members could come up with differing and, at times, conflicting decisions.”

Other high-performing universities in the top ten percent included University of Northern Iowa, The University of Texas, Ohio University, University of Washington, DePaul University, Brigham Young University, The Citadel, Georgia Institute of Technology, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Daniel Bramlett came to MUM already following his path of self-development. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he had earned two associate degrees and considered entering the field of drug and alcohol addiction counseling.

He was searching for a Vedic university online when he found MUM. He wanted to integrate what he had learned about human services and psychology with Maharishi Vedic Science^SM, so he created an individualized degree, which he called Consciousness-Based^SM Human Services.

“Maharishi Vedic Science could be considered a deep psychology of the nature of being human,” said Daniel. For his senior project, he wrote a paper about the beneficial effects of different types of meditation and how they can support recovery from substance abuse. During the 2019 Graduation Awards Ceremony, he received the Outstanding Student Award for his individualized major.

Having had personal experience with substance addiction, Daniel is motivated to help others in their recovery. “I suffered consequences from an extremely unhealthy way of life,” he said, “and the pain got so bad that the only thing left was to seek happiness. I came here as a seeker. I want happiness, and I want joy, and I want bliss, and I want love, and I want courage, and I want to put my heart into everything I do. And this place has helped me to do that. For the rest of my life, I will be a forever changed person.”

Daniel found that the supportive atmosphere at MUM and the practice of the TM^® and TM^®-Sidhi programs have helped him create a well-rounded and balanced life. He has experienced clearer thinking, emotional stability, and a deeper self-awareness as a result of his practice. To establish a solid foundation for his future, he decided to stay in Fairfield while pursuing a master’s degree in transpersonal psychology online at Atlantic University.

“Daniel is a man with a mission,” said Professor John Collins. “Through his hard work and compassion, I believe he will help a lot of people escape the perils of drug addiction and be able to create better lives.”

Daniel is also a certified fitness nutrition and bodybuilding specialist. In his free time he enjoys exercising and improving his diet. In the future, he intends to work in the fitness and human services fields.

Mirah Dumasia hails from the city of Auckland, New Zealand. She learned the Transcendental Meditation^® technique when she was 11, along with her family. Growing up with an entrepreneur father, she has always had a fascination with finance and business and she wanted to study in the US, so she decided to apply to MUM.

As a business student, Mirah focused on taking classes in accounting and entrepreneurship. She completed the one-semester track offered by the Concept To Market Institute where she learned how to draw up a business plan. She also participated in a national mediation tournament, where her team took seventh place in two categories. For her dedication to her studies, Mirah received the Outstanding Student Award from the College of Business Administration.

In her free time, Mirah worked part time at MUM’s Golden Dome Market, which turned out to be beneficial for her studies and career. While interacting with customers, she secured several summer internships and her current job.

Mirah completed two curricular practical training internships with the Fairfield-based company Tasty Superfoods, where she helped with advertising and marketing. She also spent two months doing a practical training internship in New York City, doing lead generation for an investment company called Katalyst Securities.

As part of her post-completion optional practical training for international students, she landed a one-year paid position with John Raines Insurance in Fairfield. As a starting professional, Mirah finds her practice of the TM^® technique more essential than ever.

“Having the TM and TM-Sidhi^® programs to just calm yourself down is important,” she said. “Being able to deal with all the demands of the world can be overwhelming, and when you are always in a place of high stress, you are not going to make the best decisions.”

At MUM, Mirah enjoyed the community of international students and learning about different cultures. In the future she plans to earn an MBA, travel for work, and eventually start her own business.