MUM alumna Shiana Tea graduated from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education) in Mexico with a BE in electronic systems engineering and an MS in automation and control engineering. In 2012 she was offered a software engineering position at Houston-based Dresser-Rand, an engineering and manufacturing company now owned by Siemens.

Shiana had practiced Zen meditation and Qigong and, in 2014, she was introduced to the Transcendental Meditation^®technique by a friend. “It was something completely different from other things I have tried before,” she said. “It is really simple and effortless.” Shiana enjoyed her TM^® practice and when she decided to study management in 2015, she checked out MUM’s Online MBA in Sustainable Business.

Having been promoted to a leadership position, Shiana wanted to cultivate her managerial skills. She chose MUM because it was ranking high as one of the most valued online MBA programs. She also liked the curriculum that offers a well-rounded education taking into consideration the social, environmental, and human aspects of business management. “The professors were not only good subject matter experts in their respective fields, but they had a holistic approach which made a big difference,” she said.

The managerial skills Shiana gained during her MBA complemented her previous technology-oriented education. She had no previous experience in finance, so she has greatly benefited from the theory and case studies in class, which now enable her to manage a budget.

Shiana was promoted twice in six years and is now an engineering manager, overseeing a team of 27 people. Last year she was selected to participate in a one-year leadership training at Siemens as one of their top talents. In the future, she plans to further improve her leadership skills to motivate people and help them grow.

Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who practiced the Transcendental Meditation^® technique showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms comparable to veterans who utilized a gold standard prolonged exposure therapy, according to a new study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. Both Transcendental Meditation and exposure therapy treatments were significantly more effective than the PTSD health education control group.

Major news outlets around the world covered the findings. The Associated Press (AP) story was picked up by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, and ABC News.

The randomized controlled trial assigned a total of 203 veterans at the VA San Diego Healthcare System to prolonged exposure, Transcendental Meditation, or health education control groups. Each treatment provided 12 sessions over 12 weeks, with daily home practice. The objective of the study was to compare TM to prolonged exposure in a non-inferiority clinical trial, and to compare both to an attention control of health education.

Findings indicated that 61 percent of the veterans assigned to Transcendental Meditation experienced clinically meaningful improvement in PTSD symptoms, compared to 42 percent with prolonged exposure and 32 percent with health education. Results further indicated significant reductions in depression and mood disturbance and improved quality of life for TM^® compared to health education controls.

“PTSD is a complex and difficult-to-treat disorder that affects 10 to 20 percent of veterans,” said Sanford Nidich, EdD, director of the Center for Social-Emotional Health and Consciousness at Maharishi University of Management Research Institute and the study’s principal investigator. “This trial provides evidence that Transcendental Meditation, a non-trauma-focused therapy, is a viable option for decreasing PTSD symptoms in veterans. The availability of an additional evidence-based PTSD therapy will benefit patients both by offering them a greater range of first-line treatment options and by serving as an alternative treatment strategy for those not responding to exposure-based PTSD therapy.”

The Department of Defense, US Army Medical Research, sponsored the study for $2.4 million. The VA San Diego Healthcare System, The University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical School, and Maharishi University of Management Research Institute collaborated on the trial. Other MUM coauthors included Maxwell Rainforth, Robert Schneider, John Salerno, and Carolyn Gaylord-King.

MUM alumna Jessica Hernandez recently completed her studies at MUM and published her senior project paper on the medicinal uses of 10 Iowa herbs in the International Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Jessica came to MUM from San Antonio, Texas, because she was drawn to learning the Transcendental Meditation^®technique and liked the idea of studying one subject at a time with MUM’s block system. She appreciated the integration of the TM^® technique into the daily routine. “It’s very valuable to sit in silence with other people,” she said. “It is powerful because it gives the physiology and the mind the chance to settle down and alleviate some of the stress.”

As a teenager, Jessica developed a passion for growing healthy food and cooking, so she decided to study sustainable living at MUM. “My favorite part was the hands-on experience because it’s so engaging and interactive that you don’t forget what you have learned, and it makes you want to learn more,” she said.

To get sufficient practice in organic farming, Jessica did internships at the MUM Student Farms greenhouse and a local business called Earth Wisdom. She also took a break from school to manage an almond orchard, work at a fermented food business, and take culinary classes at a community college in California.

For her senior project, she researched the benefits of 10 common culinary herbs, including basil, chamomile, lavender, and mint. Her paper describes the history and origin of each plant as well as their medicinal uses and lists the advantages of cultivating these herbs in Iowa.

Jessica feels confident about the knowledge and skills she gained at MUM and is excited to build her own food business based on her experience in organic agriculture, culinary arts, and the healing properties of foods.

Prior to becoming an MUM student, Rakesh Gupta led a team of 3,000 employees as managing director of Allianz Cornhill Information Services (ACIS) in India. Now he is studying Maharishi Vedic Science^SM to validate his business success with the principles of Vedic knowledge.

Rakesh received his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, the leading business school in India. He gained management experience in a variety of key positions at British Telecom in the UK, GE Appliances in the USA, and several companies in India.

In 2003 Rakesh was hired by the international insurance company Allianz to set up their India information services division. After starting the ACIS unit from scratch, Rakesh began growing the company at an unexpected rate, reaching 500 plus employees in five years, vastly surpassing the projected 80. He streamlined processes, broadened employee authority, and increased performance and revenues for the company. In time, he was inducted into the board of directors of Allianz UK.

For his innovative management practices he was recognized as one of the few Great People Leaders in 2014 across the Allianz Group. In 2015 he received the Pioneering Business Leader award from the Shared Services Forum in India.

The leadership principles Rakesh used throughout his career were based on his intuition, but he wanted to find their source in the Vedic literature. He was looking to study Vedic leadership when his former IIM classmate and MUM professor Anil Maheshwari told him about MUM. Rakesh resigned from his position at Allianz and enrolled at MUM in the summer of 2017 to study Maharishi Vedic Science.

“The whole climate at MUM is so nice, the food you eat is healthy, the air you breathe, the whole daily routine, the TM practice, everything is conducive to your high level of consciousness and well-being,” he said. “It’s a wonderful experience.”

After finishing his MA in Maharishi Vedic Science, Rakesh has two ambitions. One is to establish a Vedic university in India in partnership with MUM. His second desire is to help people by promoting the Vedic principles of leadership in the corporate world. “In my last job, I have helped about 10,000 people over the years,” he said. “My next wish is to help a million people improve their lives.”