Pondpat Tohsanguanpun chose MUM’s MBA for Accounting Professionals Program because her goal was to gain work experience in the U.S. Pondpat earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Thammasat University in Thailand and worked for Ernst & Young Thailand for three years as a senior auditor. When she learned about MUM from a family friend, she decided to apply.

Pondpat says she enjoys studying at MUM for several reasons. She appreciates the diversity of international students and the practice of the Transcendental Meditation^® technique. “TM helps me develop relationships with people,” she said. “I am happier than ever before. I have grown so much as a person.”

In the accounting program, she has learned that business is not all about the bottom line, and sustainable businesses need to foster collaboration among all their departments. One of her most fulfilling MBA experiences was her participation in the Capstone online business simulation, where her team finished in the 99th percentile.

“I learned how to work in a team, encourage and empower team members, and make them accountable,” she said. “If you invest in people, they will give favorable results in return.”

She also had a chance to practice her payroll skills during a five-month internship with Vanguard Resource Group in Fairfield. After finishing her on-campus studies, Pondpat hopes to find a paid internship in auditing.

“Pondpat has consistently impressed me with her solid technical skills, focused friendly interpersonal manner, and alert and happy personality,” said Professor Andrew Bargerstock, chair of the Accounting Department. “I am very confident that she will achieve great things in her life.”

Pondpat sees the future of accounting moving towards increased computerization, so her long-term goal is to specialize in integrated financial management software such as the SAP enterprise resource planning software, which is one of the Accounting MBA specializations at MUM.

College professors in India heard presentations by Professors Anil Maheshwari and Scott Herriott at the Second National Teachers’ Congress hosted by Maharashtra Institute of Technology-World Peace University (MIT-WPU) in Pune, India, in January.

National Teachers’ Congress (NTC) is a convention of higher education teachers from India, and teachers of Indian origin living abroad, with the mission of facilitating the exchange and dissemination of creative and visionary ideas and best practices through interaction with peers and thought leaders from all walks of life.

The MUM faculty were invited to give plenary addresses, along with the Dalai Lama and about 30 other eminent educators and political leaders. Over 2,000 teachers took part in the Congress, mostly from India but also including hundreds of visitors from a dozen countries.

In his address to the Congress, Dr. Maheshwari spoke about the ultimate goal of education: to help students prepare to live a blissful life. Dr. Herriott gave a presentation about the fourth state of consciousness and its role in education, showing references to this state of consciousness in the Mandukya Upanishad and the Bhagavad-Gita. He cited research showing that 8,000 students practicing the advanced TM-Sidhi^®program together would radiate an influence that would help create peace in the world. “World peace is a mere byproduct of a properly founded system of education,” Professor Herriott said.

In addition to being invited to address the Congress, Scott and Vicki Herriott were there to teach the Transcendental Meditation^® technique at MIT-WPU. Along with a young Transcendental Meditation instructor from Delhi, they taught 20 faculty and students from the Department of Vedic Science and the School of Education and 40 students in the College of Business. There are now more than 100 practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique at MIT-WPU.

This private university was founded by Dr. Vishwanath Karad in 1983 and currently has 65,000 students. MIT-WPU strongly supports MUM’s Consciousness-Based^SM education and has resolved to build a meditation hall for 4,000 students. During the Congress Dr. Karad met privately with the MUM faculty.

Waqas Hussain earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Air University in Islamabad, Pakistan. After graduation he worked as a software engineer on a variety of projects, including a system to recognize different stages of Alzheimer’s disease, a tomato and potato plant disease-detection system, and an electronic voting platform designed to eliminate electoral fraud.

While traveling in the U.S. Waqas visited MUM and, after talking to professors, decided to apply for the Computer Professionals Program. He was persuaded by the program’s focus on the practical versus the theoretical aspects of computer science. “I like that the faculty keep us up-to-date with whatever is new in the industry,” he said. “They also focus on what’s good for the students and help us with writing resumes and finding jobs.”

Waqas was impressed by how much he benefited from the practice of the Transcendental Meditation^® technique in terms of his creativity and focus, so he decided to demonstrate its efficacy with a mathematical equation. He presented his theory to President John Hagelin and the MUM senior faculty and was encouraged to continue his research.

Waqas calls his equation the “Transcendental Equation” which describes the seven states of consciousness, including the process of experiencing pure consciousness. In addition, he is working on an article with MUM Professor Cathy Gorini on relating the Transcendental Meditation technique to principles from mathematics and computer science to be published in the International Journal of Mathematics and Consciousness.

“Waqas has a deep appreciation for his daily practice of TM; this, along with his penetrating understanding of computer science, is the key to his success,” said Professor Gorini. “I am looking forward to his work connecting the science of consciousness with the science of computers.”

During his eight months on campus, Waqas also served on the MUM Student Government as the representative of the Computer Science Department.

Last November Waqas started his curricular practical training with a software company in Princeton, New Jersey, where he is working on a robot capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. He is very enthusiastic about the TM^® technique and shares his experience with everyone he meets. He hopes to continue his research on the TM equation and return to MUM.

Amanda Hock Simpson is a student in the MA in Maharishi Vedic Science^SM program, which she has been pursuing online for the past two years. She lives in Laguna Niguel, California, with her husband and two children, so MUM’s distance education program allows her to take classes, which she wouldn’t be able to do full time.

Amanda earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Arizona State University. She has worked as a public relations writer at American Express and at several technology companies. For the past ten years she has worked in commercial real estate investing.

Amanda says she has always been seeking knowledge about the full potential of life, so she had learned hatha yoga and taken classes on Indian philosophy. In 2014, after several friends had recommended it, she learned the Transcendental Meditation^® technique. Immediately she began reading books by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and in 2015 enrolled in MUM’s online MA program in Maharishi Vedic Science.

“It is the most meaningful educational experience I have ever had,” said Amanda. “Our professors are experts in their fields and the online community is wonderful. I am so impressed with the whole structure of the program—the lectures, webinars, forums, essays, presentations. We are learning about everything that matters most in life.”

In 2017 Amanda visited Fairfield for the first time and completed the TM-Sidhi^® program. Currently she is attending the Maharishi Yoga^SM Asana course in Laguna Beach. Amanda enjoys incorporating all the different branches of Maharishi’s knowledge and technologies in her life, as she feels they are complementary and enhance both her experience and understanding. She also enjoys sharing the knowledge she is gaining at MUM.

“You can reach a lot more people when the wisdom of the ancient teachings is confirmed by scientific studies showing how much the brain changes and evolves as a result of TM,” she said.

In her free time Amanda enjoys songwriting, photography, hiking, traveling, and interior design.