by Livia Horváth | Apr 19, 2017 | Achievements
MBA student Latha Lakshmanan
Latha Lakshmanan enjoys the challenge of a fast-paced work environment and handling high-profile clients, but she found it difficult to balance her personal life with the demands of her job. “One of my main intentions coming to MUM was to have a routine and the discipline to take care of myself,” she said, “so when I go back into the work force, I will have those skills.”
With classmates and Professor Anil Maheshwari and guest lecturer Jim Bagnola
A native of Minneapolis, Latha earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Minnesota, and another in accounting from Augsburg College in Minneapolis. She has worked in internal auditing, risk assessment, and regulatory compliance services for financial institutions and other industries.
In 2012 Latha saw an Oprah special on Fairfield and MUM, which inspired her to learn the Transcendental Meditation®technique. After several visits to Fairfield, she decided to enroll in the sustainable MBA Program in 2016.
With other presenters and organizers of the MBAA International Conference
Since learning the TM® technique, Latha has achieved a sense of calmness in the face of stressful situations. She has also learned to pay attention to life’s synchronicities that are helping her achieve her goals. She even started to document these events to reinforce their occurrence. “You can see that there is an organizing power in the universe,” said Latha.
Latha thrives in the project-based learning environment of the MBA Program, solving real-life problems. “When you are out in the field, the problems can be so different from what a classroom can cover,” she said. “You need to be able to think on the spot, address the different stakeholders, your own team, and the client. It’s a juggling act.”
Presenting her paper at the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International Conference in Chicago, March 2017
Last week Latha attended the Midwest Business Administration Association International Conference in Chicago to present a research paper she and a classmate wrote for a lean business process project. After graduating, Latha wants to return to consulting, adding sustainability and lean process improvement to her areas of expertise.
“Besides her strong intellectual acumen, outstanding organizational skills, and lofty ambitions, Latha is also fun-loving, likable, enthusiastic, and trustworthy,” said Sabita Sawhney, associate professor of management. “Latha’s greatest strength, in my estimation, is her insistence on developing all aspects of her personality, both head and heart.”
by Livia Horváth | Apr 18, 2017 | Alumni Profiles
- Awards: Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, Forty Under Forty, Inc. 500
- Home: Naples, Florida
- From: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Job: President of Location Based Services, RacoWireless
- Specialty: Software Development
- MIU Degree: BS, Computer Science, 1994
“There is very little I have today that I could not trace back to my education at MIU,” says Felix Lluberes, founder and CEO of Position Logic.
During some of the financially toughest times in recent history — the economic downturn that began in 2008 — Felix was busy accomplishing something that even in good times few entrepreneurs can manage: building up a small business that would be named to the prestigious Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S.
Felix and his wife Andrea, whom he met while studying at MIU.
A computer science bachelors graduate from MIU, Felix started Position Logic in his home before expanding it to more than 42 employees in four U.S. states and two countries. In 2014, this high achiever won the Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from the Florida Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, and was named to the Gulfshore Business “Forty Under Forty,” celebrating successful young business leaders in Florida. Felix lives in Naples, Florida with his wife Andrea and their three children, Bianka, Romulo, and Felix.
Early Roots
Felix Lluberes grew up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, raised by parents whose education did not exceed 8th grade. He attended the local Maharishi High School, located just three blocks from his home, where he learned the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique at age 12.
He grew to love meditation and Maharishi’s teachings. In 8th grade he decided that he wanted to attend Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa after graduating from high school. However, his family’s financial limitations made that seem like a far-flung dream. “I thought that if I applied myself for five or six years, I might get a scholarship,” says Felix. In the spring of 1989 he received word from MIU: he’d won a full tuition scholarship. Felix arrived in Fairfield in August 1989.
Not yet proficient in English, he enrolled in an ESL program before embarking on his degree work. His first moments on campus felt like a dream come true. “Just being able to see the Domes, see the campus, it was amazing,” recalls Felix. “I started to meet the students. That was the beginning of an unbelievable family, unbelievable friends who became lifetime assets.”
Success at MIU
Felix’s three children Felix, Bianka and Romulo
He chose computer science as a major and earned his BS degree in 1994. He landed his first job at a Fairfield company and then relocated to Kansas for a position developing security frameworks. After working a few more jobs in software development, his breakthrough came in 2003 when he created a platform for asset management and GPS tracking.
Based on that technology, Felix founded his company, Position Logic, which within six years earned the Inc. 500 distinction. “In our Naples office alone, where I spend most of my time, we have 42 employees representing 19 different nationalities,” says Felix. “It’s an international family, just like at MIU. It’s something I’m very proud of.”
Mentoring at MIU
Felix attributes much of his career success to what he learned and experienced at MIU. “The faculty there mentor you,” he says. “You get the sense they really care about the students. You can easily approach individuals who sit higher up. They are so accessible, so open, so able to help you. And they do so in a very kind manner.” At MIU, he says he learned to look at things from a deeper level.
“I can see from a different point of view than most people,” he says. “I can relate just about everything back to nature. That’s important.” Felix credits MIU for helping him gain a business advantage, and sees the practice of TM as enabling him to function better. “I call it true clarity,” he explains. “TM plays a critical role in anything I set out to do. It gives me that center, that peace that is necessary to do the right thing at the right time. “I am so lucky to have had this education and experience,” he says. “It has been such a blessing throughout my life.”
by Livia Horváth | Apr 18, 2017 | Achievements
BFA student Hannah Foster
When she was little, Hannah Foster wanted to become a veterinarian, a singer, and an artist. She worked for a vet for a few years, took college classes in zoology and wildlife studies, and dabbled in the performing arts. But ultimately she chose art over science and enrolled at MUM to pursue a BFA, a career she hopes can give her the most independence.
Modeling at the 2015 MUM Eco Jam
Hannah grew up outside St. Louis, Missouri, and learned about MUM from her sister Jada, who is an MUM alumna. At MUM Hannah discovered that creating art is part of her personal development process.
“I am interested in philosophy and spirituality, and art gives me an outlet to explore the nature of life and existence,” she said. “I like taking something abstract and trying to express it in physical limitations.”
At the wheel in a ceramics class
Hannah says that the practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique has helped her to be less critical of her own creative work and instead adopt a grander view. “I practice twice a day, no matter what,” she said. “It’s a place that I know I can go to take time out, and it has helped me feel less anxious and more confident.”
Ceramics and painting are Hannah’s favorite media, and she often combines them into multimedia collages. She also enjoys teaching, and last summer she developed and taught a community ceramics class. As her work-study job, she manages the ceramics studio in the art department.
2670: A ceramic sculpture, 2016
“Hannah is inventive in the studio and excited about making art,” said Gyan Shrosbree, assistant professor of art. “She has a lot of promise as an artist: dedicated to her studio practice, balanced in her life and her demeanor, organized, and able to take advice and make it her own.”
During her previous semester, Hannah created a portfolio for graduate school, and two universities have offered her full scholarships. She will begin her MFA at Pennsylvania State University next fall.
by Livia Horváth | Apr 18, 2017 | Alumni Profiles
Amy Spitzfaden
I got the idea for my novel in December 2011,” says Amy Spitzfaden, 23, who earned a literature degree from MUM the following year. “The first sentence came to me, and that’s what got me started. The protagonist feels she’s ‘missing’ someone but doesn’t remember who it is. I liked that concept, though I didn’t develop it at first.”
The story did gel over time. A key moment in what would become Amy’s first novel, Untold – winner of the Inkfingerz award 2013 – took place during a storytelling class given by MUM Media & Communications instructor Cullen Thomas.
“For homework we had to write a certain number of pages each night,” says Amy. “So I decided to start into the story. What was really helpful was that Cullen asked all these leading questions, like ‘Where is this missing feeling coming from? What happens then? What does the scenery look like?’ I thought about it all, and saw mountains and forests and trees, and before I knew it the book was starting to happen.”
Amy found much-needed support and writerly tools in MUM’s literature department, which prepared her to work through a full-length novel. Professor Nynke Passi “was amazing at teaching technique and giving guidance,” Amy says. “It’s such a respectful community. In a lot of writing classes you can get the feeling of competition. At MUM, everybody is so happy to listen to everybody else’s writing. I loved that.”
Amy’s book tour for Untold included a stop in Fairfield, Iowa, home of MUM, for readings as well as a radio interview on KRUU on the show Writers’ Voices. You can listen to the show here.
Currently Amy works in marketing at Publishers Single Copy Sales Service (PCSC), a consulting company based in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The company’s focus is on magazine publishing, sales, and distribution. Amy manages social media, works in promotion and offers client support.
In 2013 Amy married Ravi Both, whom she met when both were students at MUM. Ravi, a native of Holland, works as a web developer and SEO expert, also at PSCS.
- MUM Degree: BA, Literature & Creative Writing, 2012
- Winner: Inkfingerz Award for Fiction, 2013
- Debut Novel: Untold (1st World Publishing, 2012)
- Job: Marketing Assistant/Social Networking Expert at PSCS Consulting
by Livia Horváth | Apr 18, 2017 | Achievements
MBA student Kenny Januar
Indonesian student Kenny Januar grew up helping his father in his beverage manufacturing business. He never had a doubt that one day he too, would become a business owner, in spite of his high school counselors’ efforts to steer him towards the medical sciences.
Kenny attended Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, Indonesia, and graduated six months early with a bachelor’s degree in human resource management. During his senior year he attended a talk about MUM by alumnus Gde Brawishwara Putra, who talked about MUM. Kenny had aspirations to study in the US, so he visited the MUM website. He liked the idea of maintaining a balanced lifestyle while studying, so he applied to MUM’s sustainable MBA.
Kenny with his process improvement project paper co-authors, German Servente and Guo Ge
Now he appreciates the international community of students on campus and the ability to fit exercise into his daily routine. The practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique also helps him stay balanced. “Usually I don’t rest at all besides sleeping,” said Kenny. “I always read or study. Now I have an extra 20 minutes to get rest and it helps clear my mind.”
Last fall Kenny took two courses in lean management, and the paper his team wrote about their process improvement project was selected for the Midwest Business Administration Association International Conference in Chicago this March.
With professor Sabita Sawhney and students in the process improvement class
“In and outside of class, Kenny utilizes the lean principles of ‘continuous improvement’ and ‘respect for people’,” said Sabita Sawhney, assistant professor of management. “He is a solid individual, possessing both the intellect and work ethic necessary to attain much future success.”
In addition to his school work, Kenny has been preparing for his Associate Professional in Human Resources certification so that he can find a job in the US in human resource management. After gaining
After a soccer game at MUM
some work experience, he plans to return to Indonesia and start his own business.
In his free time, Kenny likes to travel and learn languages. He is already proficient in four and currently learning Japanese. He is graduating in June at age 22, becoming one of the youngest MBA graduates.
