Karen Ballinger joined the MUM Student Government in the fall of 2015 and has been a member ever since, which makes her the longest serving member in MUM’s history. Karen brings a wealth of organizational and leadership experience from Lone Star Community College in Houston, Texas, where she was a charter member of student government, managing editor of the student newspaper, and leader of several other student organizations. Currently she is MUM’s student body vice-president and a member of the Sustainability Committee, the Food Committee, the Queer Coalition, and the Pagan Club.

Karen learned the Transcendental Meditation^® technique when she was ten years old, but it wasn’t until four decades later that she came to MUM, after raising three children and experiencing toxic mold exposure that left her disabled for years. She enrolled at MUM in 2014 to earn a business degree and regain her health. “I have experienced several jumps in healing,” she said. “I feel ten years younger. I gained back all those years I lost.”

Having graduated with a major in media and communications and a minor in sustainable living, Karen is currently pursuing her MBA in sustainable business part time. During the day, she splits her time between working for the business department and Student Activities.

Karen is passionate about making a difference, and during the past three years she has been writing a student government manual to maintain continuity and support for new members. She has also introduced student leadership training for student government members and other MUM departments. In addition, she helps organize student events and activities, such as the recent ChangeMakers event and Solis outdoor festival. “I want to make this university succeed,” she said. “My strength is that I connect people; to me that’s part of what a leader is.”

Karen’s ultimate goal is to open a chain of bread and breakfast/community centers that will serve as educational facilities for teaching sustainability and utilizing community resources. She will also integrate her previous education and experience in parent resource development by providing a place for families to gather and feel at home.

Construction is set to begin this summer on a five-acre field of solar panels on MUM land west of the recreational trail that borders the west side of campus. The 1.1-megawatt solar array will provide approximately one-third of the electricity used on campus and will be connected by an underground cable to the university’s substation.

The state-of-the-art solar panels will move to follow the path of the sun during the day. Excess energy will be stored in a battery bank for use during the night and during times of peak energy needs. The array will be one of Iowa’s largest, and the battery energy storage system will be the largest of its kind in the Midwest.

“This project is the culmination of years of design, engineering, and planning work by the local Fairfield solar company Ideal Energy together with university trustee Tom Factor,” said Tom Brooks, MUM vice president of operations.

Mr. Factor is a retired wind energy developer and researcher who has led the development of over 40 utility-scale wind farms. Ideal Energy, a leading solar company headed by MUM alumni Troy Van Beek and Amy Greenfield Van Beek, focuses on smart, scalable solar deployment.

The project, which will cost over $2 million and will be owned by an independent company, is being funded by private investment and by a loan from MUM that was made possible by donations, including grants from the Wege Foundation and the Schwartz Family Foundation. In addition, the Rona and Jeffrey Abramson Foundation and the MUM graduating classes of 2016 and 2017 made donations to support the pre-development costs for the project.

The array, which will take about two months to complete, is projected to lower MUM’s cost of electricity by about a third over its 25-year life, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition to the new array, MUM has a smaller array on the terrace west of the men’s dome, and a solar installation on the roof of the Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Center. Plus, a wind turbine south of the Sustainable Living Center also provides power to the campus.

Add these local sustainable sources to the fact that Alliant Energy, which provides electricity to campus, gets about 15 percent of its electricity from wind farms. The result is that over 43 percent of the university’s electricity will be from sustainable sources once the new array is complete this summer.

MUM continues to progress toward the goal of being a carbon-neutral campus and meeting the commitments the university has made to The American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and to the Paris Climate Initiative.

“This new solar field is a big step forward in that continuing effort to promote life in accord with natural law,” Mr. Brooks said.

MUM student Younes Kouider has always been an artist. Taking after his father, who illustrated children’s books, Younes started making art as a young child. He also has been playing music most of his life. His family practices the Transcendental Meditation^® technique, so Younes came to MUM at 18, following his older brother Amine.

When he first enrolled at MUM in 2010, Younes pursued a BFA and graduated in 2014. Then he returned home to Algeria to manage the family’s essential oil manufacturing business while his parents worked in Tunisia. For three years, Younes learned about botanicals and oil distillation and even introduced soap-making to the business.

In 2017 Younes learned about MUM’s new MA in studio artprogram, which allows students to focus on artistic exploration and create a substantial body of quality work. When his parents returned to Algeria to take over the business, Younes was able to come back to MUM in February, 2018.

“I love this school so much,” said Younes. “There is something magical about it. And the experience of Transcendental Meditation helps so much in the studio. When you have deep meditations in the morning and in the afternoon, your artistic quest is so much easier. Your emotions are settled, your senses become more refined, and you know exactly what to do. It’s effortless.”

Younes is grateful for his art teachers who are guiding him in creating a consistent portfolio, which he can use to apply for an MFA program. In his free time, he enjoys playing music with his brother Amine and other musicians.

Younes has also been involved with Enlightened Leadership International, the next generation of leaders to support the TM organization, and he hopes to participate in charitable work on behalf of the organization.

A team of MBA accounting students finished in the 99th percentile in an online integrated decision-making simulation that involved 1,271 master’s-degree-level teams worldwide. During the past seven years, MUM has consistently placed at least one team in the top 10 percent, while the number of competing teams has increased more than tenfold.

This year’s top-ranking team included Ram Neupane (Nepal), Merveille Tiani (Cameroon), and Pondpat Tohsanguanpun (Thailand). The students were participating in the competition while enrolled in Dr. Andrew Bargerstock’s MBA Capstone course.

“We had four teams competing during the three weeks ending Feb 5, and our class performed overall at a level higher than 81 percent of the participating graduate schools worldwide,” said Professor Bargerstock.

The online Capstone simulation challenges students to draw on their acquired knowledge to create and execute a strategy in a competitive and dynamic environment. Students have the opportunity to test their assumptions and learn from their mistakes so they are better prepared for their careers. They get the chance to apply what they have learned across all disciplines of business and experience what it’s like to run a business in a competitive marketplace.

“With each round of the simulation, we experienced layers of growth in 360-degree vision, which is so important for guiding a successful business,” said Ram Neupane.

“The Capstone simulation enabled me to revisit each section of a company and see how each decision that we made had an impact on the financial statements, the productivity, and our ability to meet customer demand,” said Merveille Tiani. “It is, therefore, an ideal tool to experience Maharishi’s five qualities of executive mind, which are comprehension, creativity, initiative, vigilance, and foresight.”

Other U.S. universities in the top 10 percent included DePaul University, Indiana University, Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Massachusetts, University of Northern Iowa, and Western Michigan University.

In 2015 MUM alumna Abha Bhandair took the position of director of equity administration and benefits accounting at Brown & Brown Insurance in Daytona Beach, Florida, and she immediately decided to make changes. She streamlined and automated certain processes that were in place for decades, which caught the attention of the company’s leadership.

For thinking outside the box and taking risks, Abha was nominated to speak at the Women in Leadership conference at Bowling Green State University in Perrysburg, Ohio, last October. She also received a Distinguished Presenter Award at the Brown & Brown Senior Financial Leadership Presentation meeting.

Abha came to MUM in 1999 from New Delhi, India, to pursue an MBA degree. She wanted a career in finance and accounting, so in her senior year she decided to study for the CPA exam. At the time, MUM wasn’t offering an accounting program yet, so Abha pursued the certification in her own time and passed the test on her first attempt.

“MUM was a great experience,” said Abha. “When I first started there, I didn’t know anything about Transcendental Meditation, but I learned a lot, and the twice-a-day TM practice added some peace and quiet to my busy day-to-day life.”

After graduating from MUM with an Outstanding Student Award in 2002, Abha earned a master’s degree in taxation from Florida Atlantic University. Since then, she has been striving to take leadership positions, such as manager of Accounting Services at Newport Group. Abha sees herself moving all the way to the top and serving as chief financial officer or chief accounting officer someday.

“I enjoy challenges in my career, and I enjoy conquering those challenges,” she said. “So that’s what drives me most—being able to make a difference.”