When Karen Ballinger joined MUM Student Government five years ago, she embarked on several projects to sustain Student Government for years to come. First she organized a weeklong annual leadership training for Student Government representatives, which recently completed its fourth session.

She also began documenting everything members needed to successfully run Student Government and represent the student body. She and three-time representative Cris Evergreen created the Student Government How-to Guide, helping each representative with their specific role.

Karen, now starting her fifth year with Student Government, serves as active alumni advisor along with Cris. Several other students in recent years also served on Student Government for multiple years, providing continuity. The result has been a more knowledgeable and empowered Student Government that can serve the student body more effectively.

“Student Government members are gaining self-confidence and leadership skills,” said Karen. “They are learning how to deal with different situations, speak up for other people, run meetings, work as a team, and communicate with administrators.”

The goal of Student Government is to improve students’ experience outside the classroom. One of the recent developments is the growth of student club activity. According to Cris, student clubs help build community, which is one of MUM’s eight core values. “Clubs create a sense of belonging, which is key to the longevity of a community and improved retention rates for the university,” said Cris.

Student Government has also created several new traditions, such as the annual Solis outdoor festival, and the ChangeMakers Month. In addition, they arranged to provide evening meals for Muslim students during Ramadan, facilitated the establishment of a student garden, and helped the student club Queer Coalition introduce gender inclusive housing and bathrooms. In addition, Student Government has helped ensure that students can comfortably practice the Transcendental Meditation^® technique.

“Students join Student Government because they see others becoming leaders and making changes to improve our campus,” said Karen. “They want to be a part of that.” Student Government’s goal for this year is to organize cultural events that showcase the diversity of campus.

MUM student Daniel Ayalew Belay had already earned an MBA from Edinburgh Business School. However, he wanted to become an expert in SAP enterprise software, so he joined MUM’s MBA in SAP Finance Program.

Daniel, who is from Ethiopia, worked for the African Union Commission for over ten years, first coordinating the financial affairs of 12 offices located in various countries in Africa, then overseeing the financial and administrative activities of the African Union Mission in South Sudan.

For several years Daniel and his brother also ran a printing company in Addis Ababa. They even published several issues of their own magazine called Armemo, which means “silence” in Amharic, referring to Daniel’s interests in self-reflection and personal development.

At the beginning of his career Daniel wanted to discover how to live “a useful and successful life,” so he began reading personal development books. Over time he decided to share what he had learned with his friends and other youth by volunteering to give short courses on self-esteem, goal setting, and personal finance. So Daniel finds MUM’s focus on self-discovery and inner growth helpful.

“Being here in Fairfield is a break for me, since I have been working for 15 years,” said Daniel. “Now I can reflect on what I want to do in the future. I am enjoying my courses, but I don’t feel stressed.” In his free time, he is writing a book for young people on how to adapt to their environment, select the direction they want to take in life, and find the courage and motivation to accomplish their goals.

Daniel especially enjoyed participating in the Capstone online business simulation, where his team placed in the 94th percentile. He also gained valuable experience from doing a research project on how to support the accounting needs of Fairfield’s small businesses through mentoring, networking, and internship programs. “People are very supportive and cooperative here,” he said. “Everyone wants you to succeed.”

After completing his studies Daniel wants to return to Ethiopia, start his own consulting company, and continue writing about personal development.

Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Shawn Brogan Diddy has been a performer since age 14. She became Miss Iowa USA in 1997 and has enjoyed a productive career in the music and television industries. Shawn is currently pursuing a PhD in management at MUM.

Shawn began her entrepreneurial adventures at age 20 by operating a karaoke and DJ business on cruise ships out of Florida. She has also recorded a country music album in Nashville and performed as a vocalist with various bands. She has acted on stage, in film, and on television, and worked as a news correspondent in Los Angeles.

However, she spent most of her time being a product expert on multiple shopping channels and acting in commercials. Shawn was an on-camera brand expert on the QCV Channel, hosted a show with Chef Emeril Lagasse from the Food Network, and hosted Jewelry Television and ShopNBC. She has also worked as a corporate coach, brand consultant, and speaker.

Getting a PhD degree has always been part of Shawn’s carefully crafted life plan. She earned an MA in mass communications from Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, and entered into a doctoral program in 2009, which she wasn’t able to pursue due to work commitments.

Shawn describes herself as a “recovering perfectionist,” and while she loves entertaining and being on camera, she has had her struggles with anxiety and burnout. In 2011 she switched her focus to becoming a health and wellness expert. Her desire to become a “stress scientist and joy detective” led her to learn the Transcendental Meditation^® technique in 2016, and in 2018 she enrolled at MUM.

“The MUM PhD program offers university level teaching experience and research opportunities, as well as the integration of a regular TM practice, so I can work toward my professional goals while balancing personal health and well-being,” said Shawn.

Shawn wants to continue working on television as a lifestyle expert, and having a doctorate can help her achieve that. She is currently acting as a product expert on ShopLC, where she mentions MUM from time to time.

“My entire life’s mission has been to make people’s lives easier,” she said. “I want to use my PhD research to show people what TM can do in corporate America. It can really help people in this high-pressure and highly creative environment.”

MUM alumna Pia Fritsch recently published a paper in World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research. In her article, titled 1.5 Degrees Celsius: The Metamorphosis of the AMERICAN Way of Life, A Transition in Collective Maturation, Pia argues that in order for the United States to become a sustainable society, it must go through a complex transformation process similar to adolescence.

Pia grew up in a family that practices the Transcendental Meditation^® technique and, after three of her siblings graduated from MUM, she decided to attend as well. Pia was interested in psychology, philosophy, and sustainability, so she pursued the philosophies of sustainability track in the Sustainable Living Department.

Pia enjoyed the block system and the courses offered by the Sustainable Living Program at MUM. “Most other programs are under environmental philosophies, but sustainable living is an apt name and subject highlighting how humans interact with the environment, rather than thinking of the environment as something separate you need to preserve.”

During her studies at MUM Pia encountered the concept of ecofeminism, a small sub-field of feminism that studies the intersection of feminism, environmentalism, and environmental justice. This discovery also served as inspiration for her article on American attitudes towards climate change examined from the perspective of developmental ecopsychology and ecofeminism.

Pia graduated from MUM in 2015 and is now completing a master’s program in gender studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Pia is passionate about sustainability and gender equality. “Because of the gender division of labor in many parts of the world, a lot of the burdens of a changing environment fall on women. That’s why ecofeminism is becoming more pertinent.”

Pia is currently working on her graduate thesis on ecofeminism as exemplified by a woman-led art collective in Amsterdam which enacts art demonstrations at cultural institutions that accept money from the fossil fuel industry.

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.