“I would say that my tour is the reason that I'm at 太阳城娱乐官网, even though I got lost,” Ashton Baxa said. 
 
Baxa, an upcoming 太阳城娱乐官网MBA graduate from Osborne, Kansas physically got lost on campus when she first came for her campus visit.  
 
此后，她发现自己在捷克共和国留学，扩大了自己的网络，并在完成MBA学位之前在科尔尼的Intellicom公司找到了一份职业。 She will soon find herself walking 太阳城娱乐官网’s commencement stage once again as she graduates with her MBA this December.
 
“My parents were like, ‘Ashton you’re adult enough, you can go on this visit alone,’” said Baxa, who at the time was attending Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas.  
 
“I'm from rural Kansas, so no stoplights. We have a Subway, Pizza Hut, you know, the whole small-town thing, not even a Casey’s. And I was like, ‘You want me to go by myself to Kearney on this college visit?’” she said. 
 
她把恐惧抛在一边，独自驾车向北行驶了近两个小时，来到了太阳城娱乐官网的科尔尼。 
 
“I was taken to my academic visit and my tour guide had left, because that is how they had done it at that time,” she explained. “After I was done, I was like, ‘How do I get back to my car?’ I was completely lost. That is how I met Erin Pearson.” 
 
Associate Director of 太阳城娱乐官网招生 Dr. Erin Pearson at the time worked as the Communications and Recruitment Specialist for 太阳城娱乐官网’s College of Business and Technology.  
 
“She walked me back to the Memorial Student Affairs building because my car was there,” Baxa continued. “If I hadn't got lost, I'm not sure that I would have got that one-on-one time with Erin. My tour was a big group and having that personal time with her really made a difference for me.” 

毕业后，她的副学士学位，从哈钦森社区学院，Baxa转移到太阳城娱乐官网。  
 
She graduated Magna Cum Laude from 太阳城娱乐官网 in May of 2022 with a 工商管理理学学士学位 with an emphasis in accounting, and with some master’s courses already on her transcript. 
 
“I started my master's degree my senior year of my undergraduate,” Baxa explained. 
 
太阳城娱乐官网 undergraduate seniors can take 12 credit hours of master’s courses to apply towards a future master’s program, like in the case of Baxa. 太阳城娱乐官网’s MBA program is taking full advantage of this and encourages many undergraduate students to pursue this approach. 
 
“If a student is close to graduating, but needs a few credit hours to stay full-time, then taking MBA courses as an undergraduate student can be a very valuable decision,” MBA Director Dustin Favinger said. 
 
Not only does it fulfill a student's fulltime status, but it also gives them “a glimpse of what it’s like to be enrolled in a graduate program.” 
 
“We have started to see more undergraduate students take graduate courses before graduation as the market demand for an MBA has increased over the last few years,” said Favinger. “The entry-level job market is very competitive today and students see the value in a graduate degree to help differentiate themselves from others, and we want to provide students with the opportunity to better themselves with an MBA as they continue to develop personally and professionally.” 
 
Baxa saw the value as well and enrolled in 太阳城娱乐官网’s MBA - Accounting Track.  
 
“I would absolutely say it's been beneficial to do the MBA program,” she said. “I already had good networking through my undergrad, but I feel like it's only getting stronger. 自从在太阳城娱乐官网开始，我成长了很多。 回首过去，从我大一那年的阿什顿到现在的我，真是太疯狂了。 I know that comes with maturity, but I feel like my education has grown me as a person as well.” 
 
从她迷路并遇到皮尔逊的那一刻起，Baxa就开始在太阳城娱乐官网建立自己的关系网。 
 
“I was Erin’s work study my first semester and that's how I met Dustin Favinger. I then started working at the 楼上啤酒厂 that Dustin co-owns,” she said. 
 
Baxa将在这里扩展其全球网络。 
 
“I was actually working at the Upper Room when Dr. Burkink came in with a professor from the Czech Republic,” Baxa said. “He was like, ‘Why aren't you coming?’ And I was like, ‘It doesn't fit in my degree program.’” 

Dr. Timothy Burkink, Professor of 市场营销, was talking about his experiential learning marketing course he taught in the spring of 2023, which allowed nine 太阳城娱乐官网 students to travel abroad to the Czech Republic. 
 
“For the accounting track, I was supposed to take marketing 856,” Baxa explained. “Dustin, Bree Dority (Professor of Finance, former CBT Associate Dean), and everyone looked the syllabus over and allowed me to take the 833P class versus taking my marketing 856 class. 太神奇了。 I wouldn’t change it for the world.” 
 
她在国外的经历使她成长为一个人，并在Intellicom担任员工会计。 
 
“Intellicom is super big about professional development and career development,” Baxa said. “They'll send different emails letting us know about opportunities and encourage us to go.” 
 
其中一个机会是参加州外的会议，这意味着航空旅行将是最可接受的交通方式。 起初，Baxa对接受这样的报价犹豫不决。 
 
“Since going through my study abroad, I realized travel is not bad and it’s super fun,” she said. “I want to travel more now. I think it broadened my horizons and when those opportunities come up again at work, I think I'll be more likely to jump on that.” 
 
Baxa在职业生涯中看到的机会并不止于此。 
 
“The turnover here at Intellicom is very, very low,” she said. “I've already talked about how I would like to grow and there doesn't seem to be a ceiling to where I'm going to cap out. I have that room to grow and that's really nice to have.”