Today, I officially received my Masters in Business Administration from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii. Though it took me four long years as a part time student, I’d like to thank everyone who made it possible. Thanks for all the late nighters, the fun times running student body, but most of all, thanks for the memories. Not to mention, thanks to everyone who came to see me graduate! Whee! Since I hadn’t participated in a graduation ceremony in a few years, it was quite exciting.

At least I can say I graduated with Colt!

Go Bows!

(I’ll post videos once I can figure out how to convert them from my camera!)

And as a parting thought, the proof is in the pudding!

(Click on the diploma cover to see my flickr set!)

1. My second to last semester in the University of Hawai`i MBA program came to an end two weeks ago. One down, one more to go! This semester was quite interesting as Scott, Brad and myself helped investigate acquisition strategies for a local tech startup. All in all, I felt it was a very interesting experience. Thanks to everyone who helped fill out the survey!
2. I actually ended up winning an award during Business Night as the Outstanding MBA Student in Finance. I had a chance to eat dinner with the CEO of Bank of Hawaii, one of the largest banks here in Hawaii that donated my award. It was a very engaging experience. Considering I’m an engineer by schooling, the award was a pleasant surprise. CFA, here I come!
3. This summer, I’m currently enrolled in the Capstone Field Study which involves consulting for a local Hawaii business. Hopefully, our team ends up producing something realistic and viable for our client to implement.
4. I decided to run (again) to be on the Board of the Home Owner’s Association of the apartment complex I live in. Luckily, I was elected for a few more years!
5. As for exercise, I’m playing a basketball league out in Halawa on Sundays, Alumni league next month, and a YBA league in July. I’m also waking up earrrly on Sundays to attend the marathon clinic at Kapiolani park. It’s been a rough few weeks to say the least, but this year I’m going to train a little for the marathon (instead of just waking up and doing it).
6. In a few weeks, I’ll be in “HOTlanta” to watch a friend graduate from OCS school. Congratulations Sako! It’s been a while since I’ve been out East, but I can’t wait for some Waffle House!
7. From July 24-28, I’ll be in Portland, Oregon for the infamous O’Reilly Open Source Convention aka OSCON. I’ll be attending the Django session, two Ruby on Rails sessions, and of course, the Googs session. I’m hoping there’s a discussion about the distributed VCS’s ala Bzr and Hg. I’m also hoping I get to hang out and meet a few cool people in the open-source world.
8. Finally, I’m working hard, or is that hardly working on http://www.wegoeat.com. I know, I know. It’s ghetto. But, with the help of Mr. Harper, it’ll be pimpr.com And… if you’re one of the lucky few to get invited for the beta release…

Whew.

That’s about it. Once everything clears, I’ll add another tutorial or two about what I’ve been playing with in Django. Until next time!

Thus, I’m humbly asking (aka begging) if you could take a few minutes (probably 2-5) at the most, and fill out the following questionnaire and help me graduate, I would really, really appreciate it.

Click here » http://www.ekahisoftware.com/survey/

And in the process, you could even win an iPod Shuffle! Also, if you could send this questionnaire out to all your friends, that would really help me out a lot!

Thanks!

Update: I get this email from my mom this morning.

Hi Ryan,

It’s mom. Just to let you know that I completed the email and sent it to
some of my email friends. Howevr, the only thing wrong about the survey
was it’s mandatory that you needed to complete the box on the email
address for the ipod prize. People like me who just hate to give out email
address to just anybody may not send the survey back to you. Getting
an ipod prize for the survey sounds fishy to me. Do you really need that
mandatory block for the email address?

Mom

Ps Actually there is no need for a prize to complete a legit survey…
esp. for school

Ahahahahaha. I nearly died laughing. You just gotta love old people. =) And for those of you still questioning, not to worry – we wrote the survey ourselves and we won’t be selling any of your email addresses (even though we are business students).

As always, take a look at my flickr set to check out all the pik-chas!

A big ups to Melissa, Susan, Michelle, Chad, Roger, Hongchay, Bob, Pamela, Denis, and Mana – may you enjoy great successes in all your future endeavors! (and don’t forget about me, damnit.)

Take a look at my flickr set to check out all the pics!

In any case, I digress.

The original intention for writing this blog was to rave about my Business 660 Strategy class with Professor Ito. Though I found Ito a bit quirky in his methods, strict in his grading, and peculiar with his humor – I must admit, I learned quite a bit from his course this semester. I can honestly say that this is the first time in the entire program (aside from Business 610) where I felt not only intellectually stimulated, but I actually felt that I received my money’s worth in educational value.

That’s how good the class was.

Having never had a discussion led via the Socratic method, the first few classes were an eye-opening experience. Every class would require preparation and well thought-out arguments to Harvard Business cases. Whether we focused on market responsiveness, mergers and acquisitions, or strategic policies, I really felt compelled to listen to each and every argument posed by my peers and the discussion led by the professor. From the drudgery of previous classes, this experience was refreshing and invigorating.

One semester down, two more to go.

Take a look at my flickr set to check out all the pics!

And don’t forget about his entrance…

Coming from a <insert shameless plug>top 5 enginerding graduate program</insert shameless plug>, I had high expectations. Three years, a lot of ‘busy work’ later, and probably ~$15,000 poorer – I’m amazed at what little I have to show. Compounding the matter is the fact that the administration is favoring the day program over the evening one, and thus, good electives are very difficult to come by.

So with that said…

Since I hold a Masters degree from another accredited university, I was curious to find out if I could transfer credits I used from a previous degree to eliminate a few electives I needed to fulfill my MBA degree. After all, the MBA requirements allow me to take 9 credits from another college – meaning that I could potentially take the exact same courses I took from my previous Masters, the only difference being is that the course at Manoa is taught by a different professor.

After scheduling an appointment and speaking to the appropriate people, I’ve come to the following disheartening conclusions. First, apparently I’m not allowed to transfer these credits because this dilutes the education I’ll receive at Manoa (Someone actually told this to me). I’m no Grigori Perelman, but this isn’t exactly the Poincaré conjecture either. I’m not exactly sure how a top 5 engineering program dilutes a middle-tier-at-best business program, especially when I’m able to take the same coursework. The argument is inane and makes absolutely no sense – not to mention is quite insulting. Second, the University apparently only wants my money, which is totally fine because based on the quality of education I’ve received up to this point – this has already been quite apparent (to me, at least). Finally, I’m truly disappointed at how people who have the power to elicit and enact change – just can’t see the forest from the trees.

Now, I’ve talked to a lot of people about this issue, and I’m not sure if people like me or whatnot, but I haven’t found a single person who hasn’t agreed with me. All the engineers at work just think that’s typical of the UH system.

I have a solution.

Either let me transfer the credits or modify the MBA requirements for people with advanced degrees, ie. audit the courses we can take to prevent us from taking courses from our past degree. The solution is so simple, yet I guess it’s too complex since it has escaped administration for all these years.

Here’s a tip UH – it doesn’t matter if you get $25 million or a thousand billion, without hiring people who can function without blinders, but more importantly, without educating and challenging your students, you’ll still be that middle-tier-at-best graduate business program that you’ve always been.