Tag: military

Photo, above: Jerrod Anderson, right, with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon at Anderson’s base in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2014.

The personal decision to leave active duty service, and transition from the role of military to MBA student, was one of the most difficult and important decisions I had ever made. I decided to pursue a Master of Business Administration because I wanted to continue growing as a leader after the Marine Corps. However, having had little exposure to the business world, choosing the right program proved to be challenging.

After researching numerous MBA programs, I was contacted by a friend and fellow Marine who was an MBA student at Washington University in Saint Louis. He described the unique culture at Olin and the incredible support structure that the school provides to transitioning service members.

New students truly hit the ground running at Olin, and the pace of the program can be difficult for those coming from non-business backgrounds. To ensure that veteran MBA students are prepared for their first semester, the school partners with the Olin Veterans Association (OVA) to organize a robust two-day program—Boot Camp—which provides incoming veterans with a comprehensive overview of the MBA program and career opportunities. New veterans are immediately introduced to the OVA network of alumni and other individuals who will continue to support student veterans throughout their two years at Olin. The Boot Camp program was extremely well organized and enabled me to make a seamless transition from the Marine Corps to the classroom.

The OVA has not only provided a professional network, but also the sense of community and belonging that I valued while on active duty.

Olin MBA Veterans visit tour AB InBev in late August.

The OVA is a close-knit organization where alumni are personally invested in the development and success of current MBA students. I could not have asked for a better way to transition into a career in business. If you are considering pursuing an MBA, I highly encourage you to consider Olin and explore everything that the institution has to offer.

Jerrod Anderson, Olin Veterans Association, is a 2018 MBA Candidate in the full-time MBA Program at Olin Business School. Learn more about Olin’s top-ranked full-time MBA program and resources for military veterans.

On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember two veterans separated by generations and wars who were united by a generous scholarship at Olin Business School. It’s a moving story about the meeting between Army Major Rodney Lynch, MBA’15, and Col. John H. Von Der Bruegge, a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

From left to right: Karen Von Der Bruegge, Rodney Linch, and Col. Von Der Bruegge.

Thank you to Karen Von Der Bruegge, MBA ’77, for making this scholarship possible and to her father for sharing his story of service with us.

Read the complete story in Olin Business magazine. “A Tale of Two Soldiers” by Kurt Greenbaum.

Photos by Leland A. Outz. Videography by Tucker Pierce, BFA’15, Ross Arkin and Ricardo Solis, BSBA’17

If you would like to contribute to the next WashU Military Care Package mailing, please drop off your donations by 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 24. Volunteers are needed to help pack boxes on Friday, February 26, 1:30 p.m. in the North Campus dining area. To volunteer, contact Jill Edwards, Office of the Vice Provost, Senior Project Manager, jilledwards@wustl.edu

Olin donation drop off location: Graduate Programs Office, Knight Hall 310

Care Packages will be sent to the following service members whose names have been submitted by WashU staff, faculty, and students:

• Alexander Larson  – Past member of the Gateway Battalion ROTC; 15 soldiers under his command
• Jeremiah Seitz – “Our unit manages the Aerial Reconnaissance of Afghanistan. It is somewhat of a thankless job but our soldiers are extremely hard working and dedicated to the mission at hand.” Requested items:  Rye chips, salt & vinegar kettle chips, Frito’s, Dorito’s, Coffee K-Cups, Chocolate
• Travis Buehner  – Husband of Katie Buehner, EMBA student.  Aviation brigade.
• Andrew Rinkenbeger  – Past member of the Gateway Battalion ROTC.  “My group of 11 National Guardsmen and Army Reservists come from all over the United States to provide personnel security for the US Army Corps of Engineers civilians who are building various projects across Afghanistan such as schools, clean water wells, and hospitals for the Afghan people.” Requested items:  Candy, chips, pastries
• David Butler  –  20 people in unit. Requested items:  Body wash, baby wipes, shampoo, shaving cream, toothpaste, floss, sunscreen
• Ryan Jones  Requested items:  sporting goods (small items – baseball bats won’t fit in the mailing boxes), cookies, coffee, Easy Mac, Ramen Noodles
• Juan Banales  – “Regarding our job and activities, I command a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, or a Green Beret responsible for other Green Berets.  As a unit, we work and fight side-by-side with a partner force — in this case, Afghans.  It’s an experience that’s as challenging as it is rewarding.”  Requested items: coffee

All care packages will contain a variety of food and toiletry items. Home baked goods are the #1 requested item.

How to pack home-baked goods.  Place cookies/brownies in a sandwich size Ziploc bag.  Place the sealed sandwich size Ziploc bags into a gallon size Ziploc bag.  The double bagging ensures freshness and keeps the critters out.  Each gallon size bag should have a label with the baker’s name on it.  Some people like to include their email address on the label. Occasionally bakers will receive an email from the soldiers who enjoyed their baked goods.

Suggested care package donations (Please remember no aerosol or glass):
Air freshener (type you hang from review mirror) (no aerosol or liquid)
Anti-bacterial items
Baby wipes
Beef Slim Jims
Breakfast bars, granola bars
Coffee
Corn nuts
Creamer
DVD’s (new or slightly used)
Dried fruit
Energy mixes
Gum
Hand sanitizer
Hygiene products – male and female
Individually wrapped snacks
Lip balm/Chap stick
Liquid bath soap (please no bars – the sand sticks to the bars)
Nuts
Microwave popcorn
Non-digital table games
Power bars, Protein Bars, Nutritional Bars
Single serve – pre-sweetened drink mixes (Gatorade, Crystal Light, Wylers, etc.)
Socks
Tooth paste
Trail mix (individual size servings)
Sudoku/crossword puzzle books
Funds for to support postage costs for the care packages are always welcome

Guest Blogger: Clair Patterson, Professional Assistant, Olin Graduate Programs 

In the full-time MBA program at Olin, it’s easy to be intimidated by your peers. Students come from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, and there’s not a single person here who didn’t excel in whatever they were doing prior to school. Everyone is remarkably humble about their achievements, so often it takes some time before you’ll learn exactly how accomplished your classmates are.

Such was the case when I attended a panel set up by one of my core team members, Jon Slack (MBA ’17), who is also a ten year veteran of the Army. Jon and six other WashU MBA and JD candidates arranged to sit down with about 20 cadets from the local Army ROTC Gateway Battalion; a good chunk of these college juniors and seniors from nine schools in the St. Louis area had just received their orders for where they’d be stationed next year, and in what branch of the Army, and my veteran and active-duty classmates were on hand to pass on advice about what it’s like to be an officer in the Army at a young age, to share stories of their own experiences, and to speak about success after leaving the Army.

Veteran and Active Duty members of the Olin Business School and the Washington University School of Law share their experiences as young officers with junior and senior college students from the 9 member schools of the Gateway ROTC Battalion.

The event kicked off with one panelist sharing how he became immediately responsible for a unit of over forty men, and as more of my MBA classmates shared their stories, I was continually struck by how much responsibility each was given at a young age, and how much freedom they were given in how they went about fulfilling their duties. Although the stories were very different, as the panelists came from varied roles and divisions, there was much similarity in the approaches each took to tackling the challenges of being a new leader.

Danny Henry (MBA ‘17) advised cadets to “be quiet, listen, ask questions, and start to identify who has strengths, what they are, and how to leverage them.” All the panelists urged cadets to have respect for the experience of their NCOs, and to learn from them as much as possible.

David Marold (JD ‘16) framed it as a people business: “if you invest in building relationships, your authority is already there and built into that.”

Charlie Hon, (MBA ’16), shared the benefits of empowering Soldiers to take ownership of their projects, and of recognizing soldiers for their successes, no matter how small.

Dan Vitale (MBA ‘17) reminded cadets that “you’re young, but you know what right looks like,” and encouraged them to “ask dumb questions, because everyone assumes you know nothing anyway, but all that changes pretty quick. By the time you’re a first lieutenant, everyone will think you know everything.”

James Jacobs (MBA ‘17) extolled the virtues of being in shape, explaining how an easy way to immediately command respect from subordinates was to be able to outrun them in PT. He also encouraged cadets to learn to prioritize, “you’ll never get everything done, so figure out what has to be done, what should be done, and what would be nice to be done. And never try to cover up ‘has to be done’ with ‘nice to be done,’ it never works!”

Nearly every single piece of advice was equally applicable to the business world; near the end, I found myself scrawling down notes not for this blog piece, but for my own edification.

The anecdotes my MBA classmates relayed were often ones where they’d made mistakes, or learned lessons the hard way. Their stories and advice illuminated a particularly salient point made by Tony Nuber (MBA ’17): “leadership is a process, not a state of being,” and each cadet had the ability to be a good leader if they brought confidence, determination, and empathy to their role.

It was exciting to see the incredibly accomplished members of the MBA and JD classes interacting with the equally talented cadets of the Gateway Battalion, and to watch one generation of leaders give back to the next.

Our November Wash U. Military Care Package mailing was a HUGE success!  The group sent 27 boxes, weighing 515 pounds at a cost of $646.  The success has drained our postage funds so donations toward postage would be much appreciated!!

If you would like to contribute to the next Wash U Military Care Package mailing, please drop off your donations to one of the drop-off locations by 11:00 AM on Wednesday, April 22.  The drop-off locations and suggested items are listed at the end of this email.

Please let me know if you are available to help pack boxes on Thursday, April 23, 2:00 PM in the North Campus dining area. Honestly – it’s fun! Contact: Claire Patterson 935-7301

Here are responses from our November mailing.

Captain Erik Anthes, sharing with the U.S. troops, the Australian army and a French Sergeant.

“I received your boxes… finally!   I want to extend my personal gratitude to your organization and thank you for the generous gifts.  As I set the box out for our junior Soldiers to have first take, one of the young men shouted “Yes!  Some guy stuff!”

Another grabbed some q-tips and said “I needed these to clean my weapon!”  The hygiene products were the first thing to go, as we packed 45 days worth of personal demand items and the store on our compound is quite expensive.  This saved many young Soldiers quite a bit of money.”  Erik Anthes

John Nawoichyk, and members of the Ground Forces Command Advisor Team

“Thank you for the wonderful care packages! My team loved them – I attached a picture so you can see how happy they are. All of them asked that I say THANK YOU to you, the faculty, staff, students and friends. It is such a caring gesture and please know that it means a lot to us.

One of the young Soldiers said “How cool, Christmas came early to Afghanistan!” I attached a few pictures so you can seem them enjoying your awesome packages.
Things here remain well. It has been very busy and some changes in the government, but overall things are going well for us and the people of Afghanistan.
I hope you are having a wonderful day. Thank you again! ” John Nawoichyk

Thank you so much for the care packages.  Attached are two pictures of some of us with the items your generous group sent.  We appreciate this thoughtfulness very much.  We have shared these items amongst our team.

Please feel free to share the photos with anyone who donated to this selfless effort.  Thanks again.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gilleran (pictured at top of post)

Suggested items to donate: (Please remember no aerosol or glass)

• Air freshener (type you hang from review mirror) (no aerosol or liquid)
• Anti-bacterial items
• Baby wipes
• Beef Slim Jims
• Breakfast bars, granola bars
• Coffee
• Corn nuts
• Creamer
• DVD’s (new or slightly used)
• Dried fruit
• Energy mixes
• Gum
• Hand sanitizer
• Home-baked goods (please put your name on packages)
• Hygiene products – male and female
• Individually wrapped snacks
• Lip balm/Chap stick
• Liquid bath soap (please no bars – the sand sticks to the bars)
• Nuts
• Microwave popcorn
• Non-digital table games
• Power bars, Protein Bars, Nutritional Bars
• Single serve – pre-sweetened drink mixes (Gatorade, Crystal Light, Wylers, etc.)
• Socks
• Tooth paste
• Trail mix (individual size servings)
• Sudoku/crossword puzzle books
• Funds for postage are always welcome

Drop off locations:

Knight Hall, Suite 310 (Claire Patterson 935-7301)

South 40, South 40 House, Room 1006 (Lora Clark, 935-4329)

Colonel John E. Angevine,U.S. Army retired, reflects on lessons from his experience with tribal leaders in Afghanistan and how it is informing his transition from military to civilian leadership through courses at Brookings Executive Education (BEE). BEE is based at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and managed by Olin Business School. Here are excerpts from Col. Angevine’s essay, “A Military Journey to Becoming a Civilian Leader: Chewing through the Cultural Barrier.”

In my first two months with Brookings Executive Education (BEE), I’ve been learning about the many challenges veterans in government face as they transition from military to civilian life. These conversations remind me of the cultural changes I observed in my last deployment to Afghanistan. There I had the opportunity to observe and work with several tribal clans. It was during these key leader engagements that I became acutely aware of the Afghan cultural diversity applied to thinking and problem solving. This diversity of thinking—exacerbated by the mountainous topography that imposes relative geographic isolation—showcased the clans’ different deliberate approaches to relationship building and adaptability in working with others. Their aim was to increase the likelihood of achieving common goals in an austere environment.

For example, in one village I observed its elders had expressed their gratitude to U.S. military forces for clearing their village of Taliban fighters by presenting a prized, young camel to our troops stationed at the nearby firebase. “Chewy the Camel” served as the village elders’ connection with the American forces, conveying their respect and acceptance of our presence. At first glance, this gift was a surprise. Even so, Chewy quickly proved an invaluable addition to the firebase security between the inner and outer perimeter walls since she was particularly territorial and disliked strangers, as well as a source of much needed entertainment during our down time by chewing on our boots—hence her name.

Read the full story »