MBT Student Focus Group

In an effort to hear the voice of students, the MBT Advisory Board solicited participation in a Student Focus Group to get students’ thoughts on the MBT Program. Earlier this year, Laura Bethke and Jim Peterson from the Advisory Board met with Sean Chen, Bill Mulvahill, Liz Wynveen, Nikki Balmoori, and YiQing Guan, all of whom had volunteered to participate in the Student Focus Group, to discuss various areas of the program including curriculum, instructors, cost/value, difficulty/challenge, marketing, networking, and other topics relevant to the program.

At the Advisory Board meeting in June, Sean, Bill, and Liz gave a presentation that summarized the feedback from the Focus Group. The feedback included various recommendations in the areas of curriculum, program initiatives, brand building/marketing, and networking.

The presentation was well-received by the Advisory Board. It will take considerable time, effort, and further discussion to act on the Focus Group’s recommendations, along with other ideas received by MBT leadership from the tax community. But it was good to see passion around the program by students and their willingness to provide input on change.

The entire tax community has a vested interest in the MBT program at the CSOM. Whether you are a current student, alumni, in a tax leadership position, or working in the tax profession, the tax community benefits from a strong program that meets the needs of the accounting firms, industry, and government, all of whom are “customers” of the program. If you have any specific thoughts on the program, would like to contribute your time to moving the initiatives forward, or provide your own ideas on how to create more value for the MBT Program, you can contact Laura Bethke at Mosaic who is the current Chair of the MBT Advisory Board, or Paul Gutterman, Director of the MBT program.