This year’s MBS graduation ceremony was unlike any other! Nearly 600 guests tuned in to the virtual event, held on May 14,  to watch a ceremony that was buzzing with excitement, energy, and a musical soundtrack of Rutgers’ greatest hits! We hope that this year’s graduates feel honored and celebrated, as they certainly should be—they crossed the finish line of their MBS education with honor and grit, and surmounted multiple challenges and obstacles—COVID-19-related and otherwise—with aplomb.

On May 1, 2020, Abbe Rosenthal hosted another fantastic session of “Virtual Friday: MBS Alumni Career Stories,” where MBS graduates Dera Okafor, Vishwa Shah, and Suleiman Ali Shakir joined to lend students their valuable insight.

At MBS, we all go by the saying “leadership is leading your own ship.” On April 15, 2020, MBS students learned how to lead our own ships when pitching ourselves in a workshop led by Abbe Rosenthal, PCC, Assistant Director/Head of Corporate Partnerships, Employment & Professional Development, and Executive Coach.

Many of us are worried about job security; we may know people who have lost their jobs, and it is hard to not be unnerved by the most recent unemployment statistics: according to the U.S.

On Wednesday, April 8, 2020, Dr. Paul Takhistov from the Department of Food Science at Rutgers led a discussion regarding food safety, food availability, and biosecurity in light of COVID-19—an issue that MBS students had identified as a major concern and/or interest via a survey in the March 2020 MBS Community Connectivity Initiative.

We all learn from reflecting on our experiences. While we can share our wisdom and insights with others, they may only fully appreciate the true value of our words when they experience something similar. On April 3, 2020, the MBS team provided a platform for experienced alumni and a soon-to-be alumna to share their teachings with current students as they prepare for their post-MBS futures.

MBS students were taken through a journey of mindful breathing, positive affirmations, and calmness as they attended the two-part virtual Mindful Coaching session led by Susan Favale, owner of Honor Yoga in North Brunswick, on March 25, 2020, and March 31, 2020, respectively. Amidst the current unprecedented times, these sessions helped students reinforce self-love, inner strength, and positive thinking.

In this time of change, the MBS program has been offering some excellent virtual seminars, workshops, and other online events to provide students opportunities to learn essential skills for the workplace and also continue to earn their colloquium credits.

What a difference a week makes!  Two weeks ago, many of us felt displaced, wondering how working from home (WFH) was actually going to work.

With Zoom and WebEx now regular parts of our workdays, a prospect that seemed challenging just days ago has achieved some normalcy, and we are settling into routines.

Whether WFH was old hat or a foreign concept, it is now an indefinite reality for many of us. WFH success and productivity are based on two essential elements : 

Time Management During a Crisis

By Kruttika Raman

Are you feeling that 24 hours in a day are not enough? Does it feel like everything is happening too fast and you don’t have enough time to control it? Today, the world is changing constantly at a fast pace, and we all are facing challenges. What makes it better is if we can learn from this challenge and make the most of it.