UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Abby Culora was nearing the end of her Air Force commitment as an air battle manager and had to decide if she wanted to continue her service or explore a career outside of the military.
Culora decided to pursue a master of business administration degree, applying to Penn State World Campus but missing the deadline for the fall semester intake. While she had opportunities at other universities, Culora decided to wait for the next semester after she heard about the benefits and opportunities available to military students.
“I just got a really good feeling,” Culora said.
After joining the program, she recalled feeling nervous on the first day of the program’s in-person residency. But a simple gesture of recognition through a moment of applause for military members to stand and be honored stuck with Culora. It went a long way in easing her nerves.
“Everybody was welcoming and wanted me there,” she said.
Today, Culora is a supply chain professional, joining the more than 1,600 students who have completed their MBA online from Penn State since it opened in 2002. This year marks the 20th anniversary, and students reflected on how the program has helped them achieve their professional goals.
What is the Penn State Online MBA?
The online MBA is a 48-credit degree program in which students can learn how to strategically manage high-performance teams and solve real-world business challenges. The program is designed to be tailored to each individual’s interests and needs through 27 concentrations, such as traditional business topics like management business analytics, accounting, finance, or specialties like public administration, homeland security and more.
The internationally ranked and AACSB-accredited Penn State Smeal College of Business leads the online Master of Business Administration, and students can learn from the expert Penn State business faculty from the Smeal College of Business, the Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend, Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies, and Penn State Harrisburg School of Business Administration.
Students will complete 39 core credits and nine credits of a selected concentration, as well as a virtual or in-person three-day residency at the start of their program.
Vice Provost for Online Education Renata S. Engel said the degree is an important part of the World Campus portfolio.
“The MBA has been a crucial part of our online degree offerings for two decades. We are grateful that we have been able to meet the needs of students who pursue that education online,” Engel said. “Graduate business education is very different today compared to what it was 20 years ago, and our Penn State faculty are dedicated to ensuring the program is relevant for our learners — both in the content and the manner in which they engage students.”
From military to MBA
Culora began courses in January 2018, selecting a concentration in corporate innovation and leadership. She was nervous about entering the MBA program without an advanced business background, as she majored in criminal justice as an undergraduate. But what Culora found at the introductory residency was a group of people from all ages and walks of life.
“It was really overwhelming until I got there and then realized that everybody was so diverse and came from different backgrounds and had a lot to contribute,” she said.
Culora was concerned about “fitting in” while transitioning out of the military. She said the transition can be overwhelming. Most of her co-workers and friends were military members, so she questioned her ability to relate to her MBA peers. She is grateful for Penn State, as well as her husband and other veterans who gave her advice throughout the process.
Culora praised the MBA program’s flexibility and support of her peers, professors and program administrators. During her coursework, a hurricane hit her home, she had a baby and experienced the death of her father. Throughout it all, Culora said she received support from all levels of the program.
Culora said her leadership courses showed her that she already had the skills needed to succeed — she just needed to change her perspective of herself.
“It made it click — these things are related, this is valuable experience that I can turn into a business career,” she said. “Whatever skills I had, the MBA grew upon those and then gave me the skills I didn’t have.”
Making a late-career change
Stephen Pellman had earned a promotion at work and decided he needed a more formal background through an MBA on concepts he would otherwise have to learn on his own. He decided to apply to the Penn State Online MBA while continuing his job as director of operations.
Pellman began his coursework in 2017 with a project management concentration, later switching to finance.
Pellman said the on-site residency was especially helpful, and he is still connected with groupmates today. Pellman’s peers hailed from Mexico, Brazil, Europe and Russia, which created a “global experience which is really only possible under that model.”
“The efficiency of being able to do the program remotely was hugely impactful because of not having to travel to and from classroom sessions,” Pellman explained.
Pellman had attended an MBA program decades ago but said the in-person format had no online components, which led to lost time through traveling and work commitments. With the design of the Penn State Online MBA, Pellman found the coursework more approachable and success more attainable.
“I think this is the model of the future because especially for business you can’t just pick up and go back to school,” he said.
Pellman compared working during his MBA coursework to an ongoing opportunity to apply what he was learning in real time.
“It’s almost like being on an internship or a co-op the entire time you’re going to school,” Pellman said. “And that experience is hugely valuable.”
Pellman said the experience taught him to continuously evaluate his own leadership for his team of 80 people, as well as view other leadership styles differently.
Pellman changed jobs during the program to become a chief operating officer before graduating in 2020.