At VCU Business’ executive and weekend program orientation, new connections and a year of possibilities await
By Megan Nash
Dominique McKenzie (EMBA ’26) dangled high above the ground, held aloft only by a cable and a snap hook. It was just a few feet—but with her team below cheering her on, it felt like miles.
“You learn a lot about yourself when you’re suspended several dozen feet in the air,” said McKenzie.
She wasn’t just talking about the challenge at hand but the larger journey of the VCU School of Business’ Executive MBA (EMBA) program, where testing boundaries and building resilience are part of the experience.
Held at Snead Hall from Aug. 22-24, this year’s graduate orientation weekend brought together more than 90 students from the EMBA and Master of Decision Analytics (MDA) Weekend programs to dive headlong into their next year of learning.
“We want students to kick off the year not just thinking about what’s on the syllabus but about how they’re going to apply what they learn from day one,” said Butch M. Sarma, director of the Executive MBA program. “It’s not possible to pack all of what makes the School of Business such a transformative experience into one weekend, but it serves as an invitation—and hopefully, it’s an inspiring one.”
And it was.
For some, the weekend was an initiation into a new phase; for others, it marked a reunion with peers and mentors. But for all, it was a reminder of why they chose VCU Business: hands-on learning, real-world connections and a community spirit that underpins it all.
From the start, each program set its own tone.
First-year EMBA students began with a workshop on transformative leadership, led by Dr. Chris Reina of the VCU Institute for Transformative Leadership, alongside Brian Wellinghoff, senior director of Leadership and Outreach at Barry-Wehmiller.
“Transformative, human-centered leadership is critical in today’s business environment,” said Wellinghoff. “We need graduates who can not only analyze data but also leverage it for collaborative decision-making. VCU students are asking insightful questions, and their professors are at the cutting edge of leadership education.”
The weekend also presented challenges for second-year EMBA students as they faced the task of adjusting to new teams after a year of collaboration. “We definitely learned what worked and didn’t work from last time, so we came in with clear expectations this year,” said Matt Littlefield (EMBA ’24).
The shift kept students on their toes and encouraged them to embrace new communication styles and strengths. They engaged in a hands-on innovation workshop at Luck Stone, a business unit of Luck Companies, where teams pitched original ideas to enhance operations in a Shark Tank-style exercise following a tour of the quarry.
For first-year students in the MDA Weekend program, the weekend offered a taste of their future in the form of practical client projects.
Alumnus Britt Cupp (MDA ’22), now a product support generalist at Luck Companies, introduced them to a semester-long case study with Luck Stone.
Meanwhile, students entering their final semester prepared to share the results of year-long practicums with organizations like CoStar Group and VCU Medicine. As one MDA student put it, “We’ve been working on our practicums with clients for nearly a year. This is when we really get to see the results of all our hard work.”
But perhaps it was the EMBA students’ ropes course that captured the weekend’s spirit best—a mix of excitement and shared purpose.
“Over the last several months, I have learned to stretch beyond what I thought were the limits of my capabilities,” said McKenzie. “The many talents of my group members and the entire cohort have inspired me. As humans, we can be slow to trust, but I have found that my cohort has bonded on a shared willingness to be vulnerable and strengthen one another. We are just the beginning, and it’s only up from here.”
As the weekend wound down, there was camaraderie and readiness for what’s ahead. “Orientation weekend is just the beginning,” said Sarma. “It’s a time to set the tone for what’s going to be an unforgettable year.”
Categories News