The W. P. Carey School of Business dedicated its new north Scottsdale location on Wednesday afternoon.
The business school’s evening MBA program first started offering classes in Scottsdale at 8355 E. Hartford Drive in August in an effort to offer the program to working members in the community.
The program is aimed at educating working professionals, said Rudy Pino, ASU’s director of MBA admission.
“It’s a degree that accommodates people who live and work in Scottsdale,” Pino said, “who are motivated and want to be successful and be a leader in their organization.”
Renee Pilot, a student in the program, said the evening classes are allowing her to maintain her job as manager at a pharmaceutical company while still advancing her education.
“I wanted to grow more professionally,” Pilot said. “I’d done all the developmental and training seminars you get at work.”
Pino said the majority of the students in the program have about six or seven years of professional experience.
“Many of them are in the middle of their first or second major promotion at work and want to come back for an MBA and further their education,” she said.
Pilot said the students in the program benefit from being in a classroom with other professionals who have real-world experience.
“I’m learning from my instructors but also my peers,” Pilot said. “I bring value with my experience, and I get back as much as I bring.”
Beth Walker, associate dean of the program, said the school was excited to solidify its position at the Scottsdale location.
“That sign out front makes it official — we are here to stay,” Walker said.
In addition to the Scottsdale location on East Hartford Drive, the program has several additional locations around the Valley and offers classes at the Tempe, Downtown and West campuses, as well as the southeast Valley.
The MBA evening program is 21 months long and offers its students a core business curriculum with emphasis in finance, international business and marketing, among other options.
Pilot said she has already begun to apply the skills she learned in the first 10 weeks of her statistics class to her pharmaceutical job.
Debbie Freeman, communications manager for the W. P. Carey School of Business, called the Scottsdale location “state of the art” because it houses rooms for group projects, wireless network access, interactive monitors and LCD displays.
Several business school officials, including Walker, said they hope the new location will attract more attention to ASU.
She also said one of the location’s most useful features is its kitchen.
“I don’t know if you’ve worked with master’s students but they like to eat and they like for you to feed them,” she said.
Reach the reporter at michelle.parks@asu.edu.
