After You

After YOU!

For Kurt and Jean Helm, earning a Cal Lutheran MBA was a two-stage process. First Kurt enrolled, graduating in May 1999. The very next Saturday, Jean began her studies, graduating a year later. While one was in school, the other took over responsibility for the household and pets. Then they switched.

Kurt, a consultant in the defense industry, had sought an MBA program with “more soul.” He found that match in the evening program at Cal Lutheran, where every topic in every class had an ethics component and team projects. “Getting other students’ perspectives proved to be the most useful. When you get that interaction as you work on a particular problem, you realize that there are many more ways to solve it,” he said.

Jean, who works with Jacobs Technology, “loved going back to learning.”  She credits her first class with Dr. Ron Hagler for improving her writing and her ability to organize her thoughts.

True to what they learned in their classes, both Kurt and Jean sought out employers that were “self-learning” organizations—companies that worked to continously improve. Sometimes they lived out lessons they had learned in MBA classes—such as when their company merged with another company and they had to deal firsthand with organizational change.

Apart from work, both Jean and Kurt are active volunteers in the community. Kurt serves on the board of several Los Angeles-area organizations and Jean is on the Dean’s Advisory Council at the School of Management. Both have served as judges for business student presentations at the annual Festival of Scholars.

The Helms have enjoyed their careers in the defense industry. “It’s been a fun ride,” Jean says. But if they win the lottery, they know exactly what they will do—start a foundation to address community issues. It all gets back to having a purpose, and a career with soul.