Reflecting on my previous three years at Duke, I could not be more grateful to have decided to add the Markets & Management Certificate Program to my course load. While my Public Policy Major and additional Policy Journalism Certificate have allowed me to pursue my interests and passions, I believe that the MMS certificate has provided me with a business education that has prepared for me for post-grad. My MMS courses have not only taught me how to think critically about building businesses and marketing products but also given me an understanding of management structures and workplace challenges—all things that will underbelly assist me in the workforce following graduation.
In terms of core courses, I have had the pleasure of taking Organizations and Management with Professor Tiantian Yang in addition to Technology and Organizations with Professor Bai Gao. Organizations and Management gave me an understanding, grounded in organization ecology, of the varying structures of an organization and thus allowed me to think about what organizational structure I would most like in my future workplace. As for Technology and Organizations, I am thankful to have taken a class that stressed the importance of technology within the workforce and touched upon the future of technology in general. As artificial intelligence, virtual reality and artificial reality make their way into nearly every industry, it is critical to have a baseline understanding of these emerging technologies and their capabilities.
Moving onto electives, I urge younger students to take advantage of the diversity in MMS electives offered. The four electives I have taken each added to me business education in a new way: Entrepreneurial Marketing, Consumer Psychology, Gender, Work and Organization and Museum Theory and Practice. As someone interested in a career in marketing, I can say with confidence that Entrepreneurial Marketing has thus far been the class at Duke to provide me with the most applicable knowledge and skills towards a future career. Throughout the class, Professor Doug Green dove into the basics of marketing—emphasizing price, place, promotion and people—as well as the consumer buying process. Consumer Psychology allowed me to think about business from another academic domain. Gender, Work and Organization opened my eyes to the challenges that women face in the workforce—and that I too might face—while simultaneously pushing me to think about how these challenges can be overcome. Finally, Museum, Theory and Practice gave me a look into real-life business administration in the Nasher Museum, a unique and hands-on experience.
Finally, my MMS Capstone with Professor Green has truly brought together everything I have learned in not only my past MMS courses but also my previous internship experiences in digital marketing and communications. In just the last month, I have gained tremendous insight into how to start a business—considering potential customers, the market environment, financial risk, feasibility and much more. However, the real value of the capstone course, in my personal opinion, is the opportunity to work on a chosen business idea with in a team. Since teamwork is inherent in most organizations today, I feel that learning how to successfully work with others and play to your team member’s strengths is of the upmost value to any student nearing graduation.
Markets Management Studies
