Honored MBA Graduate Mitch Peters is taking care of business in all aspects of life

“Not only does it make you more marketable having those three letters next to your name, but it also really helps round you out as a professional,” University of Nebraska at Kearney MBA alumnus Mitch Peters said. 
 
Peters graduated from UNK’s Master of Business Administration program in the fall of 2022 and was recently awarded the College of Business and Technology’s MBA Honored Graduate, which he states, “is a tremendous honor and privilege.” 
 
“It also allows you to learn what you really like and what you really don't like,” Peters continued about the program. “It's almost like a journey you're going on of uncharted waters that you don't know what you don't know. Then once you dive into it, you can really latch onto it.” 
 
Peters dove into UNK over a decade ago when he started his undergraduate degree in Industrial Distribution. After graduating in 2015, he worked for Eaton Corporation in sales for more than seven years. Little did he know UNK would pull him back in, but this time as a professor. 
 
“I was in Omaha when I started taking classes, and so I was primarily online at first,” Peters said about his time in UNK’s MBA program. “Then my wife and I ended up moving back to Kearney. She got a job at Kearney Public Schools, and I was able to work remotely with my job. That opened up the door for me to actually take face-to-face classes if I wanted to, or online, however it best suited my own journey.” 
 
Since many graduate students are currently working full-time, UNK’s MBA classes are offered online, in-person, or in a blended format to provide students the flexibility to succeed as both professionals and students.  
 
Each students’ career aspirations look different, which is why the UNK MBA program can be customized through six unique track options and 15 hours of elective courses. 

 
“Everybody's willing to work with you,” Peters said about the MBA program. “Most people are working in the industry and so everything's in the evenings and it's easy to work around. They're smaller classes, so you get to know everybody really well, even if you are 500 miles away. You're not just out on an island by yourself in the virtual world, but you're actually part of something with everybody there together.” 
 
UNK’s MBA recently made a change to allow students to complete the 33-credit hour program quicker through eight-week courses rather than the typical 16-weeks. The change occurred directly in the middle of Peters’ program.  
 
After trying both formats, he found he preferred the 8-week courses. 
 
“You can take one class for eight weeks, switch gears, take another class for eight weeks, instead of taking two classes for 16 weeks,” Peters said. “There's a lot more to do, but you could just focus on one thing and not have to split your time, it's way more valuable, in my opinion. The whole structure of it just works really well for a young professional looking to get their masters.” 
 
Moving back to Kearney not only allowed Peters to take face to face courses but also landed him a new job as a UNK College of Business and Technology Lecturer of Industrial Distribution. 
 
“I teach in the same program that I was a part of, so I’m kind of a product of the institution here,” Peters said. 
 
Since leaving the corporate world to become a lecturer at his alma mater, Peters applies both his professional and recent student experience to create the best learning environment for his students. 
 
“Taking classes from the tenured faculty in the grad programs, they do things differently than I would have ever even thought of,” Peters said. “I've actually adopted what some of them do. It's allowed me to really hone in what I think works and puts me back into the student realm of it to see what the best alternative is for delivering this information. I’m learning from the best of the best.” 

 
The MBA program allowed Peters to grow as a professional in both the corporate sector and the educational world.  
 
“In your undergrad, it’s kind of like an inch deep and a mile wide, but when you get to the MBA track, it really gets you a lot deeper in those other areas,” Peters said. “There would be decisions made at the top that at the time made no sense to me because I was so hyper focused on what I was doing as an individual contributor. It really opened my eyes to what actually goes on behind the scenes at a higher level in a business and why decisions are made.” 
 
From being an undergraduate and graduate student to a faculty member at UNK, Peters understands the universities core values, which allow him to boldly state that no other institution can beat UNK’s flexibility, professors, and affordability. 
 
“With the rigor that it provides at the cost per credit hour, I don't think it's beatable,” Peters said about the MBA program. “The value is unbelievable what UNK can provide for their grad students. I have zero regrets about it. Yeah, it was tough but I'm much more prepared for any situation in my career because I have that. You can't go wrong at all with choosing this degree at UNK, especially with the flexibility of it and the rigor that's involved, as well as the relationships that are built along the way.”