Ben Bowersox

Online MBA Student

Cheaper. Quicker. Faster.

The more Ben Bowersox takes MBA classes, the more he realizes how much that business mantra applies to his job as a military officer.

“I realize how much of the Navy is trying to work corporately,” he said. “Our leadership is encouraging us to become more economical and efficient.”

Bowersox, an Online MBA student, serves as U.S. Navy lieutenant in Panama City.

“No campus visits means that if or when I deploy, I can still continue to do coursework without having to drop courses or alter my goals,” he said. “As a military member, I am constantly on the move, often with little advance warning. Having a program that can flex with my schedule is critical.” He also appreciates that he can work in the comfort of his living room and doesn’t have be hassled with campus parking.

Bowersox said lessons he’s learned as an MBA – especially in organizational behavior and operations management – have provided immediate tools he can use at work. He’s the liaison officer between a team of engineers and pilots carrying out the team’s research on new sonar systems to find mines under water. In the past, he’s managed quality assurance programs and aircraft maintenance groups, ensuring everyone stays on task and completes goals.

An assigned management role goes along with Bowersox’s primary job: piloting the MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter.

“It’s a big, heavy-lift, multi-mission helicopter that the Navy uses to move people and cargo,” Bowersox said. He’s carried Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders to a ship to boost troops’ morale and prisoners to Guantanamo Bay to serve their time. He’s delivered supplies and humanitarian aid to Gulf Coast locations in the wake of hurricanes, to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami and to Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake.

“It was neat because often in the military we’re focused on nation destroying, but that was nation building,” he said.