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Alumni Classroom 2010–2014
Three tech-savvy students have redesigned a BYU rite of passage: the search for Provo housing.
Katalin Bolliger’s first trip outside of the United States was just the experience she wanted—eight thousand miles away from campus and surrounded by tigers and elephants.
Four students walk into a room: a chemical engineer, statistician, computer scientist, and business strategist. It might sound like the beginning of a gag, but bringing together savvy students from a variety of disciplines is what the Marriott School’s Crocker Innovation Fellowship is all about.
Following the crowd isn’t usually a good idea, but entrepreneurs can generate serious capital by jumping on the crowdfunding bandwagon. That’s the premise of an innovative new course at the Marriott School.
Changing the missionary age infused excitement and opened doors for many new opportunities. It also created a few challenges. One of these challenges at the Provo MTC was how to prepare and serve as many as 10,000 more meals a day.
As he listened to Britt Berrett speak on the first day of class, Joseph Mount had the distinct impression he was looking at his future employer. Berrett’s passion for health care was unmistakable, and Mount wanted to be a part of it.
After standing on one foot while trying to decide which printer to buy, students hobble out of 340 TNRB with some extra credit but without the slightest clue what their answers will be used for.
Class begins with everyone looking intently at the same spreadsheet on their laptops. Today’s task: learning how to calculate financial ratios like debt-to-equity, asset turnover, and net profit margin—with the click of a button.
Signs mark the entrance: Production Area, Authorized Personnel Only. Inside, observers stand behind a line of caution tape, taking notes intently. In front of them a rumbling machine shuffles orange, green, and yellow balls along conveyor belts, through tubes, and down ramps.
A painted papier-mâché mask with a lively hodgepodge of primary colors and an obvious grin sits quietly in a Marriott School office, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the professor sitting only a few feet away. 
It may sound like the concept for the next reality TV hit: give twenty-five undergrads nearly $1 million and turn them loose. But this is no TV show; this is a typical day in one Marriott School classroom.
With laptops charged, whiteboards cleared, and markers ready, it’s now up to the Executive MBA students’ careful positioning and strategic thinking to navigate the intricacies of a simulated marketplace. 
It’s hard for many students to remember the days before iPods, Hulu, Twitter, and Skype. If you were to stroll across campus, odds are you could find all of these and many more technologies in use—they have become central to university life.
The Utah Governor’s Mansion was blanketed in soft, blue light. The occasion was World Autism Awareness Day 2014, and buildings across the country were swapping bulbs to highlight a disorder that affects one in sixty-eight American children.
Curtis Bedont thought he knew what it meant to be in the military. Though he spent his formative years on bases in foreign outposts, his fighter-pilot father never faced deployment.
Bruce Hymas and his teammates had sixteen connectors, fifty-four sticks, and three minutes. The task: build a tower that holds up a golf ball—and make the tower taller than everyone else’s.
The Romney Institute honored Ruth Ann Jefferies, a property tax specialist, for her career success and community service.
I keenly remember sitting in my basement apartment in Utah and reviewing with my wife our meager student finances. Given the recent birth of our first son and my heavy academic load, I could only afford to work part time. Even with our combined efforts, money was very tight for my wife and me. We were incredibly grateful for the low tuition, the scholarships, and the financial aid which allowed me to receive such an outstanding degree, and we committed to someday give back what had generously been given to us.
Growing up with a father in foreign services, Reneta Bezerra ventured far beyond her home country of Brazil. Now that she has a family of her own, she’s still on the move.
Call it a cruel but fortunate twist of fate: Dan Handy’s companies tend to undergo extreme growth when it comes time for him to hit the books. As an undergrad and a grad student at the Marriott School, the current CEO of Bluehost.com guided two internet start-ups to success, sometimes smashing against current trends with a Ping-Pong paddle.
As soon as Thaylene Lowe Rogers made her decision to return to school for an Executive MBA, she hit the GMAT prep books. During a trip to Newport Beach, California, vacation time turned into study time as she and her son began plowing through the math section. After a year of brushing up, she was in. By 2015 she’ll be sporting a new Marriott School degree on her office wall.
Fifty-six years and 1.3 million birthday parties may seem impossible, but it sums up John Huish’s career. He’s had a hand in facilitating cake-and-candle celebrations across five states and has provided jobs for more than one hundred thousand people.
This class doesn’t have a textbook. In fact, some of the required reading comes from Wikipedia, a taboo for just about any other class on campus. But the syllabus states it bluntly: “Text: none; it would be outdated anyway.”
Randy Judd’s story begins in the Ozarks of Arkansas, where he grew up with no indoor plumbing and went to school in a two-room schoolhouse. His family’s financial situation created what he feels was a truly fortunate opportunity to work full-time during college—a path that led him to the restaurant business.