Kris Keen (Spring 2015)

"As a student from northern Indiana with a demanding full-time position, husband, and father of 4 children, the IEM program exceeded my expectations.

While the program was very flexible, the thing that I liked most about the IEM program was not flexibility; it was the fact that the instructors treated me like a professional and not a student. They genuinely want you to succeed in your professional goals.

All of the courses were applicable to what I do in my profession on a daily basis. The IEM program had a great blend of technical and business courses.

One of the lessons that I learned from Dr. Callahan's course was to use your number to demonstrate your value at work. By showing the CEO how much value I'm adding to the organization in dollars has really boosted my career professionally. He was so impressed with the total savings that he changed my title from IT Director to CIO. Of course a significant raise came along with the title change as well.

This program is definitely NOT a typical graduate program.

For my graduate project, I did not write a 50 page thesis for someone to just throw away. My project consisted of something that I enjoyed doing. I was able to startup an online fly-tying business with my son. This project provided both my son and I quality time together, a great learning experience, and something that we can continue to build and grow. It's nice to have a hobby that I enjoy doing and making money at it as well."