NAME: Jacob Koehn
DEGREE EARNED: Master of Business Administration (MBA), 2009
CURRENT JOB: Senior Large Loss Commercial Property Adjuster at Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company in Grinnell, Iowa.
HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT WALDEN? My wife, Mandy, graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in 2009. She started out on the brick-and-mortar approach to getting her teaching certificate, but between her job and our two children, physically going to a classroom two nights a week wasn’t panning out. When she started at Walden, the online classroom format really appealed to me. I travel a lot and Walden’s program was flexible.
WHEN DID YOU KNOW WALDEN WAS THE RIGHT PLACE FOR YOU? When I took the first class. You have dedicated professors who have actually been in the workforce. They’re not just academics—they actually know the application.
WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THE PROGRAM? Walden’s MBA program taught me time management, analytical skill assessment, how to look at the financials of a business, and how to effectively communicate my message. It showed me—and my children—what you can achieve if you are willing to do the work that is necessary.
WHY DO YOU REFER OTHERS TO WALDEN? I refer colleagues who, like me, travel quite a bit and are not able to walk into a classroom once or twice a week. I recently referred my professional mentor, who wants to reinvent himself in a new corporate environment and ascend to the executive level. I sent him my final project for Walden, and he was so impressed that he’s planning to pursue his MBA at Walden, too. —L.D.