Brandon Chicotsky

Liberal Arts and Business…

With every business course I took as an undergraduate student, I found reason to compare them to my liberal arts education. Business studies provided rudimentary knowledge of accounting, finance, marketing, and organizational management, but most of it was a gloss-over exercise in learning. Conversely, liberal arts courses, particularly the upper-division coursework (smaller classes, more rigorous), provided in-depth and introspective viewpoints into subject matter. I found practical applications for my liberal arts concentration - cultural anthropology.

Every day, I am faced with challenges in business where I am prompted to research or lean on third parties for answers. Business education is critical, whether independently pursued or through degree coursework. As a business owner and manager, I’ve learned some tough lessons that could have been avoided with mock trial entrepreneurship as an undergraduate, but it was never offered.

Most undergraduate business studies focused on learning for corporate applications, not suited for start-up enterprises or entrepreneurship. Fortunately, as I was graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, new entrepreneur-based courses were in formation. The future is bright for any student who seizes such an opportunity to take on these new courses.

Cultural Anthropology is the study of social, political, and economic interaction and constructions among people. Often, cultural anthropologists immerse themselves in a foreign environment in an effort to gain understanding of why and how people behave relative to their roots, origins, and location. For me, I take an economic and political approach to any field study or cultural immersion study.

As an undergraduate, I visited 7 countries and took on 3 study abroad programs. My travels have continued, though my writing and research on the areas I visit are less detailed than before. Experiential learning has become a natural priority while away from the grind of essays and course deadlines.

Later in life, I will likely consider pursuing a doctorate in cultural anthropology. I envision myself as a retired politico, traveling to the northwest, where the universities are cut out of the beautiful red wood forests, overlooking a sister city to beloved Austin (Portland quickly comes to mind). As for now, I have a more pressing priority - continuing my business education and getting back to Texas as soon as possible (after studies are complete).

In 2011, I will enroll in a Masters for a business concentration. Applications have been sent and the wait for admissions has begun. The programs to which I applied are varied in business subjects. All of them concentrate on entrepreneurship and management. The traditional MBA, as offered at my alma mater, does not quite suit my career objectives, which are to own and operate businesses for the coming years.

MBAs are known as credentials geared for career shifts or hiring tools. I have little intention of pursuing a cookie cutter role in a developed company. Rather, I will offer such a position in a company of my own, and I will be pleased to hire an MBA student. Meanwhile, I will have a Masters with a concentration in management or entrepreneurship.

I look forward to continuing my education of: capital investments, debt strategies and leveraging assets for growth, accounting, human resource management, market research and analysis, marketing and advertising, and technological tools for business. All the while, I will continue to expand my critical thinking, expose myself to new environments, and remain indulged in worldly reading as an enthusiast of cultural anthropological studies. 

-Brandon Chicotsky