Love Is a UT Thing

To have and to hold, to love and to … study.

Those may not be your traditional marriage vows, but they've been successful for Chris and Vaughn Franklin of Knoxville.

The Franklins, who received their MBAs in December 2005, were the fourth pair of married couples to graduate from the Professional MBA program in UT's College of Business Administration. To date, six married couples have completed the Professional MBA program.

Chris, a specialist on the personal care team in transportation operations at Kimberly-Clark, and Vaughn, a business unit manager for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, said they had heard great things about the program from co-workers and friends so they decided to check it out for themselves.

They have one child -- a son who was 12 when they started the program.

"He was old enough and independent enough that we could devote time to school," Chris said, "and the MBA program understood the demands of a working professional."
Vaughn agreed that, personally and professionally, "timing is everything."

"I was at a point in my career where I needed to decide what to do next," he said. "An MBA was an additional tool I needed to be successful."

The College of Business Administration has four Executive MBA programs. Three of them -- the Aerospace MBA, the Executive MBA, and the Physician Executive MBA -- are one-year programs that combine short periods of residency on campus with distance learning. The Professional MBA program is a 16-month, weekend program designed for managers with at least five years of work experience. Classes meet three Saturdays each month with periodic interactive, live distance-learning sessions on Tuesday evenings.

Because it allowed them to earn their degrees while still working, the Professional MBA program was ideal for Chris and Vaughn.

Going to school together was nothing new for this couple. They had earned their undergraduate degrees together and were in the military together.

"My wife and I have always had the opportunity to attend classes together," Vaughn said. "However, this was a different type of class. This class was more personal than professional."

Chris explained: "We were able to discuss things learned in class and then apply them to what was going on at work."

Returning to school can be a daunting task for anyone, but for parents trying to hold down full-time jobs, it can be especially challenging.

Vaughn said the hardest part about going back to school was getting back into the habit of studying -- and spending Saturdays in class.

Kimberly-Clark and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals both have education advancement programs in place for their employees to encourage them to further their education and grow professionally.

"Even with the tuition reimbursement program, we still had to make sacrifices because we were both enrolled in the program," Vaughn said.

For the Franklins, the experience was worth the sacrifices.

"Going back to school, together, allowed our family to become closer," Chris said.

Vaughn agreed: "I believe that couples who experience life together grow together."

 

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