Imogen Kroker: "Welcome to the MBSSA"
By Seth Robinson
It’s the friends you make and the connections you build that stay with you after university. For many, joining the Melbourne Business School Student Association (MBSSA) provides the opportunity to form these relationships, and is often high on the new student recommendation list. We caught up with incoming MBSSA President, Imogen Kroker, to find out how she came to MBS, and what the MBSSA has in store for the next semester.
Imogen is entering her final semester of study in the Master of Management. In that time, she’s taken advantage of all MBS has to offer, enrolling in the Global Business Practicum over the summer – which saw her work with IBM in Singapore – and interning with Deloitte last year. But before she entered the wide world of business, Imogen started stitching together another career.
“I did a Bachelor of Fashion design, then spent a few years working in the industry. I had a kind of early mid-life crisis and realised that wasn’t where I wanted to be. After that, there was a bit of soul-searching, and more than a few coffees with different people as I tried to figure out what my options were. Eventually, I discovered that I was really interested in management consulting, so I decided to go back to school and do a Master of Management.”
Self-aware and happily caffeinated, Imogen spent the next three years immersing herself in the MBS community.
The incoming president is already an experienced executive member, having previously served as MBSSA’s Chief Operating Officer. Now, she’s leading a season of activations, eager to communicate the MBSSA ethos and engage with new students.
“In the past, if you were an MBS student you were automatically a member of MBSSA, but there have been some legislation changes around the way organisation membership works, so now we’re taking individual sign-ups. Now, it’s about connecting with new students,” she says.
“MBSSA exists to enrich the student experience on campus. We do that through three pillars: Professional, social, and volunteering. We have professional development and networking, industry engagement, social networking and support, and we provide a platform for community engagement.”
According to Imogen, engaging with MBSSA gives breadth to the MBS experience.
“The people I’ve met and worked with through MBSSA have been one of my uni highlights. It’s a great way to meet people from outside your stream, to get to know people more broadly. One of the great flow-on effects is that there are just more familiar faces around campus.”
The Master of Management suite at Melbourne Business School offers recent graduates and early career professionals programs that will equip them with world-class business skills and acumen. Choose from specialisations including Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, and Marketing, and gain real-world, industry experience from a range of consulting subjects and business practicums.
MBSSA maintains a full calendar of events, beginning with an action-packed O-Week and running right through the semester.
“A few of the highlights for this semester are our new peer mentoring program, which looks phenomenal! The registrations have only been open for a week and we’ve had a really positive response. We’ve got some really cool events running through that program, and a winery tour in Mornington Peninsula. That will be a nice chance to get out of Melbourne and see a little bit of rural Victoria.”